tm4tj

Oh no, another game this weekend, can I go shopping please. Having watched the demise of our club over the last few weeks it is painstakingly obvious that many of the squad that are playing this season will not be plying their trade at Inverness next year. With the players rotating quicker than a windmill on top of Craggie Brae it's little surprise than the continuity of the team has been severely disrupted this campaign, mostly due to serious injuries to key players. But wait, maybe there is hope. On Saturday we entertain Kilmarnock, one of only two sides we have beaten twice this season, and this weekend we are going for the full house against them. In fact we hammered them at Kilmarnock with much the same bunch of players thrown into combat and given little chance of pulling it off. So what has gone wrong? Our confidence appears to be shattered and our defence is leaking like a sieve. The management seem to have tried every possible permutation in their quest to gain points but still we struggle to get results. Is it the players or have Terry and Mo ran out of ideas? Every week we have a different back line on the park whether that's through injury, red cards or Butcher calling the shots, and every week we see the lack of understanding costing us goals and points. At the moment, we are not a team, unlike our neighbours across the bridge who are oozing confidence, a confidence gained by playing a settled side and that in itself is like having an extra couple of players on the park. Let's hope we can turn it round before the end of the season or it will be squeaky bum time after the split if Dunfermline win a couple of games and we continue to choke. Killie have been more than generous to us over the last few seasons. We can normally rely on them for a few goals and a few points for they are a Jekyll & Hyde team similar to us. They have only two wins in their last dozen SPL games, including being hammered 3-0 by Dunfermline and 3-1 by Hibs, both these defeats coming at Rugby Park. Killies last win was four games ago, beating impoverished Rangers 1-0 at Ibrox. Inverness have four wins out of the last twelve SPL matches, but it is six games since we beat Hearts 1-0 on the 21st of January, seven if you include the cup defeat at the hands of Celtic. In head to heads at Inverness we lead five games to four in the SPL with only two draws. These games have produced 43 goals, thats almost four goals per game, and with defences like these two then it's not difficult to see why. Remember remember the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and the hammering of Kilmarnock at Rugby Park. I know I know, it doesn't rhyme, but it sounds great. So, let's go back to Guy Fawkes day at Kilmarnock. We had our finest display of attacking football in our SPL years, yet we still managed to concede three goals. Andrew Shinnie scored a hat-trick that day and Gregory Tade looked as though he would fill Adam Rooney's boots with a powerful display of aggressive pacey and skillful striking. At the moment, he looks like he would struggle to lace his boots and the unfortunate Andrew Shinnie is sidelined with a broken foot. Jonny Hayes also chipped in with a sparkling strike and even he has struggled to make an impact recently. All this after going one goal down early in the game. When that happens now we look like a beaten side, and the confidence visibly ebbs from the team, we put ourselves under pressure and the expected happens. It's as though we enter the arena a beaten side, waiting for defeat. Where has the fight gone, where has the passion for the battle gone and where has our mojo gone? I hope we can get it back soon and this is hopefully the right game at the right time for us, as Kilmarnock are not exactly setting the heather on fire either. We are without the talented Andrew Shinnie and the energetic David Davis from the team that ran riot at Rugby Park, it's up to the rest to step up to the plate. There has been a lot of Inverness bashing going on in the last few weeks, myself included, and it is getting more difficult to syphon out the positives from some woeful displays. However, with Dunfermline doing there best to keep us in the SPL then maybe we can get the opportunity to regroup in the summer, recharge the batteries and come back bigger and better for next season where it looks most likely that we will be joined by the market town team from Dingwall for the first all Highland SPL derby. Now that should be enough to put some bite back into our performances, something sadly lacking for most of this season. Maybe we have become too comfortable with the Pars seemingly heading for self destruction, Rangers hogging the limelight with their mismanagement and top-six out of reach, (damn, I wasn't going to mention top-six ever again, damn, I did it again). ***Latest Team News*** Inverness crocks have been like the cast list for casualty this season, but it has been lessening. Chris Hogg, Andy Shinnie and Aaron Doran are still out but Roman Golobart found himself back on the park last Monday against United and apart from some ring rustiness, looked classy and should retain his starting berth. Owain Tudur-Jones is gaining more match time every week and maybe he will start. Jonny Hayes looks likely to miss out with the hamstring injury that kept him out at Tannadice. Other than that, there are no fresh injuries to report so far, although rumours that Kenny Gillet may be struggling for fitness. Keeper Ryan Esson is one man who can hold his head high this season and the stopper will be out to convince Terry Butcher that he deserves another season at Inverness beyond this summer. Kilmarnock have red carded Dean Shiels suspended to add to the injury list which has Manuel Pascali out for the season with a broken leg and Ryan O'Leary on long term leave with his cruciate injury. Mathew Kennedy has a knock and looks set to miss out. Belgian Dieter van Tornhout is also a doubt with a hamstring injury. Paul Heffernan and Lewis Toshney are both expected to be in the squad for the trip to Inverness. Kenny Shiels will decide on the morning of the game if it will be wiser to rest some players in view of the cup final coming up next week. tm4tj Prediction:- Despite the castigation, I do believe we are more than capable of beating Kilmarnock and more importantly restoring some sense of pride in our play. We have been as weak in attack as we have in defence, and the midfield dynamics seem to have deserted us, but the players should be good enough to turn this around and complete a hat-trick of wins over what has been a poor Killie side of late. The Ayrshire outfit may just have one eye on next weekends league cup final against Celtic, and that may take their eye off the ball on Saturday, (see what I did there). Narrow home win for me, 2-1 in a repeat of the first game of the season and three welcome points please. On a side note, didn't Barcelona look like Inverness Caledonian Thistle the other night. Well, they both play in red and blue stripes sometimes, unfortunately there endeth the similarities. Aye, the Messi show was simply fantastic. Promotion Watch:- Ross County have virtually assured themselves of SPL football next seaon with another win to take their unbeaten run to a confidence boosting 23rd SFL game undefeated. Their last reverse was a 5-1 hammering at the hands of Hamilton Accies way back on the 13th of August. That is certainly the form of Champions and with Dundee and Falkirk unable to make any headway into the champions elect lead, then I doubt you will get big odds from the bookies for County to be crowned First Division Champions at this stage of the season.