tm4tj

Inverness off to wake up the Dossers Inverness head down to North Lanarkshire this weekend to take on third place Motherwell in a repeat of the opening day fixture, one which saw the hosts win convincingly by three goals to nil. Let's hope Inverness have learned from that experience and are ready to reverse that result to keep the revival going. It will be a somewhat sombre occasion this weekend as news of the sudden death of vice-chairman Bill Dickie has rocked the Fir Park club. Mr Dickie had been involved with Motherwell for the last thirty years and was Chairman of Motherwell for five years until 2008. Terry Butcher had worked with Mr Dickie in his spell as Motherwell manager and said, "I'll miss Bill when we're there on Saturday." He added "He was a real gentleman of football and Motherwell, he'll be sorely missed by Motherwell and those who knew him, because he was always there." RIP Bill Dickie. Last weekend saw both clubs at home in the Scottish Cup. Motherwell cruised past Queens Park putting four goals past the Spiders without reply. Henrik Ojamma scored on his debut with Daley and Murphy (2) completing the rout. So, not much of a test for Well, but Inverness were given a sterner examination by the Pars. In poor conditions, the clubs served up a plate of tripe. Two goal-keeping errors epitomised this struggle and neither side could have complained had they been removed from the draw. However they will have to do it all again on the 18th of January to sort out a winner, let's hope the game is more entertaining for the TV audience than it was for those who turned up for the first error strewn kick about. Kenny Gillet was fortunate enough to be sent off and missed an hour of this rubbish, unfortunately I stayed to the end, all six minutes of time wasted additional minutes, just long enough for Hayes to capitalise on keeper Smith's fresh air shot; nuff said. Hammell, Murphy and Lasley were the scorers back in July and although the scoreline was convincing, Inverness had their moments and hit the woodwork twice through Foran and Tansey but could not find a way back into the match. Lasley's goal was a thirty yard screamer, a feat he would repeat in the return fixture in Inverness. That game in October saw Inverness hammer Motherwell for most of the game, and still end up losing 2-3 with recently departed David Davis opening the scoring only for Shaun Hutchinson to level before half time. The crossbar saved Motherwell again before Andy Shinnie restored the home sides advantage but Lasley once more struck a ferocious shot through Esson into the roof of the net from thirty yards once more. Controversy surrounded the winner as Chris Hogg was sent off for downing Murphy on the edge of the box and from the resultant free kick, Hately smacked the ball off of Jonny Hayes' face/shoulder and the ball diverted beyond Esson and into the net for an undeserved winner for the Steelmen. That result kept Inverness rooted to the foot of the table whilst Motherwell moved three points clear of Celtic and into second place. Inverness have yet to complete a clean sheet this season. Recent form suggests that Inverness are relishing the task in hand whereas Motherwell have stuttered somewhat, losing to Rangers and Hearts away, and drawing with St Mirren at Fir Park. Like Motherwell, Inverness have been extremely erratic, but victory over Aberdeen and a draw at Easter Road has given the fans some hope for the future, although the turgid cup encounter against fellow SPL strugglers Dunfermline swiftly brought us back to earth with a thud. Statomann is telling us that Motherwell are the lowest scoring team at home in the SPL with only seven goals scored this season. (3 of them were against us). This has brought them three wins, three defeats and three draws but only conceding nine goals in the process. Inverness have lost seven games away from home, winning only two with two being drawn. We have the worst defensive record on the road in the division, losing twenty-four goals but yet still scoring sixteen times. Motherwell though have an overall goal difference of zero and we are on minus twelve and that is a good enough reason for them to be sitting third on 34 points while we are third bottom with only 19 points. Both clubs have lost the services of loan players with Davis and Chippendale returning south from Inverness. Stephen Hughes has departed from Motherwell after McCall opted to strengthen other areas of the squad. He played four times for Well since November. Ones to watch for Motherwell will be their top scorers Michael Higdon and Jamie Murphy. Higdon leads the way with seven goals and his bustling centre forward style gives the defenders no rest. Murphy on the other hand is a pacey winger full of trickery and troubles defenders with his old fashioned wing play. He has scored six goals so far. ***Latest Team News*** Inverness are still without long term casualties Owain Tudur-Jones and Hogg the Blogg, although Jones has started light ball training and could be ready within the month. Richie Foran misses this one due to his cumulative yellow cards total reaching it's limit. Ross Tokely and Andrew Shinnie have started training again but this game could be too soon for them after both suffered shin/calf injuries at Ibrox. Steve Williams has signed a loan deal until the end of the season. He is a six foot four defender, but his fitness is a concern ahead of this game and he may have to be content with a place on the bench. A young squad played a bounce game away to Hibernian during the week and the likes of Proctor, Meekings and Doran all had a run out to gain some valuable game time. Motherwell have a fairly consistent squad to pick from. New boy Henrik Ojamma did his prospects no harm with a goal in the cup game last week and will vie with Humphrey for a start. Steve Jennings will return to the squad if he shakes of his injury in time, but Stuart Carsewell is still recovering from illness while Steven Saunders is sidelined. Keeper Lee Hollis is not back to full fitness. tm4tj Prediction:- This will be a tough fixture to take anything from, but given our recent revival and Well's stuttering home form we will do well to come away with a point. Anything more than that will be a bonus, but I will go for a low scoring draw, 1-1, and a third consecutive SPL game unbeaten.

Scottish Cup 4th round action this weekend. The only all SPL clash in the cup sees two of the relegation favourites battle it out in Inverness as basement club Dunfermline visit the Highlands, Parfect..........weather permitting. Last weeks first-footers failed to show up at the Stadium as the heavy rain and sleet made the pitch unplayable and the game was postponed by the referee after an eleven fifteen inspection. Unfortunately many fans from both sides had already undertaken the arduous journey and the decision although unpopular was the correct one under the circumstances as blizzards and gales wreaked havoc across Scotland for the next few days. So, all that means is that Saturday's visitors will be our first-footers this year. A tin of shortbread and a lump of coal will surely be offered as a friendly gesture; can we return the compliment by dumping the Pars out of the competition at the first time of asking? It's a strange competition the Scottish Cup. League form goes out the window when the cup comes along. Some big names have been known to fall to lesser known opponents and Inverness Caledonian Thistle are well documented in that category, creating their own place in the history books. Some less well known Scottish Cup exploits go back to before the merger, when Inverness Caledonian triumphed against League opponents on no less that 19 occasions. Beating Airdrie in 1990 was a notable achievement, but embarking on a cup run in '92 by beating league sides Stenhousemuir 4-1 and Clyde 3-1 before losing out to St Johnstone 3-0 at the 'Fancy Dan' all seater stadium in Perth after a replay goes down as a real feel good factor moment. However, probably the greatest Cup upset of them all came at Kingsmills on February 9th 1985, the home of Inverness Thistle. The Jags were third bottom of the Highland League at the time and had struggled to beat Spartans in the previous round. Kilmarnock were the visitors, themselves struggling in the Second Division. But goals from Dave Milroy, Gordon Hay and Brian Fraser sent Thistle through in front of 2,500 fans at Kingsmills Park. The Polis were required to intervene as Killie fans sought the head of manager Eddie Morrison. How dare these teuchters beat an established team from the Central Belt. Thistle were amply rewarded with a trip to play Celtic in the next round. Although they lost 6-0, the sum of £7,626 was well received for their endeavours at Parkhead. But what of Dunfermline? They suffered their worst ever Cup defeat at the hands of Hibernian in October 1889, losing 11-1 in a replay, the first game had ended 4-4 at East End Park. (That defeat is not their all time record loss, 17-2 to Clackmannan in a Midland League clash in 1891). However, fast forward some seventy-odd years and the Jock Stein era took the Pars to a new level. In 1961 they won the Cup for the first time, beating Celtic 2-0 after a replay. And so began a golden era for the Pars, regularly featuring in European matches. They narrowly missed out in the Cup Final in 1965, losing 3-2 to Celtic, who had by now secured Jock Stein as their new manager, and finished third in the league behind Kilmarnock and Hearts. A certain Alex Ferguson being a prominent player between '64-'67. In 1968, George Farm emulated the success of Stein and the Pars beat Hearts 3-1 to lift the Scottish Cup for the second time, and then went on to the semi-final of the European Cup Winners Cup before losing 2-1 to eventual winners Slovan Bratislava. It took Dunfermline a further 36 years to reach another Scottish Cup Final, this time losing 3- 1 to Celtic with Jimmy Calderwood in charge, who immediately resigned to join Aberdeen. Stats count for nothing in the Cup, one off games where the winner takes all. On the face of it, Inverness would appear to be on the up and the Pars are sliding slowly towards the first division, but as I said, the Cup spurs players on to greater things. I don't expect anything other than a tough encounter where in this Cup game the winner will take more than just entry into the next round as their prize. It will be a massive confidence boost over one of the candidates for the drop, so everything to play for in this one. The teams have only met once before in the Scottish Cup, well twice if you count the replay, and that was in 2004 when Inverness went out at the semi-final stage to the Pars. A certain Mr Brewster taking the game to a replay at Pittodrie with a headed goal in the second half after Paul Ritchie had opened the scoring for the Caley Jags. Barry Nicholson scored an Archie Gemmill of a goal as he danced through the Inverness defence to score the decisive goal that would take the Pars into the final for the first time in 35 years. Brings a tear to your eyes....... ***Latest Team News*** Inverness have secured the services of Roman Golobart until the end of the season. However that has been countered by the news that David Davis will return to Wolverhampton Wanderers after a productive spell in Inverness where he had become a fans favourite with his robust and creative midfield performances in his fourteen games. He could feature tomorrow if selected, but that would be his last game for ICT. Chippendale, and Proctor have resumed full training and Jones is slightly behind in terms of recovery. Andrew Shinnie and Ross Tokely needed that extra week to recover from knocks and captain Richie Foran will be eligible to play in the Cup game. He misses the Motherwell fixture next week. Hogg the Blogg is out for the season, see The Fightback at http://chrishoggthef...k.blogspot.com/ Dunfermline goalkeeper Paul Gallacher is out for the remainder of the season with a shoulder injury sustained during the 4-0 defeat to Hearts a couple of weeks ago. Chris Smith will continue to deputise. Austin McCann, Nick Phinn and Steven Bell are still sidelined, but Kevin Rutkiewicz and striker Steven McDougall have returned to training and could be included in the squad for the cup-tie. McIntyre's injury list is looking healthier, but he is on the look out to strengthen his squad in the January sales. Jason Thomson has left the building and returned to Hearts . Euan Norris is the man in the middle for this game. tm4tj Prediction:- Cup games are special days and anything goes. Inverness are still getting back to full strength and the loss of Davis is a blow should he not get a start, however I do expect Inverness to have just enough to see off the Pars, but it will be tough. Inverness to be in the hat come Saturday evening for the fifth round draw.

Hair of the dog? ***Game Postponed - Waterlogged Pitch*** Hangover cure on the 2nd of January at 2:00pm is the fixture in Inverness as the home side seek to extend their unbeaten run to three games against the surprise packet of the season, St Johnstone. The lads from Perth come first footing at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium and will be looking to continue their good form into the new year. Inverness remained unbeaten for the second game after a deserved point at Easter Road in midweek, achieved without the services of top scorer Andrew Shinnie and defensive stalwart Ross Tokely. Both players were sidelined with calf injuries since the narrow defeat at Ibrox and not risked since then with the hectic festive fixtures coming . While Inverness were drawing in Edinburgh, the Perth Saints were beating Kilmarnock 2-0 and securing back-to-back wins and consecutive clean sheets. That's why they sit in fourth place in the league 13 points above Inverness. It has been a tremendous season for St Johnstone so far, with Steve Lomas continuing the good work started by Derek McInnes who departed for warmer climes in October. Inverness' home form has been a bit erratic with 3 wins, 2 draws and 5 defeats, conceding 16 goals in the process with zero clean sheets. Much of these stats have come in our darker days from this season and Butcher will be glad to see the back of 2011 which has seen the club suffer a spate of long term injuries. This, coupled with some major decisions going gainst us in some crucial games have meant it has been difficult to gather some momentum and get some consistency in our performances, and the result of this leaves us entrenched in the lower quarter of the league with a goal difference of -12. Not the worst in the division, but not one to be proud of. St Johnstone have the best defensive record in the SPL away from home, only Rangers equalling their miserly loss of five goals. That has given them a platform to build on and their away record is a dream for the Perth men, 5 wins, 4 draws and a solitary defeat to Hibernian at Easter Road. Their last two matches saw them score 5 goals without reply with Sandaza notching 3 of them. Saints won the first encounter this season 2-0, beating a below par Inverness during our poor early season form, Sandaza on the scoresheet in that game as well with Mackay getting the second goal. That result left us rooted to the bottom of the table on eight points and Saints in fifth with eighteen. Head to Head at Inverness:- Including Scottish Cup and First Division games we have a healthy 5 to 1 advantage over the Super J's with only one draw. In terms of SPL games it's one win and one draw. Highest score was the 3-1 win that clinched promotion in 2004, a game which incidentally saw one of the best goals ever at the stadium. It was Keigan Parker who scored it with a stunning 35 yarder on the run into the top corner; some strike. That was however overshadowed by the result and susequent promotion to the SPL, after some off field antics by the Harry Wragg's was put to bed. ***Latest Team News*** Inverness captain Richie Foran is suspended for this game and top scorer Andrew Shinnie remains a major doubt with a calf injury. Ross Tokely could recover in time and will be thrust straight back into central defence as we are a bit threadbare in that department. Aaron Doran returned to action at Hibs following a serious shoulder injury and will be loking for more game time. St Johnstone midfielder Chris Millar is struggling with a hamstring problem and Frazer Wright and Cillian Sheridan remain out, (must be that jumper) but midfielder David Robertson could be added to the squad after his concussion. tm4tj Prediction:- We appear to be over the worst of our troubles and with the squad list getting healthier I expect us to be able to handle the Perth men on our own patch. They have been excellent on the road but I am going for a narrow win, maybe without that elusive clean sheet, but a win all the same and three points to get the new year off to a flyer. Happy New Year from all at the editorial team.