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Steelmen show their mettle Inverness were caned today by a rampant Motherwell side who put four past Ryan Esson as Inverness shot themselves in the foot after getting back within touching distance of The Steelmen. Two early goals from Hateley and Higdon set the pace for Motherwell but a Richie Foran header threw Inverness a lifeline before the break. Unfortunately Raven handed the initiative back to Well with a short pass back and Higdon scored his second and went on to complete his hat-trick before the end. It was not to be our day as Darren Randolph made a few miraculous saves and thwarted Andy Shinnie with a penalty save late in the day to compound Inverness' misery. ictchris was on hand to witness the show, but he has taken a few positives from the game, despite the scoreline. Strangely Enjoyable I quite enjoyed that match in a bizarre way. We lined up with Foran up front for McKay and Meekings slotting into the back four in place of King, who dropped out in the warm up and that saw David Raven maintain his place at right back. Straight from kick off we won the ball and pushed forward with some decent play and for the next five minutes most of the play was ours. Ross Draper hit a low shot which was deflected off Page and turned just wide by the diving Randolph, and it looked like it might be an enjoyable game. Well started to push back into the game and forced a succession of corners which we looked a bit shaky at, Hateley has a great delivery from dead balls and Higdon is always a handful. Following two or three corners, Hateley whipped one in and Ryan couldn't keep it out at his near post. He'll be absolutely gutted about it, there really isn't an excuse for not getting that ball. Almost straight from the kick off Well were two up as Humphrey, who was lively all day, tore down the left and evaded two lunging, desperate tackles from Graeme Shinnie and Draper, centred for Higdon who took advantage of the space in the area to knock it home. It was absolutely gutting at this point, we looked on the end of a real hammering. However, we started to push back into it and had the ball in the net when Richie nodded the ball to the back-post for Sutherland to knock in, although this was then ruled out for an infringement on Foran's part. Being at the other end of the ground I didn't really have a great view but there didn't look to be that much in it. Foran then chased back, won the ball out wide and tore in on goal but his effort was blocked. We had pushed right back into the game and deserved the goal that came just afterwards. A corner was knocked clear to Owain Tudur-Jones, who lobbed it to the back post where Foran headed in. We probably looked more likely to score at this point and Foran was played in by a long pass from Meekings for a great opportunity. His shot was blocked and he couldn't direct his header from the rebound goalward. Half -Time 2-1 In the second half the game was more end to end with both sides having chances. There were a couple of massive Well shouts for a penalty, one when Meekings (I think) made a tackle in the area (looked decent from our end) and again when a shot hit what the fans and players claimed was a hand. We also had a shout for a penalty when Richie was brought down while bearing in on goal but Mr O'Reilly had no time for it. Things were nicely poised when David Raven, who had actually been pretty solid today compared to other poor displays, made an absolute howler. We'd had the ball in midfield and Raven received it and tried to roll the ball back to Esson but his short pass was eaten up by Higdon, who knoced it home. It was an absolute sickener, we had fought so hard to get back and to lose a goal like that is hard to take. We continued pushing forward, Shane came close with a header from a Foran cross that his marker did well to put behind for a corner. Subsittute Ojamaa helped finish us off though, tearing away on a breakaway, beating his man and squaring for Higdon to crack one home for his hat-trick. We could've cut the deficit almost straight away when Foran was clearly brought down in the box by Page and the ref gave a penalty. Andy Shinnie's spot kick was well saved by Darren Randolph, who had earlier made a stunning diving stop from a Gary Warren acrobatic overhead kick. I left with a couple of minutes to go as our train was at 17:11, not sure much of note happened in injury time. Full Time 4-1 Overall I feel strangely positive after a 4-1 defeat, which isn't like me. We really did well going forward, although, as Alternative Maryhill noted we took the wrong option around the opposition goal a few times. Richie Foran was absolutely brilliant today, on another day he could have scored a hat-trick, he worked hard, won everything in the air, played good passes and crosses, fought and harried. An absolutely towering display and we need to keep him up there if we are going to get anything out of this season. The obvious downside is our defending. We looked nervous defending corners and Chris Humphrey was a livewire and had the better of Graeme Shinnie a lot of the game. We just seem to make basic errors too often - a short passback, not dealing properly with a run from wide, letting a corner sneak in. I fear we'll end up repeating the mistakes of last season, chopping and changing at the back. Raven I feel sorry for, he hasn't done that well but was playing OK today until their third goal. Graeme Shinnie was caught a few times by Humphrey and looked uncomfortable against him the whole game. Shinnie is the sort of the full back who dominates his opponent by pushing onto them rather than by dealing with them and that style isn't suited to a guy like Humphrey who is pacey and got time today. In midfield, I think Ross Draper is a great player and had another influential game. Owain Tudur-Jones, cross for the goal aside, was ineffective He looks like he can play but he never actually raises his game and takes control for 90 minutes. The fact he was subbed in a straight swap (for Gavin Morrison who was better) says it all. I thougth Shane and Doran did OK, took a few too many wrong options but were available and looked fluid, espeically Doran who popped up all over. Andy Shinnie had some good touches but had a quieter game than previously. We need to sort out our defence and it's a big job but watching that today it isn't hopeless. Motherwell:- Randolph, Law (Murphy 64), Hateley, Humphrey (Carswell 85), Higdon, Lasley, McHugh (Ojamaa 73), Kerr, Page, Francis-Angol, Cummins. Subs not used: Hollis (GK), Daley, Carswell, Hetherington, Murray. Inverness CT:- Esson, G Shinnie, Tudur Jones (Morrison 64), Warren, Draper, Foran, Andrew Shinnie (Pepper 81), Meekings, Raven, Doran, Sutherland (McKay 81). Subs not used: Regeuro (GK), Roberts, Laing, Polworth Referee: Steve O'Reilly. Attendance: 4,031.

Shinnie Smokes the Red Lichties Inverness booked their place in the third round of the League Cup at the expense of second division Arbroath. Two Andrew Shinnie strikes was enough for the SPL side to ease them into the next stage of the competition wih a competent performance against Paul Sheerin's side. Inverness put out out a near full strength side to ensure they progressed in the competition unlike one or two other SPL sides who were dumped out by lower league teams, notably Ross County going down 4-1 at home to Raith Rovers. They joined Dundee, Kilmarnock and Hibs in the trash can. Josh Meekings started ahead of David Raven and Tudur-Jones returned from suspension to replace the injured Nick Ross It only took Inverness seven minutes to take the lead, Andrew Shinnie converting a Shane Sutherland cross to settle the visitors. This was just the start Inverness were looking for after the disastrous drubbing at the hands of Celtic last weekend. Former County keeper Tony Bullock kept the score down with a series of excellent stops from the eager Inverness forwards as he foiled attempts from Shinnie, Sutherland, McKay and Doran, and just before half time another fantastic save from Shinnie prevented the visitors from going into the break two up. Sutherland shoots over as the first half came to a close with Inverness making all the pressing. Shanes effort bringing out the quote of the night from RossP.....Sutherland donates a ball to Montrose with a wild high volley. LoLs Half Time 0-1 as the crowd swapped ends. Graeme Shinnie skimmed the top of the bar as the second half gets under way and Owain Tudur-Jones tries to get in on the act but shoots wide, as does Doran a few minutes later. Arbroath's top striker Darren Gribben could have squared the match as he broke forward but fired harmlessly over from the angle of the box. 1-0 is a precarious lead, but Inverness were still forcing the pace of the game and it was no surprise when Shinnie netted his second after another assist from Sutherland who had dispossessed Paul Sheerin before feeding the midfielder who lashed a shot off the underside of the bar and into the net. Shinnie was unlucky not to score a hat-trick but was denied again by Bullock and Sutherland could not get the ball out from under his feet for what would have been a tap-in. Arbroath kept plugging away and Esson saved a free kick from Doris with five minutes remaing, but the SPL side had done their homework and saw out the remainder of the game without conceding. All said and done, this was a professional job carried out by Inverness after the disappointment against Celtic and they showed great character to bounce back and see off the potential banana skin at Gayfield. The stats showed Inverness had 17 shots, 10 of those on target making Bullock work hard for his money, and a corner count of 8-0 to Inverness, so the stats back up the display that was a pretty convincing win for the visitors. Arbroath:- Bullock, Baxter (Malcolm 64), Travis (Banjo 72), Keddie,Hamilton, Kerr, Currie, Sheerin, Doris, Holmes (Sibanda 30), Gribben. Subs not used: Morrison (GK), Mair. Inverness CT:- Esson, Graeme Shinnie, Warren, Meekings, King (Raven 58), Tudur Jones, Draper, Andrew Shinnie, McKay (Pepper 81), Doran, Sutherland. Subs not used: Reguero, Morrison, Polworth. Attendance: 672. Referee: Stephen Finnie.

Sunday School Inverness head down to Europa casualties Motherwell on Sunday for the fifth round of SPL games hoping to teach them a lesson after putting Arbroath to the sword in midweek. Three points and five places separate the teams after the first four games with Inverness taking up a familiar position in the lower half of the league, but it's early days yet. Motherwell have yet to win at home this season and Inverness have still to record their first three points of the campaign, although a very pleasing 2-0 victory over second division Arbroath in midweek heartened the spirits after the shambles of the Celtic defeat. Motherwell bowed out of the Europa league going down 3-0 on aggregate to Spanish side Levante in Valencia. The transfer window has been closing and Inverness have brought in two players with Arsenal connections. Not the muti-million pound stories you see on Sky Sports, but with little funding in the pot then we need to scour the fringe player market and see what is available. Hot prospect Phillip Roberts has arrived on loan until the January window. He was top scorer for the Arsenal u18 team last season and often plays as a lone striker which would suit our style of play. Another signing is the aristocratically named George Brislan-Hall who has joined on a six month deal. He has been released from his Arsenal contract after a couple of injuries curtailed his appearances in their academy set-up and the defender will try his luck up North. Good luck to both these young lads. One to remember:- Barry Wilson's 70 yard dipper, (it gets longer every year), in the Scottish cup as Inverness Caledonian Thistle took another scalp in the national competition, when as a first division side we knocked The Steelmen out of the cup on the 6th March 2004. 7930 fans witnessed that one, Gordon Marshall never, as the ball flashed past him into the roof of the net. That victory sent us onwards to the semi-final where we eventually lost out to Dunfermline after a replay.........meh. Teams on that day were................. INVERNESS CT: Brown, Tokely, Mann, McCaffrey, Golabek, McBain, Duncan, Thomson, Wilson, Ritchie, Keogh. Subs- Munro (for Thomson), Proctor (for Ritchie), Fraser, Hart, McMillan. MOTHERWELL: Marshall, Quinn, Corrigan, Craigan, Hammell, Lasley, Adams, Fagan, Burns, McDonald, Clarkson. Subs- O'Donnell (for Fagan), Wright (for Clarkson), Corr, K.McDonald, Kinniburgh. Treatment Table Nick Ross looks as though he will be out until the New Year with a shoulder dislocation sustained in the Celtic game, which may require an operation. Chris Hogg is not fully fit yet and Jason Oswell is still recovering from his achilles injury. Youngster Mathew Cooper is making progress after his ankle injury. Gringo enjoyed doing the Arbroath preview that much he is offering his services for the Motherwell preview as well, and here are his thoughts ahead of Sunday's 15:00 kick off. Can we steel this? This weekend we head for the former steel town of Motherwell to disturb their Sunday afternoons peace and quiet in the support of our team in what could be a highly entertaining SPL encounter. The fixture was rearranged to be played on the Sunday because of Motherwell's all-to-brief delve into European competition. We will suffer many fixture changes this season but at least this one is for the 'right' reason. Unfortunately for Motherwell things didn't work out in their favour against the Spanish side and they will not progress into the next round. In Stuart McCall they have, in my opinion, one of the best managers in Scotland at the moment and they will be a team that will not be easily beaten at home or away. Our encounters against Well have been pretty even Steven over the piece and we have managed to pick up points in half of our encounters. In fact we won there in the league on our first four visits and were fast becoming a bit of a bogey side for them before they got to grips with us and won the next four! Our last visit to Fir Park was back in January this year when Gregory Tade got the winner on 67 minutes with a cracking strike. Our record at Motherwell in all competitions reads W6 D3 L6 so, if your the kind of guy that studies these kind of statistics before heading to the bookies, you will not have an easy decision to make. And out of all 30 encounters between the two sides there has only ever one 0-0 draw so expect goals for this one. (There, that's put the kiss of death on that!). Whilst Motherwell were enjoying the sun of Spain we had a mid-week encounter in the holiday resort of...Arbroath in a League Cup encounter. Bearing in mind the other results in this tournament, and us coming off the back of a wretched display against Celtic, nobody would have blamed folk for writing this one off before a ball was kicked. But ICT showed that they can bounce back from disappointment and hopefully they can apply the same energy on Sunday and get a decent result in the league, where possibly, it matters the most. ICT have had a day extra to recover from their mid-week game but I expect their journey back home was slower than Motherwell's! Hopefully the boys will be encouraged by the cup result and take this into the SPL game at Fir Park. Current form ICT:- The bounce back from the awful Celtic result was pleasing and it was also encouraging to see the amount of shots we took against Arbroath. Apart from last Saturday our form hasn't been too bad. We've managed to adapt to a more passing type of game but we still lack that security at the back and are exposed on far too many occasions. We go into this game on the back of a great result in a banana skin cup tie so hopefully this has added some confidence back in the side. Current form Motherwell:- After four SPL games they remain unbeaten and look to be a fairly solid outfit. Their home league form is very similar to ours in having not won yet but have only drawn their two games so far. Their European exploits may have an effect but, with the extra games they've played, they should know more about each other than their SPL rivals. Team news Inverness:– We expected new signing Reguero to play between the sticks in mid-week but it wasn't to be. Could he make his first team debut for this one? Probably not is my view. I would expect Terry Butcher to select the same starting eleven as Wednesday night but I believe Foran should be back after his suspension. We will, of course, be without Nick Ross through injury. Motherwell:– A few players were 'rested' for the Euro game where they featured several teenagers. I doubt that McCall will entertain such changes in the SPL and I'd expect him to field the same side that lined up against St Mirren last time out. Hutchinson was red carded in that game (second yellow) so could be suspended for this game. Gringo's prediction:– Another tough call for this one. Hopefully ICT will be encouraged by the fine win in that dodgy cup-tie at Arbroath and Motherwell will be travel weary. But didn't we think that about Celtic going into last weekends game? I don't think we can go by past games at Fir Park and we really need to be up for this from the start and also throughout the 90 minutes. I believe we do have the players (if we can keep them on the pitch for the full 90) to get a result in this match but it will be a tight affair, so, I will gladly settle for a 1-1 draw. Latest Team News Inverness have Foran and Jones back from suspension but Nick Ross is out along with Chris Hogg. Motherwell will be without the suspended Shaun Hutchinson and Steven Saunders is out after knee surgery. There are doubts over Michael Higdon and Stevie Hammell, but McCall is confident that one or two of the players who were carrying knocks will make the squad. Those he is waiting on are Nicky Law, Simon Ramsden and Tom Hately who all missed out in Valencia.

Painful viewing Inverness slumped to their worst ever home defeat to Celtic as they were humiliated on their own pitch by a rampant Celtic. The gulf in class was clearly evident as the champions strolled to an embarrassingly easy win over a hapless bunch of journeymen and kids as our two experienced heads sat in the stand, unable to participate because of rashness akin to schoolboys. I won't go into great detail, but suffice to say that Celtic bossed this game from the start until the last ten minutes when the industrious Ross Draper stole a couple of goals to deny Celtic a much more emphatic win that their superiority deserved. I'm sorry to report that this was certainly a case of men against boys, and Celtic were not the boys. We were like rabbits caught in the headlights, simply overwhelmed by the champions who were able to cut us open every time they got the ball. The only surprise was that it was only 2-0 at half time as Mulgrew cracked the bar with a brilliant free kick and numerous chances went astray, or Esson denied them the glory of more goals. As early as the fourth minute, the imposing Wanyama rose unchallenged to power a header home. It was a mystery how Celtic took another twenty minutes to increase their lead, but there was nothing surer, they were going to do it sooner or later. Watt brushed aside a powder puff challenge to waltz through the Inverness back line and coolly slot the ball behind an exposed Ryan Esson. Inverness were all at sea at this point especially Raven who was caught out time and time again. Our midfield was non-existent and our strikers were nowhere to be seen. Half Time 0-2 The misery was piled on after the resumption and it was no surprise when Celtic went 3-0 up with a superb text book strike straight off the training ground, Mulgrew doing the needful. Watt stroked home his second and Celtic's fourth as the disgruntled home support could scarcely watch, many now removing themselves from the scene to relieve the pain. At this point, had it been under the Marquess of Queensberry rules, then the referee would have stopped the contest, or Butcher would have thrown in the towel. We did though, bounce back off the ropes and Draper scored a couple of consolation goals as Celtic took their foot off the gas......thank Christ for that. The second being set up nicely with a chipped cross from Conor Pepper who continues to show promise. Full Time 2-4 Inverness CT: Esson, Raven (Meekings 54), Graeme Shinnie,Warren, McKay, Draper, Andrew Shinnie, Ross (Pepper 66),King, Doran, Sutherland (Morrison 54). Subs not used: Reguero (GK), Laing, Polworth, Whyte. Celtic: Forster, Matthews (Bangura 68), Izaguirre (Chalmers 76), Wilson,McCourt, Mulgrew, Lustig, Watt, Twardzik, Wanyama, Hooper (Forrest 65). Sub not used: Zaluska (GK), Slane, Irvine, McGregor. Referee: Willie Collum. Attendance: 6,100. A six goal thriller? No, an absolutely embarrassing humiliation and we were fortunate not to lose another half dozen goals. Where do we go from here? To be honest there is little we can do but get behind the team, remember, for better or for worse. Times are hard, there is no money in the kitty and we will find it difficult to be competitive this season. That I'm afraid is the economics of the game in the lower echelons of the SPL. I may have been harsh in my chosen words, but sadly, that is the reality of the day, a day where thousands more witnessed it on telly. There is little point in constantly sniping about Butcher when his hands are tied by the finances, what we see is what we get, and what we get is what we see. You can't buy the quality of players we see on TV every week with no money and we will just have to go with what we have at the moment. Ross Draper was our man of the match, unfortunately there were eleven better ones wearing green on Saturday. However, we have a league of our own within the SPL and that is the games where we need to channel our energies towards, against teams at our level as this is going to be a difficult season for more than just Inverness. It's all doom and gloom. We just have to write off these games against Celtic as we can't compete against their multi-million pound charges, but we need to keep an eye on the Dundee's the St Johnstone's and the St Mirren's of this league, they are our real competitors. Let's get behind the team, they need our support more than ever.