tm4tj

Shadow Boxing or tug of war History making game on Friday as Ross County attempt to come out of the shadow of the big club over the bridge. It's the first ever SPL Highland derby and the TV camera's will be there to catch the action and see who can pull the rope the hardest. The verbal sparring has begun between the rival fans looking to gain the bragging rights for the next couple of months with the Caley Jags fans likening County to a side forever in our Shadow in retaliation to County's jibes about our lack of milk at the Stadium. Ahhhhh, the joys of a derby game, maybe Hank Marvin and the lads will make an appearance. Let's hope the result is not similar to one of the evening derby's at the Caledonian Stadium when both clubs were in the first division. Inverness were left chasing shadow's that night. 25th of February 2003, County were desperate for points as they were struggling to avoid relegation. They came, they saw and they conquered in some style. It seemed that every time County went forward, they scored and a 5-1 defeat was dished out to a shell shocked Inverness. Kevin McLeish, a Steve Ferguson penalty and a Tassos Venetis strike saw the Dingwall side three up at half-time. Further goals from Hugh Robertson and Conor Gethins ended the County goal spree while Dennis Wyness smashed home a consolation volley for Inverness. Make no bones about it; fans from both sides have been looking forward to this game for a long time. County may have taken a bit longer to get to the SPL, but they are here now on merit and they have made a solid if unspectacular start to their debut season having recently lost their unbeaten league games run of forty undefeated, good by any standards. This has come from having a settled side and Adams has gathered a decent bunch of players together, none moreso than our old favourites of Grant Munro, Ross Tokely and Russell Duncan. Not to mention the other defectors in Ian Vigurs, Michael Fraser, and Mark Brown. This will certainly add plenty of spice to this fixture as some of these guys will certainly have something to prove to their old boss. Terry Butcher will watch the derby with Ross County from the luxury of the main stand after agreeing to a one match touchline ban. His criticism of referee George Salmond after the Dons game did not go down well with the authorities and his ongoing battle with the beaks has culminated in this slap on the wrist. Butcher's views were seen to indicate incompetence from the officials. No argument from me about that. Ginger Jaggy pens his thoughts on this historic match and begins with a history lesson for us all......... 1994 was big for many reasons. That year saw President Bill Clinton start talks with Russia to limit nuclear arms capability; long serving Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi first came to power while Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as the first black president of South Africa. In sport Michael Schumacher won his first of seven world titles amidst the back drop of three time world champion Aryton Senna’s death earlier in that season. The major football news saw Brazil crowned world champions for a fourth time but for many in the Highlands, the 12th of January was the most important date of all. Lots has been said and written about the merger of Inverness Caledonian Thistle but for fans of both the clubs the 12th of January 1994 was a new dawn. That day saw the Scottish league make Scottish football history by admitting a highland side into the league format. No one expected Ross County also getting the nod by the authorities but they did and from being excluded for so long the highlands got two representatives. Moving forward into 2012 and this Friday makes history as the first ever highland derby to be played in the top flight takes place. The attendance looks likely to break the record but before I indulge your footballing taste buds with Fridays feast let’s start off with a little trip down memory lane. After that magnificent day for highland football in January all eyes moved to the 27th of August that same year for the first ever Highland derby in the Scottish football league. .The game was played at Victoria Park but it was to be away supporters celebrating a historical first derby victory. That day Caledonian Thistle scored once but came out 3-1 winners. Wilson Robertson was the first man to score for Inverness in these derbies scoring the last of the 3 goals. Before then Ross County had scored three but sadly for them two ended up in their own net – what a shame! This first ever game attracted 3157 but it would not be long before they attracted over 5000 spectators. Inverness’s turn to host ended in a drab 0-0 draw in front of a derisory 2440 people - at Telford Street Park- as the team lost form midway through the season after a great start. County would then revenge that score line from Victoria Park earlier on in the season by winning by the same score line at the same venue in the new year derby. It was 6th of May 1995 when Inverness saw their first home victory against the men from Dingwall. Norman Macmillan, Alan Hercher and Charlie Christie were the heroes in a routine 3-0 win at Telford Street in front of 3362. The result was just for pride but did end any hopes County had of promotion at the first time of asking. The first ever season of Football League Highland derbies saw Inverness hold the bragging rights with two victories but it was not enough as we finished a disappointing 6th while County finished 3rd. Back to Friday with supporters of both sides hoping that they can take first bragging rights with them. To liven things up even more County will turn up with three old Caley Thistle stalwarts in Grant Munro, Ross Tokely and Russell Duncan. The hope is that this attendance will break the previous record of 6120 at Victoria Park in 2004 with history being made in the first derby at this level. County have adapted well to life in the top flight but could be described as solid rather than spectacular, only amassing 7 goals, of which 4 came at St Mirren last weekend and they still lost. They have produced 4 goal-less draws so far this season which proves that they may not be able to find the scoring touch but they certainly know how to keep it tight. They almost shocked Champions Celtic at Victoria Park but they were denied Victory by a Kris Commons injury time goal. If county have been tight and hard to break down then the same can not be said about Inverness. A huge improvement on last season has seen performances much better and much easier on the eye. But while we don’t need to ask twice where the net is, it has been a frustrating start at the back. Compared to County, Inverness has only kept one clean sheet coming in the 4-0 demolition of Dundee United on Saturday. But we have scored in every league match so far this season and had we not been so slack at the back, we could be sitting much higher. Spirits are high after last weekend and with that result we climbed up to the dizzy heights of 9th jumping last weekend’s opponents and our visitors on Friday. Hopefully after the first win and clean sheet, confidence will be high all across the team especially against a side that will be rattled by defeat in such a remarkable game. Butcher looks to have stumbled across a team that is very well balanced with Richie Foran in magnificent form and young Arsenal loanee Philip Roberts adding a touch of quality and an eye for goal to boot. However, form goes out the window in these types of matches as it is everyone’s cup final and so all that is left to say is COME ON CALEY. ***Latest Team News*** Antonio Reguero deputised last weekend against Dundee United and he will continue in goal with Ryan Esson requiring a scan on his injured groin, as Butcher fears he may be without his number 1 for a few weeks. Chris Hogg, Shane Sutherland, Nick Ross and Simon King are all long term casualties and Andre Blackman is struggling to shake off an ankle knock sustained at Hibernian. Owain Tudur-Jones is available, however Gavin Morrison has proved to be an able deputy in midfield where he adds some steel to the engine room. The impressive Phillip Roberts and Conor Pepper will vie for the strikers role with Billy McKay and Butcher may well favour the same starting eleven as last time out. Richie Foran is on a rich vein of form just now with five goals in four games and his first last weekend was sheer class. Ross County will be without Marc Corcorran and Alex Cooper. Richard Brittain and Colin McMenamin had a run out with the U20's to build their fitness for Friday and should be included in the squad. Paul Lawson never played in that game and is unlikely to feature. With neither camp giving much away, that's about it as far as latest team news. I suspect both managers will be keeping their first eleven close to their chest, just adds to the tension ahead of the big game. tm4tj Prediction:- Wow, how do you predict a game that has never seen the light of day before, a first SPL derby. Prior to last weeks results I would have put County's chances of victory at good to excellent, but last weeks results have thrown a massive spanner in the works. County are very strong defensively, especially on their own tight park where space is at a premium. However the wide open area's at Inverness could be to our advantage, and the recent form of Richie Foran has given us reasons to be cheerful. Phillip Roberts is an unknown quantity for County to deal with and his youthful enthusiasm could pull the rope our way. It is of course too tight to call though and a share of the spoils could be on the cards, but I will go for a tense and tight victory for Inverness by the odd goal in three. Come on the Caley Jags, reel that rope in......................Who put the o and the y in County

Houston, we have a problem Next up to Inverness are the Arabs from Dundee, who's boss Peter Houston has confirmed that United have not tabled a new contract for him when his present one runs out at the end of this season. It would appear from the lack of interest shown by the United board that they may be looking elsewhere should Houston not improve the clubs current situation. On the other hand it looks like he is trying to force the clubs hand into negotiations, and why not, after all he did bring home the Scottish Cup and has kept United in the top half of the league. Both sides struggled to get through their third round league cup ties in midweek against second division opponents. United fared slightly better than Inverness as they overcame Queen of the South without the need for extra-time or penalties. A solitary Johnny Russell strike in the first half was enough to put United into the quarter final draw. Inverness worked even harder to dispose of Stenhousemuir after extra-time and penalties. It was a dramatic shoot out with the SPL side showing their mental strength to go through 6-5 after Ryan Esson saved Darren Smith's spot kick in the sudden death drama. Inverness are racking up the draws this season and are the only SPL side yet to win a league game. Draw specialists we could be with five out of seven games all square. The other two finished with four goal doings at the hands of Celtic and Motherwell. The plus side of our season so far is our ability to score in every game, and our resillience at coming back from seemingly lost causes when our backs are against the wall, the two draws in Edinburgh evidence of that. We are, however, undoing that strike rate by gifting goals at the back as our minus five goal difference would indicate, although we do appear to be tightening up somewhat in recent games. Dundee United sit three points above Inverness, albeit they have a game in hand against Celtic still to be played. They are without an away win yet but have only played two away from Tannadice, losing to Kilmarnock and drawing with St Johnstone. Their recent form has disappointed Peter Houston since the 3-0 derby win over Dundee. Two defeats and two draws have taken the edge of United's season so far, and last weeks 0-3 defat at home to Hearts has set alarm bells ringing down Tannadice way. Houston has asked his side to show more character after the poor result against Hearts, although in all fairness, that result hinged on a couple of decisions that went against the Arabs, and with a bit more fortune they could have got something from the game. Hearts keeper MacDonald doing some heroics, and United's strikers without their shooting boots on. In this fixture at Inverness, there has been eleven SPL encounters. Five wins for United and only two for Inverness with four drawn games. United have won four out of the last five games at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium. We have only scored more than one goal on one occasion, last season, and we still lost that game 2-3 after being two goals ahead. The only no scoring draw was in September 2006. The last Inverness win was in season 2006/2007 when we tiumphed 1-0 thanks to a late Barry Wilson strike. Grant Munro had earlier been sent off for felling barry Robson, but we had the last laugh as Wilson's well placed shot secured all three points. Almost 4,000 fans were at that game in 2007. Teams on that day were:- Inverness CT: Fraser, Tokely, Dods, Munro, Hastings, Wilson, Black, Duncan, Rankin (Paatelainen 73), Bayne, McAllister (McSwegan 64). Dundee Utd: Stillie, Dillon, McCracken, Wilkie, Kalvenes, Robertson (Samuel 46), Kerr, Gomis, Robson, Daly (Robb 73), Hunt (Goodwillie 81). ***Latest Team News*** Inverness are still without Chris Hogg, Nick Ross, Shane Sutherland and Simon King. Andre Blackman was not risked in midweek and will struggle to make this one after injuring his ankle against Hibernian. Owain Tudur-Jones could be back after suspension, depends on which tabloid you believe. The SFA website only shows a two game ban, so I will allow him to play, but Gavin Morrison is knocking at the door for a start and young Arsenal prospect Phillip Roberts looks like he could be worth a try at some stage after another interesting cameo at Stenhousemuir, where he also showed he had the bottle to put away a crucial penalty in the shoot-out. Dundee United are without the talented Gary Mackay-Steven who is recovering after knee surgery. Jon Daly played in midweek and is hopeful of another ninety minutes this weekend. tm4tj Prediction:- It's about time we broke our duck for this season and we have been getting better as the weeks have gone on, well most of the team have. David Raven seems to be the weak link and is usually the one that makes the error to allow the opposition in and leave us chasing the game. But we have proved difficult to shake off and if we can limit the errors at the back then we could be on our way to breaking that duck. Quack quack, 2-1 home win. Mon the Caley Jags................

Midweek League Cup action It's the League Cup third round this week as Inverness travel to Stenhousemuir to take on cup holders Killies conquerors. Tuesday night at 19:45 is the kick off time. They may be one of the more unfashionable sides left in the competition, but they were magnificent in the last round as they pulled off the shock of the round disposing of the holders Kilmarnock 2-1 at Rugby Park, Killie only notching a ninetieth minute consolation to make the scoreline look more competitive. Ferguson and Gemmell had given Stenny a half-time lead which they fully deserved before seeing out a late Kilmarnock flurry to enter the third round draw. So, what do we know of Stenhousemuir? It nestles in the Forth valley a few miles from Falkirk and the town takes it's name from the Stone House, a Roman building that resembled a large oven, hence it's more common name in later years of King Arthurs oven. However, the town is probably more famous for McCowans toffee bars. Aye, that's the one with the image of the heilan coo on the wrapper, complete in it's full regalia of long hair and massive horns. The town are host to the Warriors who ply their trade at Ochilview Park, aptly named after the splendid views towards the Ochil Hills twelve miles away, Ben Cleuch reaching 2363 feet skywards. Back to football and Stenhousemuir have made a solid start to the season with nine points from six games, sitting in fifth spot at the moment with a goal difference of zero. The one black mark on the record shows that Forfar won convincingly 4-0 at Ochilview. They warmed up for this match with an amazing 4-4 draw at Albion Rovers. Stewart Kean notched a hat-trick in that game with Andy Rodgers scoring a spectacular 25 yarder in a see-saw tussle where comebacks were the order of the day. Kean, the former Ayr, St Mirren, Queen of the South and Morton player will certainly be worth keeping an eye on for this game. We did our own comeback version at Easter Road on Saturday, giving Hibs a two goal start then pegging them back in an exciting game in the capital. Pepper and Foran scoring for Inverness after Doyle and Wotherspoon had put Hibs ahead. That's Richie Forans' third goal in as many games and he seems to be playing like a man possessed just now, long may that continue. Most of our games against the Warriors have come in Division 2 and Inverness hold the upper hand. At Ochilview, The Muir have one win in four games against us. Oddly enough, the last time we met at Ochilview was in a League Cup match in July 1999 when we came through with a 1-3 scoreline. For those of a nostalgic persuasion, here are the teams from that day, and incidentally, McLeans first goal was timed at 1min 34 secs. STENHOUSEMUIR 1 (Mooney 83) Hamilton, Lawrence, Gibson, Armstrong (Banks 70), Graham, Davidson, Lorimer, Fisher, Watters (Mooney 70), Cummings (McKinnon 52), Wood INVERNESS CALEDONIAN THISTLE 3 (McLean 2 & 12, Wilson 68) Fridge, Tokely, Golabek, Teasdale, Mann, McCulloch, Wilson, Stewart (Glancy 63), McLean, Sheerin (Robson 78), Hastings (Christie 74) REFEREE – G Simpson ATTENDANCE – 534 Gringo can go back further than most and pre-merger he recalls a 1-4 victory for Inverness Caledonian in a Scottish Cup game many moons ago, January 1992. Hercher, Urquhart, Christie and Polwarth knocked home second half goals to send Caley on their way to that memorable games against St Johnstone, culminating in a replay at Perth, happy days. In fact Caley have played Stenhousemuir four times in the Scottish Cup and you have to go back to 1903 to find a win for The Warriors that was 2-1, but since then Caley have knocked home eleven goals for and five against in three wins. But it's back to the future for us and Old Caley Girl has written this preview for us as she makes her debut with the pen. She is a woman of few words..........I can't find them yet, so you will just have to put up with my drivel. Hopefully she will tell us what happened with a report. ***Latest Team News*** Inverness have Hogg, Ross, Sutherland and King out injured while Jones sits out another game through suspension. Andre Blackman took a sore one at Easter Road and will be a doubt, but Graeme Shinnie will drop back to cover. Gavin Morrison could be the man to cover the gap left by Jones the red. Conor Pepper did well on from the start and Phillip Roberts looks like he will be an assett with a late cameo in Edinburgh. Stenhousemuir striker John Gemmell, is back after suspension. Manager Martyn Corrigan will hand late fitness tests to defender Scott Buist and midfielder Brown Ferguson. Looks like you will have to take yer brolly, it's been teeming down all night and today, let's hope the game is OK, best to check with the clubs prior to heading to the match. tm4tj prediction:- I will put my head on the chopping block here. Not having seen Stenhousemuir play this season but having read about their fantastic result at Killie, I believe this will be a tight game given the prevailing conditions. We should have enough to squeeze through, but it might require a bit of extra effort. Narrow away win, possibility of extra-time so take a flask, welly boots and a packed lunch with you, it could be a long night. Come on the Caley Jags