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Last Chance Saloon for Top-Six dream as Butcher notches the ton. Inverness travel to Ayrshire to take on Kilmarnock as our top-six dream is starting to fade. Motherwell to their credit have made the most of their opportunity and appear to have all but wrapped up the last place available in the top half of the league. Nothing less than a win for the Caley Jags will do. That, coupled with Motherwell dropping points in their last game before the split against Hearts at Tynecastle will keep the interest for Butcher's boys, who still have to play Celtic and Heart's in Inverness. Defeat and the dream is over for another season; top six next year. A tough ask for the Highlanders, but after a season in the first division, this one will still be seen as a success despite a downturn in form since before Christmas. With last weeks game being controversially called off at a very late stage, Terry Butcher's 100th game in charge will happen this Saturday..................weather permitting at Rugby Park. Butcher acknowledges that his first SPL win as Motherwell boss was at Rugby Park in 2002, a 4-1 scoreline that day, and a repeat of that would be most welcome. It is a milestone for Terry & Mo, and one which the Inverness fans are largely in favour of. For the record, that’s 81 league games and 18 cup games. In the league games he has steered the club to 35 wins, 24 draws and 22 defeats, scoring 126 and conceding 87. In all cup games we have won 12 and lost six, for 36 against 21. Terry Butcher started his life as an Inverness Caledonian Thistle manager just over two years ago, and his first game was against, Glasgow Celtic in Inverness. That game was a goalless draw, but what was important about it was the fact that we had stopped the rot, albeit briefly. We had lost the previous nine SPL games and Mr Brewster’s reign had become untenable. You know when you see that word, someone is about to get sacked, and this opened the door for the arrival of Terry and Mo. So, fast forward two years and here we are this Saturday, 99 games gone and Killie will make it 100 not out. So, we can all thank Terry and Mo this weekend for the roller coaster ride that is Inverness Caledonian Thistle and look forward to another century partnership from the management, surely worthy of a bottle or two of claret. Since we last played Killie, manager Mixu Paatelainen has moved on to become the man in charge of the Finnish international squad. He was head-hunted after taking Killie into the top-six comfortably and has left the team in good nick. They are one of the season's success stories, playing attractive football and scoring freely. Alexei Eremenko is looking like one of the leagues classiest players, spraying pin point passes like nobody's business, and his undoubted talent deserves a better audience than the SPL. Irishman Kenny Shiels will see the Rugby park outfit through this transition period until the end of the season by all accounts, and he was in charge for the game at Perth. The 0-0 draw secured Killies top-six place and left just one spot up for grabs. Speaking to STV he said ""I want to try and get the attention focused on our next game, I want it to be about football and our next game against Inverness." So, despite his team having achieved their goal, it appears there will be no let up for the visit of the Caley Jags. Inverness boss Terry Butcher is still clinging on to the slim possibility of top-six football after the split and his team are raring to go after last weeks late call off in the early kick off against SPL leaders Celtic. That call off was the second one against Celtic in recent weeks and both games were called off at the eleventh hour because of a waterlogged pitch, and both times the team and fans were in Inverness. Both were to be televised and the early kick offs were part of the problem as the pitch was playable shortly after the call off. Had the last game been a three o'clock kick off there would have been no issue whatsoever. The Tulloch Caledonian Stadium pitch has not been the same since the SPL insisted that undersoil heating be installed to meet their requirements. However, it appears that this is now causing more grief than ever as the drainage has altered leaving the ground staff with major problems due to the compactness of the ground and the shallowness of the heating pipes, making it difficult to get any depth when forking the surface. All this adds up to much frustration for Tommy Cumming when the tide is high and the heavens open. Much has been said about this already, and I'm sure more will be revealed in the future. Just back from Barra, Alternative Maryhill will reveal the tale of the tape for this one, so let the fans see the boxers. Kilmarnock v Inverness Caledonian Thistle, 9th April 2011 Saturday brings Caley Thistle’s second trip to Rugby Park this season, after a three week layoff from league football. Writing the preview for the corresponding fixture back in October, I began by lamenting the fact that it had been four weeks since the last away game and emphasising the keen sense of anticipation among the regular ICT away supporters. At the risk of sounding overly-negative, I’m willing to bet that there is slightly less enthusiasm for this match among the majority of those planning the trip this time around. This is partly a natural consequence of the weariness that tends to set in towards the end of a season, but also due to a marked reversal in the fortunes of the two teams since they last met in Kilmarnock. At that time, Kilmarnock sat two points off the bottom of the league, while ICT sat fourth in the SPL table after a promising start to the season. Kilmarnock supporters would have argued even then that the table was not a true reflection of the quality of football their team had produced in the first months of Mixu Paatelainen’s management, yet despite a decent performance by Kilmarnock, Terry Butcher’s team won the match 2-1, increasing the gap between the teams, and ICT’s fine form continued for several more weeks. Now, however, it is Kilmarnock who sit fourth, with the promise that many detected in Paatelainen’s team eventually having been converted into a series of good results, while Caley Thistle, after a poor run of form since mid-December, which coincided with an injury to Jonny Hayes, sit in seventh: still a creditable position, but with the top six finish many had dreamed of looking highly unlikely in light of Motherwell’s recent results. Yet there are still some grounds for hope that Saturday’s game will bring a positive result for ICT. Chief among these is the fact that Kilmarnock have recently lost Mixu Paatelainen, the manager unanimously credited with the dramatic improvement in the team’s fortunes, to the Finnish national team. Despite the loss of top scorer Conor Sammon in the January transfer window, the team continued its good form, with three wins, a draw and a narrow defeat to Rangers in the five matches prior to Paatelainen’s departure. The team’s first result under caretaker boss Kenny Shiels, however, was a 0-0 draw against St Johnstone which featured, by all accounts, a deeply uninspiring performance from the Rugby Park side. Shiels’ record in management, too, is patchy: promising starts at Coleraine and Ballymena United in the Irish league were followed by slumps, with Shiels eventually resigning his post at the former club, and being sacked by the latter. Shiels has already expressed his desire to become permanent manager, and the majority of Kilmarnock supporters on the Killie Kickback forum support his appointment, at least until the end of the season, but a bad result at home against a lower-placed team could begin to sway opinion, and Shiels may be feeling a certain degree of pressure ahead of the game after an unspectacular first match in charge. Also, although it might be too much to hope for, is it possible that the Kilmarnock players, who are already guaranteed a top six finish, might be slightly less motivated than ICT players still chasing the very faint hope of achieving that goal? It is very difficult to predict how Caley Thistle will perform at any given time these days. The last five league fixtures have brought two convincing wins, against St Johnstone and Motherwell, but also three fairly abject performances in losing twice to Dundee United and once to Hibernian. Last Saturday’s scheduled league fixture against Celtic might have given us a clearer idea of the team’s confidence ahead of the trip to Kilmarnock, but after early morning rain that turned the TCS pitch into a paddy field the game was postponed, leaving in its wake an entertaining pantomime of blame-apportioning and finger-pointing from supporters on both sides. Rumours that the flooding was deliberately engineered, as the ICT board had decided after the ten-team league fiasco to resign the club’s place in the SPL and covert the club to a water polo team, and that Russell Duncan had been spotted riding a giant seahorse around the centre circle in preparation for his new role, remain unconfirmed at the time of going to press. From a purely selfish point of view, I was secretly pleased with the postponement, as there is a chance I might make the rescheduled game, and also because had ICT managed an unlikely win, I might have found myself being burned alive in a giant wicker effigy of Neil Lennon by the enraged, naked, Celtic-tattoo-sporting population of Barra*, alongside erstwhile ICT stalwart Arbroathawayday. If there is a wider positive to Saturday’s cancellation, it is that it should have given certain ICT players additional time to regain full fitness. Terry Butcher has already revealed that Jonny Hayes’ ankle injury is an ongoing problem that will require surgery over the summer, yet for an hour at Tannadice he was our most threatening player, and hopefully he will be capable of playing most of Saturday’s match too. Meanwhile, the extra training time should have allowed Kenny Gillet to develop sufficient fitness that he can start the match: his substitute appearance against Dundee United was by far the most encouraging thing that any Inverness supporter could take out of that game and he should add strength and composure both in a defensive role and going forward. The continuing absence of Dani Sanchez deprives Terry Butcher of one of his more creative attacking options, and with Eric Odhiambo having been out of form for some time, and Aaron Doran yet to impose himself on any game, the team will probably rely heavily again on Adam Rooney and Richie Foran to present a threat. What we must hope for is that, if Kilmarnock continue to play the sort of passing game they have used for most of the season, this will inspire ICT to adopt a similar style, rather than opting for the long ball game that has crept back into the team’s performances since around December. Predictions: 1. Killie 1 – ICT 1. There have been seven score draws between these clubs in previous fixtures: one is already overdue this season. 2. There will be an attempt to revive the ‘Jimmy Says Aye to a Killie Pie’ song, but it will peter out after two minutes. 3. By seven o’ clock in Fanny by Gaslight, no-one will care much about the result either way. *See Davie’s Celtic preview. Despite the uncanny resemblance, this is not a reference to one J. Mackenzie ***Latest Team News*** Inverness will be be without the three usual suspects, Proctor, Shinnie and Sanchez, but the good news is that we may have a left back as Kenny Gillet could start after his long term injury. Jonny Hayes, although nursing an ankle injury, is in the squad along with Aaron Doran. Kilmarnock have Manuel Pascali suspended for this one. Mehdi Taouil could well miss the rest of the season with a torn hamstring and Mohamadou Sissoko is struggling to be fit in time, but Liam Kelly returns to the squad after illness. Other SPL News The old firm are never far away from the headlines and Rangers have found themselves in a bit of bother over alleged sectarian singing during last month's Europa Lague match away to PSV Eindhoven. Manager Walter Smith has challenged those singing these sectarian songs to refrain from doing so before the club receives heavy sanctions from the governing body. Keeping the old firm theme going, Celtic and Rangers have been playing leap frog at the top of the division, and this midweek saw Celtic take a two point lead in the race for the title after defeating Hibernian 3-1. The previous evening, Rangers topped the league after edging past St Johnstone 2-0. In the lower leagues:- Jimmy Calderwood is finding the going tough at Dingwall as they plunged to only one point above the relegation play off spot after losing 2-1 at Cowdenbeath.

Celtic makes it 100 not out for Terry & Mo. This weekends SPL game will be the Inverness duo's 100th game in charge of the Caley Jags since their arrival at the end of January 2009. Left with a mountain to climb after the previous incumbent had taken Inverness to the brink of relegation that season, they almost performed a Houdini act to stave off the drop, but unfortunately Falkirk spoiled the party and they found themselves dumped into the first division. Game off due to waterlogged pitch They vowed to get the club back up, and said they would achieve this in one season, a feat not commonplace in the first division. They achieved the virtually impossible and did it in style overhauling Dundee's seemingly unassailable lead to cruise to the title, and the manner in which this was accomplished saw Inverness win nine in a row; not quite the same as Celtic managed under Jock Stein, but nevertheless they finished with a flourish, crushing Ayr United 7-0 at Somerset Park and defeating a beleaguered Dundee on the final day. Surely Terry's finest hour was that very game at Ayr. Who can forget the sermon he preached from the summit of the main stand at Ayr. The league was won in midweek without playing, this was merely the icing on the cake, and the dismantling of Ayr United into the bargain. After the final whistle, a mini pitch invasion ensued and Terry climbed to his lecturn, the crowd mesmerised by his speech. He controlled the throngs of delirious ICT fans in a Monty Pythonesque style, waving his arms up and down, the crowd, like puppets on a string drawn to his charm and waiting with baited breath for his next utterance. That was one of the great speeches of this Century, ending with, "we will show them how to party next week." And party we did as we beat Dundee to end a glorious season. Life back in the SPL started brightly for the management team but they knew it was going to be tough and as this season went on, we have become caught up in our own success and have struggled somewhat to keep the momentum going. Still, 100 not out for Terry and Mo and still going strong, here's to more success. For the record, that's 81 league games and 18 cup games. In the league games he has steered the club to 35 wins, 24 draws and 22 defeats, scoring 126 and conceding 87. In all cup games we have won 12 and lost six, for 36 against 21. So, we can all thank Terry and Mo this weekend for the roller coaster ride that is Inverness Caledonian Thistle and look forward to another century partnership from the management, surely worthy of a bottle or two of claret. Terry Butcher started his life as an Inverness Caledonian Thistle manager just over two years ago, and his first game was against, yes, you've guessed it, Glasgow Celtic in Inverness. That game was a goalless draw, but what was important about it was the fact that we had stopped the rot, albeit briefly. We had lost the previous nine SPL games and Mr Brewster's reign had become untenable. You know when you see that word, someone is about to get sacked, and this opened the door for the arrival of Terry and Mo. So, fast forward two years and here we are this Saturday, 99 games gone and Celtic back here again. But that's enough about Terry and Mo, let's get down to the nitty gritty, the stuff we have waited a fortnight for, none of that International drivel we were subjected to last weekend when our national side watched Brazil pass a football around a park and a German almost started a world war; what's new. A banana, that's what's new, a bloody banana. Yes folks, it's back to SPL football at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium and if you put your clocks forward last weekend, then you should be arriving in time for this early kick off at 12:00 noon. Your scribe this week is davie, who will provide us with this preview and his match report after the game. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Celtic visit the Caledonian Stadium for the third time this season on Saturday lunchtime 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 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. The Hoops last outing was at HQ against their greatest and most bilious rivals, and they came away with that runner up feeling. Confidence is still high in the League, however, and they expect to win here. They are rumoured to have Sean Maloney close to fitness and their returning internationals are reported unscathed. That leaves only the long term absentees such as Majstorovic to concern them. Still, there’s always a chance when Glen Loovens and Charlie Mulgrew are around. From the last game, that charming man Scott Brown returns, as does Mark Wilson. Both should make a difference. It’s unclear if Neil Lennon will make a difference in the main stand for the second time in a couple of weeks. His sole sojourn to trackside in Bilbao last weekend ended in, you’ve guessed it, getting sent to the stand! Better take Mr. MacBride with you this time Neil. On our side, Kenny Gillet should continue motoring down the road to full fitness. Hayes should hirple on and only Shinnie, Proctor and Sanchez remain invalided. TB has the opportunity to meld 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 - he’ll not have to chase them. Talking of chasing, we'll hopefully get another Maryhill report before the end of the season, provided he survives the prodigious drinking that is second nature to Barra. He might even make Killie next week (who’s next to say aye to the pie?) I once chased a chap around Barra, who impressed me with his “bhoys” tattoo largely on account of the fact that apart from it he was utterly naked. He had done that most un-Barraesque of things and stopped drinking too quickly, thereby losing what was left of his unpickled marbles. I was there to transport him to the nearest “caring facility” Celtic fans. You can’t take them anywhere. The crystal testicle predicts a score draw in this fracas, 1 – 1 being not unreasonable and for which thanks would be given. Just as long as St. Mirren beat Hamilton. Ooooohhh, go on then Davie...........chase me! Other SPL News Kilmarnock FC are managerless as davie mentioned above. Mixu Paatelainen (44) has resigned his position at Kilmarnock with immediate effect to become the new Finnish national manager after nine months in charge. He started slowly at Killie but has since guided them into the top six comfortably and has the team playing some highly entertaining football. David Goodwillie has extended his contract at Tannadice for a further year keeping him with the Arab's until May 2013. Twenty two year old Goodwillie is one of the emerging Scottish talents and has been targeted by Rangers already. He has been at United since he was 14 and made his debut at the end of 2005. As good as he is though, he was unable to stop his club tumbling out of the Scottish cup as Motherwell thumped United 3-0 in midweek, to earn a semi-final spot against St Johnstone at Hampden. Calum Elliot has been sidelined for at least six months after knee surgery on his 24th Birthday has left him plastered. The Hearts striker has been plagued by injuries and looks to be out until Christmas. Happy birthday Calum. Better news for one of our nemesis'. Big Kevin Kyle will be resuming training after a double hernia operation, although the Hearts squad has been decimated by injuries of Caley Thistle proportions. Minor League News:- Jimmy Calderwood's work at County is almost complete as he has taken the club to the brink of the precipice. A goal for the Pars in the fourth minute of time added on means that our country cousins are staring into the abyss. With Cowdenbeath taking a point off Dundee, County are only one point ahead of the miners in the play-off position, although they have a much healthier goal difference which is worth an extra point. Tuesday the 5th of April will be an interesting night as the Blue Brazil take on The Staggies in what could prove to be a six-pointer. ***Breaking News*** Our Prayers Have been Answered:- It has been leaked that Scottish footballs first religious threesome will officiate at an SPL match this weekend. An SFA spokesperson has not revealed which match they will be in charge of in the 12:00 kick off, but it is believed that they are being flown in from Ireland at the request of one of Scotland's top clubs in a bid to reduce the number of decisions that have gone against them. Canon John Paul Benedictus will be the man in the middle and his junior officials will be Father Timothy O'Flaherty and Patrick O'Reilly, both who hold senior positions within the Irish referee's in gods holy trinity organisation, (IRIGHTO). The idea has been given it's blessing by both clubs in order for this initiative to be a success and the winning club will be allowed to release coloured smoke bombs at the end of the game. Celtic will let off green plumes of smoke and Inverness blue. This will hopefully reduce any tension that may have built up in the crowds and will help to right the image of Scottish football blighted by recent events. A draw will see a neutral colour being released, black. Let's hope this is a success for whichever game they are at tomorrow April 2nd.