tm4tj

It's in our own hands No points from our post split games have seen St Johnstone and Ross County close the gap on ourselves and the possibility of European football is now hanging by a thread, a very thin thread at that. Motherwell visit Inverness this weekend and they have been our Nemesis this season with three crushing wins so far, averaging four goals per game. The Steelmen have cemented their position in European football with a convincing win last week over champions Celtic and will finish the season in second place, and deservedly so. We have found it difficult to cope with Motherwell's pace this season and the finishing power of Michael Higdon accompanied by the direct approach of Henrik Ojamaa has given us a torrid time in all three matches. Higdon has scored six times himself and on their last trip to Inverness we suffered our heaviest defeat of the season, a 5-1 trouncing with goals coming from all over the park from Motherwell. Inverness have been licking their wounds since the split, going down heavily to Celtic and losing to St Johnstone last weekend with David Raven going for an early bath in the 12th minute, a decision that Terry Butcher did not think was worth contesting having reviewed the footage, although many fans believed that a yellow card may have been nearer the truth. It did us no favours however as St Johnstone went on the win by virtue of a solitary second half goal to pull the Perth side to within one point of third placed Inverness. All is not lost though in the sprint for Europe with Inverness leading the race but struggling to stay ahead as Perth and Dingwall gather momentum. Both clubs still have to play Celtic, but Neil Lennon has already indicated that he will not be fielding his strongest available line up with the League title already wrapped up and the Scottish Cup Final still to come, opting to rest some of his stars which is a tad unfair on some clubs, especially us as we were first to play them after the split in a game which meant something. Ach well, that's life. It might of course do us a favour and rather than rely on results elsewhere, we can do this ourselves by going out and winning games instead of holding out for draws. Difficult one this Saturday and not many fans can see anything other than a convincing win for Motherwell given their performances against us already this season. Inverness have started the team building for next season already and have all but signed left sided flyer Danny Williams from Kendal Town. Still waiting for for Aaron Doran and Owain Tudur-Jones to put pen to paper. ***Latest Team News*** Inverness will be without the red carded David Raven, banned for one game, which leaves us thin on the ground for experienced central defenders with Gary Warren and Simon King also out through injury. Chris Hogg was sent off in an u20 game during the week where the youngsters defeated their Dundee United counterparts 2-1, our goals coming from Kyle Whyte and Shane Sutherland, who must be knocking on the door for a first team game given his scoring exploits for the youths. Ryan Esson is still injured and Antonio Reguero will continue in goal. Jaggies squad:- Reguero, Taylor, Meekings, Devine, Draper, Tudur-Jones, Doran, Foran, A Shinnie, McKay, Ross, Sutherland, Polworth, Roberts, Hogg, Gibbons, Laing, Pepper, Mathieson. Motherwell are expected to field an unchanged side from the one that trounced champions Celtic last weekend and Dundee United before that and their squad looks like this, Randolph, Hateley, Hammell, Hutchinson, Ramsden, Law, Lasley, McFadden, Humphrey, Higdon, Ojamaa, Francis-Angol, Kerr, Cummins, Carswell, Higginbotham, McHugh, Hollis. tm4tj prediction:- It's difficult to see past a convincing win for stuart McCall's men given the results of the previous meetings this season, but something in the back of my mind tells me that we can get something from this game. It might only be a point, but that could prove crucial come the end of the season. James McFadden has been added to the Motherwell squads that ran riot over us earlier this year although that can be countered by the fact that Jamie Murphy has departed; one less tormentor to worry about. :ictscarf: