tm4tj

[caption id="attachment_3471" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="On his way out"][/caption] Butchers Highland clearances continue as his axe falls on six more Inverness players. It looks like the revolution has started as the numbers leaving mounted to ten. Four senior players were announced yesterday, Munro, Duncan, McBain & Golabeck, and a further six names were added to the out list today. Chris Innes had already announced that he would be leaving at the end of the season for family reasons. He joined from St Mirren as a back up centre back and scored his first goal against St Johnstone a couple of weeks ago with a powerful header. Former Hibs captain Chris Hogg will not be extending his stay in Inverness, and third choice keeper Max Johnson will be leaving. Injury hit Gil Blumenshtein is off as is Eric Odhiambo. Danni Sanchez is one of the unluckiest, breaking his hand after recovering from injuries and breaking into the squad, his Spanish flair evident, but curtailed by injuries. Add to these, Aaron Doran and Alex Macdonald returned to their loan clubs and it looks like next season will see plenty of new faces at the club. Cards on the table. On the plus side, new contracts are believed to have been offered to long serving Ross Tokely, Stuart Duff, Adam Rooney, Gavin Morrison, Shane Sutherland and Kenny Gillet. Youngsters Sutherland and Morrison are offered two year deals and the rest one year only.

[caption id="attachment_2002" align="alignleft" width="272" caption="Grant Munro shown the door"][/caption] The first batch of players to be released by Inverness at the end of the season has been confirmed by the club. Four club legends who have amassed over 44 years service with the Highland club will not have their contracts renewed. Former captain thirty year old Grant Munro is a surprise choice as he has played almost every game this season until recently being benched. Local lad Munro has been at Inverness for 12 years since playing his first game against Livingstone on January 2nd 1999. Russell Duncan with over 350 appearances is another deemed surplus by the club. The defensive midfielder is another surprising choice as his tenacious battling qualities have been outstanding throughout his 10 years at Inverness. Perhaps less surprising, but nonetheless difficult to be too happy about are two of our legendary fixtures. Another former captain Stuart Golabeck has been released along with experienced midfielder Roy McBain. Stuart scored our first ever goal in the SPL at Pittodrie against Dunfermline and started the ball rolling for us in the SPL. Roy is presently on loan at Brechin and had his testimonial this year. Along with Roy, he won't mind being called a veteran, both players being 37 in November this year, but both will be leaving with the appreciation of the Caley Thistle fans ringing in their ears. It looks like a new era is dawning at Inverness as the cull continues, and more names will be released by the club in the next few days. Caley Thistle Online would like to thank all of these players for some wonderful moments over the last 12 years.

Inverness back into the top-six for Wednesday. A tea time kick off on Wednesday 4th May was the date deemed most suitable to hold this clash held over from the pre-split games, weather permitting of course. Celtic have been the unfortunate victims of two late call offs in the Highland Capital this season alone. This league encounter was originally planned for April 2nd with a noon kick off, but heavy overnight rain, coupled with an extremely high tide scuppered that one as the referee classed the pitch as unplayable less than a couple of hours before kick off. March 13th was also the date scheduled for an eagerly awaited cup quarter final tie to be played on the Sunday at 15:30. Alas, heavy overnight snow blanketed the pitch up to six inches deep but despite this being cleared, the pitch was left waterlogged. This late late call off should have set alarm bells ringing, but the lesson was not learned quick enough to avert the second call off in April. Many thought it was a late April fool prank; unfortunately not. So, the sun has been shining full on for nearly a week now, getting sick of it already, and it would appear that the pitch is in pristine condition, so any conspiracy theories can be binned for now. Oh, don't forget to tell the wife you are working late on Wednesday, it's a 6:00pm kick off; the things we do for telly. Inverness are blowing hot and cold just now and after the pleasing three goal romp in Perth, we were brought back to earth with what has been described as a waste of ninety minutes of peoples lives. Losing 1-0 to Aberdeen is in itself not a disaster, but the manner of the defeat left a bitter taste for some fans. Also the fact that the Dons had been on a less than impressive run of results and we could have been looking to take advantage of this. Minus captain Richie Foran, we seemed to lack any drive and leadership on the park and the game turned into a kick about in the sun with Peter Pawlett scoring the decisive goal. The lack of urgency shown by the Inverness players has raised a few eyebrows and the news that one man who always shows plenty of passion for these games is being released has left the fans feeling somewhat short changed. The first name on most peoples squad shortlist, Russell Duncan only got 15 minutes on the park at Pittodrie, but he showed more in that time than most had displayed in the previous 75. Russell's ten years at Inverness has seen the defensive midfielder endear himself to the fans with his tenacious style and his unselfish tidying up work that has helped the cause on many an occasion. We have forgiven him for some wayward passes, as his break up play and link play was a job for the unsung hero's of this world, and Russell is certainly one of them. Glorious moments for Russell were seen against Dundee United in the cup as he hit a thumping dipper into the roof of the net from 25 yards. A daisy cutter at Tynecastle is high on the list as well and promotion winning performances will be some of his best moments. When Russell scores, they are usually pretty spectacular, and almost collectors items as well. Thanks for your effort here and I hope you enjoyed being part of our success over the years, we have certainly enjoyed watching you. I am sure all Inverness fans will wish you well wherever you go, and I doubt you will have trouble finding a new club. This has not proved to be one of Terry Butcher's most popular decisions, and fans comments can be seen on the forum. ICT_Away commented:- "Duncan wears his heart on his sleeve & plays for the badge", says it all for me. Alternative Maryhill summed it up perfectly:- Agree completely with most of the sentiments on here: I'm really sad about this decision. Russell Duncan has certainly been our most committed, and imo also our most effective, central midfielder since Ian Black's departure and I've always been mystified at Terry Butcher's reluctance to play him. He's made an exceptional contribution to the club over the last decade and the continuity offered by having players like him, Tokely and Munro at the heart of the club has been one of the reasons I've been proud to be an ICT supporter. I'm not going to condemn Terry Butcher outright for this though, because if he can find a stable midfield partnership and the team continues to do well next season then he can claim he's made the right decision. I do hope, however, that he gives Russell the chance to say goodbye to the supporters by giving him an appearance in at least one home and one away game (hopefully the Hamilton one) before the end of the season: to deprive him of even that would be very harsh. Here here, let's stand up for Russelldinho this weekend. Your scribe this week was davie, well he penned it for the original game and he provided us with this insight for the previously postponed game.....................................I'll have to tweak it a little. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hoop Hoop Hooray.........Game on Celtic visit the Caledonian Stadium for the third time this season on Wednesday tea-time having already won on the opening day of the league campaign and defeating Caley Jags to send them out of the Scottish Cup earlier this month. In between times, there has been another defeat and a share of the spoils in the East End of Glesga. Actually, our Manager reckons we “know them inside out” after facing them five times this season. Still, it might be near the end of season but it’s never boring and always unpredictable, a bit like Alternative Maryhill’s proposed weekend to the most fervent Celtic enclave outside the east End – Barra. Enjoy, youth, they might even get ESPN there. History, despite our annoying ability to come up with the occasional “supercaleygoballistic” performance against the Glasgow giants, is still firmly on their side in SPL encounters. 12 – 1 in wins with 4 draws indicates where the balance of power lies, but this is football, and things can change. Our 2-2 draw in November nearly evidenced that. One of the Hoops latest outings was at HQ against their greatest and most bilious rivals, and they came away with that runner up feeling. That result of couse has now been superceded by the last Old Firm draw at Ibrox. McGregor saving a Samaras penalty in a nil nil scoreline. Confidence is still high in the League however, and they expect to win here. The balance of power seems to have shifted towards Celtic as the run in reaches a climax. Both sides had big wins at the weekend and Celtic are in no mood to give up the ghost as the season gets down to the business end. Crushing form side Dundee United 4-1 will give them every confidence that they can come up here and keep the pressure on Rangers at the sharp end, and with Celtic having infinitely more at stake than Inverness, then it should be mission accomplished for the Glasgow side. On our side, Kenny Gillet has continued to motor down the road to full fitness, and he has earned himself the chance to stay at Inverness. Hayes will hirple on no more this season, (ankle op completed) and Shinnie, Proctor and Sanchez remain invalided. TB has the opportunity to weld together something of a first choice team out of the available players, but they need to show more than they have of recent weeks and arrest the creeping apathy that seems to affect them at times. Still, it is rarely a hard job to motivate the troops for games such as these. On the down side, influential captain and workhorse Richie Foran will sit out the second of his two match ban. He was sadly,badly missed at Aberdeen on Saturday. Chris Hogg missed the Aberdeen game with a knee injury and is a doubt for this one, as he awaits a scan on his knee. Celtic have Cha Du-Ri and Joe Ledley missing and Glen Loovens is a major doubt with a strain. Apart from that it's a clean bill of health for Neil Lennon's side as they look to leapfrog Rangers in the race for the title. They have been picking up the pace as they enter the home straight and will be looking to take the game to Inverness and ensure that the home side don't gain any early momentum. Davie originally predicted a draw, ably assisted by his crystal testicle, "a score draw in this fracas, 1 – 1 being not unreasonable and for which thanks would be given". After he witnessed the dirge at Pittodrie I'm not convinced he has the same passion for that fashion, especially with captain courageous missing. However, Celtic often find it difficult to overcome us up here, and with that in mind, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that we could throw a vey large spanner in the works. Manager Butcher is not so confident after watching that drivel, he is looking at a "10-0" defeat if we play like that against a rampant Celtic.............steady on Terry, chin up. ***Latest Inverness News*** The cull continues:- Hot on the heels of news that Russell Duncan will be leaving, the club has released a statement and the list has been extended to Grant Munro, Roy McBain and Stuart Golabeck. No surprise that Stuart and Roy will be leaving, but the news that Grant Munro will not be having his contract renewed has come as a bit of a shock to everyone, although the writing has been on the wall in the last few weeks when Munro was benched a couple of times, and at the end of last season the captaincy was taken from him and awarded to Richie Foran. Roy is at Brechin City on loan at present and Stuart has not featured much this season. This is just the tip of the iceberg, building for the future has begun, watch this space. SPL News Hamilton have prolonged the agony by defeating St Mirren to keep alive their very slim hopes of playing SPL football next season. A Mickael Antoine-Curier header was the goal that separated the sides after Dougie Imrie provided the cross. Both sides finished the game with ten men. That leaves the Buddies only six points ahead with nine up for grabs. Emilio Izaguirre has been named PFA Scotland plsayers' player of the year in his first season with the hoops. Let's hope he has a hangover as he ran Stuart Duff ragged last time up here. Nikica Jelavic's spectacular overhead kick against Aberdeen has been named goal of the season by his fellow players in Scotland, however, we all know the real winner was Jonny Hayes' screamer against Rangers, even Celtic fans would have liked that one. Other sport's news:- It's not been a good weekend for staying alive. Eddie Turnbull, one of the famous five passed away at the age of 88. A legend at Easter Road and Pittodrie his partners in that famous five were Gordon Smith, Willie Ormond, Bobby Johnstone and Lawrie Reilly. A sad day for football, especially down Leith way. Our Henry, Sir Henry Cooper also passed away, the first man to put Cassius Clay on the seat of his pants with Henry's Hammer, a big left hook you would be better avoiding. He ultimately lost that bout but it catapulted him into the limelight. What a Brut! Also, the untimely death of Ted Lowe, the whispering voice of snooker, on the day of the world championship final. And to cap it all, Osama Bin Laden has allegedly been killed.

Inverness looking to keep Dons in check. Terry Butcher's lads will be doing their utmost to ensure Aberdeen remain below them in the SPL this season. The Dons have been on a mini revival since Craig Brown took over and he has eased them just out of harms way in the relegation battle. Inverness sprinted ahead of Aberdeen in the first half of the season but the long cold winter months slowed the process down and Aberdeen have closed the gap somewhat although they remain nine points behind the Highlanders. Inverness have a game in hand (Celtic), but going by the form book, that should be discounted. However, we tend to make life difficult for Celtic up here so it's possible that we could take advantage of the extra game and ensure the Dons are not going to catch us in the last four games. Wedneday 4th May for that one, 6:00pm. We enjoyed an ultimately comfortable win away from home on Easter Monday, thanks mainly to the profligate Perth strikers. Chances came early for the Saints but a combination of poor finishing, the woodwork and Ryan Esson (not necessarily in that order), saw Inverness take advantage and run out convincing winners. Three well taken goals from the soon to depart Chris Innes, Aaron Doran and the Duracell Bunny that is Richie Foran made life easy for Butchers boys and boosted the goal difference. Aberdeen have had a miserable season by their own high standards, culminating in the 9-0 humiliation at the hands of champions elect Celtic, followed a month later with Hearts going nap at Tynecastle. In stark contrast, they handed out a 5-0 drubbing of their own to one of the surprise packages of the season, Kilmarnock. The difference between the teams this season is highlighted by the goal difference stats. Inverness on +4, Aberdeen -20. So, difficult choices being made up and down the country this weekend. Bask in all the glory of the Royal wedding, or go and watch a game of footie. It's no easy. I know Aberdeen have not been setting the heather on fire recently, with no wins in six games, but pleeeeeeeease. If davie has not cycled off down to Westminster Abbey, you know what he's like, anything for a garden party, he will give us the low down on the last meeting between these sides this season. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here we go, another meaningless end of season kick about with nothing at stake, this time in the granite city. Substitute fair for granite, and we said exactly the same about what turned out to be an entertaining and enterprising victory for ICT on Monday night in Perth. Both St. Johnstone and Aberdeen vie for contention as our nearest geographical rivals, but Aberdeen somehow have that greater claim being our former landlord and the “old glory” of north football. It took until this year to record the first of two victories against the Dons, the last being the 2-1 affair at Pittodrie that resulted in Mark McGhee collecting his coat after a tenure that was near grounds for suicide for Dons fans but such a lot of fun for the rest of us, especially given that 18 meetings have resulted in only 3 ICT wins. Since being taken over by granpa broon they have steadied, achieving the mediocrity this year that we all know them capable of. Their last point of any description was against Hamilton, arresting a run of 5 games without a win - nearly as bad as the much maligned McGhee. ICT on the other hand are hitting the form that graced pre-Christmas, with only 1 loss in our last 5 matches. Aberdeen are, according to their website, missing Paul Hartley, Rory McArdle and David McNamee, Andrew Considine being a mere doubt. It is difficult to see Jamie Langfield appearing either, after his being clobbered by Zander Diamond last week, and ending up looking like an extra in fight club. ICT are, to our misfortune, will be missing Richie Foran. Simply brilliant on Monday night, he will be a big miss. On the other hand, we might not have to play four centre backs as Duff and Tokely return. Hayes, Proctor, Shinnie and Sanchez remain kidnapped by aliens, Gil Blumenshtein may well be one who has returned his world of origin - his invisibility is stunning. There are mutterings of a “ruthless” cull in the close season at TCS, so many of those on display tomorrow might be literally playing for their futures. For others, it might already be too late so if you like this vintage ICT side, get the next few games in - there might not be many more. So, after the spring sunshine wedding extravaganza, even Aberdeen has a sunny forecast for the morrow. Better wrap up though; it’s Aberdeen, it will be Baltic. Prediction: Aberdeen 1 ICT 2. That's what davie reckons. Other SPL News:- There is no noteworthy SPL news this weekend because all the reporters have been seconded to Royal Wedding duties, but................................................................... Walter Smith has said that the sectarian songs must stop.............hallelujah, (and that's not an easy word to spell). Tell that to the stewards and the SFA who do nothing about it week in week out. Mob rules methinks. In the wake of Rangers fans being banned from attending an away fixture in Europe, plus add ons and top up's, in fact, you would be better employing a Philadelphia lawyer to decipher the findings. Check it out on the Beeb website if you care enough. In the lesser leagues:- that's the ones below the SPL, where the top teams ply their trade, Ross County eventually secured three points from the Queens at a neutral venue at the third time of asking. Apparently they used an ancient Chinese ritual and the tannoy announcer had to ask everybody in the crowd to hold their hands up in the air. Strangely enough, it worked as many hands make light work. This saw them creep away from Cowdenbeath at the bottom end of the table. They surely will not drop down another division again, but with Calderwood in charge, there's still hope. ***Latest News*** The cull begins:- Russell Duncan has confirmed in the newspapers that he will be leaving Inverness at the end of the season. He is absolutely gutted at not being offered a new contract after 10 years at Inverness and over 350 appearances. Russell has often been made the scapegoat by the manager when results don't go our way and Butcher has been quick to bench him in favour of less passionate players. It's the month of bad news for some players as contract negotiations get thrashed out and this summer could see the dismantling of the class of 2000, the squad that shot to fame by dumping Celtic out of the cup in their own backyard. Only a handful of players remain, including Tokely, and Golabeck but time is running out for most of them. Thanks for the memories Russell. One young man who seems to be in the good books is Shane Sutherland who is impressing Butcher and looks likely to be given another contract. The lad from Wick has grasped his opportunity with both feet and scored a spectacular goal against Motherwell, his first for the club.

Bank Holiday night out for the Caley Jags Inverness return to the scene of the crime this Easter Monday to face St Johnstone. It was the Saint's that ended Inverness' proud undefeated away record just after New Year with a late Collin Samuel goal ending the year long statistic. Some revenge six weeks later saw Inverness triumph 2-0 in the Highlands. No pressure on either club coming into this one as both sides are safe with Hamilton Accies looking likely to be plying their trade in the fizzy pop league next season. That said, it may well open up the game as the shackles could be released allowing more free flowing football to be displayed by both clubs. Well done to the McDiarmid Park management who are offering tickets for this Easter Eggstavaganza at the knockdown price of just £10 & £5, you can't get much better than that. Remember, it's a 7:45pm kick off. This is the first game after the split and Terry Butcher is looking to maintain Inverness' position as the best of the rest. It has overall been a great season for the Caley Jags. A storming start to the season saw Inverness reach the dizzy heights of fourth in the league and looking like mounting a strong challenge for third spot and a European place. Unfortunately the wheels fell off when the winter months came along and the inevitable happened, we slipped slowly but surely out of the top six and into seventh place where we sit just now. Some may see that as a failure, but all things considered, we would have bitten your hand off if we were offered seventh place at the start of the season. No complaints from me, we have consolidated our place in the top flight after a hugely successful first division campaign and some outstanding displays were interspersed with some rather grim performances, notably stuffing Dundee United 0-4 and Hibs 4-2, however, the festive period undid a lot of the good work and three defeats in a week took the wind out of our sails. The Perth Saints have had a spectacularly unspectacular season. Plodding along merrily out of harms way but not threatening the top half, sort of slipping under the radar if you like. A couple of months without a win has seen them struggle recently and maybe the result of the winter problems at McDairmid Park with postponements coming faster than Queen of the South v Ross County abandoned games. But, they still had enough points on the board to keep their head above water and are only four points adrift of Inverness as we speak. Dumped out of the Scottish Cup unceremoniously by a rampant Motherwell, Derek McInness will be looking to revitalise his flagging teams fortunes. McInness is quite an appealing chap, in fact he is appealing against his four match ban received in the Tayside derby with United. He was none to pleased with United's opener in the 2-0 defeat and his remonstrations did not go unnoticed. Hibs failed to take advantage of us being idle this weekend and could only draw at Easter Road with second bottom St Mirren. That keeps the Hibees one point below us, although we have two games in hand starting with tonights game in Perth. At the top of the table, Rangers and Celtic played out a no scoring draw to share the points and Hearts threw away a three goal lead to draw with Motherwell. The Old Firm result gives Celtic the edge in the race for the title, but could Inverness yet have a say in that as Celtic will be up here on the 4th of May, weather permitting. Team News Inverness will be without the suspended pair of Ross Tokely and Stuart Duff. Tokely was sucked into a second yellow against Hearts and Duff is over the limit. Proctor and Sanchez are long term casualties along with Graeme Shinnie, and Jonny Hayes will join them as he has had his operation on his troublesome ankle. The early op will hopefully see Jonny ready for the new season, fingers crossed. St Johnstone defenders Michael Duberry and Steven Anderson are both suspended, naughty boys, and Saints captain and former Chelsea player Jody Morris looks likely to be rested for the remainder of the season with a recurring back problem. Medical specialist advice will determine whether Morris plays again this season or is rested for the new campaign. Graham Gartland (groin) and Collin Samuel (hip) are doubtful, however Peter Macdonald and Arvydas Novikovas should return. tm4tj Prediction Despite an end of season feeling creeping in to most supporters heads, I think with the pressure off both sides an entertaining encounter is on the cards. With players playing to keep contracts and win bonuses still to be collected this could turn out to be just what the doctor ordered. There will be changes due to suspensions in both camps and maybe some youngsters will be blooded. I am looking for Inverness to reverse the New Year result and sneak a 2-1 victory and maintain our seventh place in the league. Take advantage of the price reduction at the gates and if you can't make it along the road to Perth, then find a pub with ESPN showing the game live. Yes, we are on the telly, broadcasting from 7:30pm. That's it, short and sweet with Easter looming. Enjoy the game, and don't eat too many Easter Eggs, yum yum. ps; if you pass a wee manny on a bike that will be our very own davie, keen as hell to get down to Perth to do the match report. Well, the price of petrol is awful just now. He will update us all in the match report if his wee leggies get him there in time for kick off, but just in case, he has a list of all the pubs with ESPN showing the game and a pocket full of change. Bike on buddy.