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3 league games, and two Europa League games into the season and it is clear that Caley Thistle are certainly not firing on all cylinders up top ! After 270 league minutes and 180 European ones its a tally of only a single goal from Ryan Christie. This time last year we had amassed a solid 7 points from 3 games scoring 4 times in the process and conceding none. Its going to be a long hard season ...... @ICTRoughi provides the report from this game ..... Inverness shared the points with Partick Thistle which again like last Saturday could have been all three. Caley Thistle added to the squad before the game in the shape of former ICT player Iain Vigurs. Caley Thistle started the game well with a quick surge of attack but like most of the first half it didn’t really mount to much and we unfortunately had no end product in the final third. In the first 15 minutes Mathias Pogba was forced off due to an injury in which they replaced him with Kris Doolan who can be quite a handful up front but Ross Draper and Danny Devine like the St Johnstone game combined for a good defensive pairing. Since Gary Warren and Josh Meekings have been out of the side since their injuries, I have been particularly pleased with the performance that Devine has been giving - very intelligent defending. After Pogba went off, the game seemed to open up and the two teams looked evenly matched. Kris Doolan nearly made it a perfect start for him after found space to drill the ball however Owain Fon Williams was quick to react and pushed past the post. Where I was positioned in the north stand, it looked like an outstanding save. Half Time: 0-0 Caley Thistle again started the half in frantic fashion and then gaining a corner but unfortunately it never mounted to much. The two teams continued to battle in the middle of the park and Dani Lopez nearly got his first goal for the club with a shot outside the box but unfortunately went to the right of the goal. Partick Thistle nearly got the opener when Steven Lawless’s powerful shot forced Owain Fon Williams into another top notch save which bounced off the crossbar. On the hour mark, John Hughes made the substitution of bringing on Iain Vigurs replacing Lewis Horner. After 30 seconds of Vigurs being on the pitch, he received a booking for pretty much annihilating Abdul Osman - good start. Around about 10 minutes later, Inverness got a free kick in dangerous territory. Caley Thistle fans had previously stated that his free kicks will become an asset to the club and they were nearly proven right when his free kick was drilled low and fizzled past the post. For the final 20 minutes of the game Inverness started to bombard Partick Thistle with attack after after attack in which Danny Williams was the starting point of the attack. You would actually be forgiven if you thought that Graeme Shinnie was playing left back tonight because Williams was that good. Unfortunately like the game itself, chances were being wasted. Andrea Mbuyi-Mutombo done really well in the dying minutes of the game to get the past the Thistle defenders but unfortunately Tomas Cerny got the better of him, it just wasn’t going to be our night. Full Time: 0-0 I suppose it will only get better for us unless you have to go to Celtic Park after they themselves dropped points - gulp! Date: 12/08/15 Venue: Caledonian Stadium Attendance: 3141 Referee: Stephen Finnie Inverness CT: 0 Lineup: Fon Williams, Raven, Draper, Devine, Tansey, Horner (Vigurs 64), Williams, Polworth, Christie, Mbuyi-Mutombo, Lopez Subs (not used): Esson, Tremarco, Brown, Sutherland Scorers: none Booked: Tansey (63), Vigurs (66) Sent Off: none Partick Th: 0 Lineup: Cerny, Miller, Welsh, Booth, Osman, Amoo (Wilson 75), Bannigan, Lawless, Frans, Lindsay, Pogba (Doolan 18) Subs (not used): Scully, Seabourne, Stevenson, Hendry, Fraser Scorers: none Booked: Osman (34), Bannigan (48) Sent Off: none

Third time’s a charm Next up for Inverness Caley Thistle is Partick Thistle at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium in this week’s midweek fixture card. Caley Thistle currently sit 9th place in the table only gaining 1 point from the first two games of the season. Partick sit in at 11th having also started in similar style to Inverness where they only picked up 1 point however Thistle have failed to score a goal so far. Both teams will be eagerly looking to get their first win of the season which should make for a good game to watch for the spectators. Last Saturday saw Caley Thistle earn a hard a fought point which could have easily been all three. The performance at McDiarmid park was undoubtedly a massive improvement from the previous week and Yogi got the boys fired up for this one from the off as it only took a mere 9 minutes for Ryan Christie to drill the ball into the back of the net. I was pleasantly surprised with the ‘makeshift’ defence as I felt that Ross Draper and Danny Devine combined for a good defensive pairing. Liam Polworth got the nod ahead of Nat Wedderburn and it proved to be the correct decision by Yogi as he put in a good shift in the middle of the park with a range of very good passing play from the local lad. As the game went on the Inverness players started to tire and Tommy Wright brought on Graham Cummins who headed a bitterly frustrating equaliser for St Johnstone. Partick Thistle hosted last year’s league champions Celtic at Firhill. Celtic got all three points in what seemed to be a dominant 2-0 victory for the parkhead side. It was also said that the Jags played the game without a real striker and a couple of important players in defence were missing through injury/suspension - sound familiar? Tomorrow night’s game will see Pogba grace the highlands for the first time. Fortunately for the Caley Jags it will not be Juventus superstar Paul Pogba, it will be his older brother Mathias Pogba brought in from Crawley Town following his release. All the eyes will be firmly on how Pogba will fare against Inverness especially with the ‘makeshift’ back four. Alan Archibald has also added David Amoo from Carlisle United, Callum Booth and Tomas Cerny from Hibernian and also Gary Miller from St Johnstone. Thankfully for Caley Thistle, Partick Thistle will be without winger Kallum Higginbotham after he departed for Kilmarnock. Conrad Balatoni, James Craigen, Ryan Finnie, Scott Fox, Dale Keenan, Stephen O’Donnell and Ben Richards-Everton also left the club in the summer window. Last season’s results against Partick do not really paint a good picture for Inverness especially in the home fixture. Since Partick Thistle got promoted back up to the top flight in 2013, Caley Thistle have only won once against them at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium. Inverness New signing Iain Vigurs could make his second debut for the club tonight. Aaron Doran, Carl Tremarco and James Vincent could make a return to the side. Richie Foran, Josh Meekings and Jordan Roberts remain doubtful ahead of the game. Dean Brill and Gary Warren remain on the sidelines due to long term injuries. Partick Thistle Frederic Frans returns from his one match suspension. Steven Lawless and Danny Seaborne are injury doubts. Christie Elliot will be unavailable for the visitors. ICTRoughi’s prediction:- I honestly think we will pick up our first win of the season here. Partick Thistle always had our number last season in the league but I think the tides will change and we will get a good hard fought win.

Injury Crisis? Following on from the disappointing 1-0 defeat to Motherwell last weekend, John Hughes’ men face a shorter away trip down the A9 to face St Johnstone in Perth. The major talking point for tomorrow’s game will undoubtedly be concerning the injury list that just seem to keep growing, how long will it be before Yogi himself has to dust off those boots? The Caley Jags could be going to McDiarmid park with an estimated 7/8 first team players sitting on the sidelines. Last weekend saw Inverness defeated by a rejuvenated Motherwell side at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium. It was a very disappointing afternoon for all concerned at Caley Thistle where nothing seemed to go in our favour. Slack play from Greg Tansey gifted Motherwell a quick surge allowing debutant Wes Fletcher to score what proved to be the winner for the ‘well. The bad news didn’t end there as Gary Warren now faces several months out of action due to a devastating clash with Motherwell’s Stephen Pearson who also was left with an injury from the incident. After hearing the news that Gary had broken his leg I was a little taken a back, it was seen multiple times he was trying to ‘walk it off’ - a true warrior. It wasn’t all doom and gloom though as there were a couple positives to take from the game. Andrea Mbuyi-Mutombo made a promising start to his ICT career and Owain Fon Williams made some crucial saves, both players will be looking to continue in similar vein tomorrow. St Johnstone went to newly promoted Hearts where they were narrowly defeated 4-3 by the Tynecastle side. Saints new boys John Sutton and Graham Cummins got on the scoresheet and our defenders will definitely need to be keeping a close eye on. Tommy Wright has made some good transfer dealings this summer window. He has added John Sutton from Motherwell, Graham Cummins from Exeter City, Joe Shaughnessy from Aberdeen, Brad McKay (big ‘K’) from Hearts and also brought back former player Liam Craig from Hibernian. Like Inverness, St Johnstone have managed to keep a hold of the core of their team with the only notable departures being Lee Croft, Brian Graham and James McFadden. Last season’s run of results against St Johnstone at McDiarmid park was a 1-0 loss aided by a dive that Tom Daley would have been proud of and was then followed by a 1-1 draw in April with Aaron Doran putting Inverness ahead before Brian Graham got the equaliser. The games against St Johnstone always prove to be stern tests for Caley Thistle but tomorrow could be a whole different challenge with the hinderance of our current injuries. The referee for tomorrow’s game will be none other than Scotland’s most lovable referee Mr William Collum. If I was a betting man, I would be straight down to the bookies before the game to bet on some form of controversy in the way of a red card or penalty for either team. Inverness John Hughes stated to the press this week that ‘one or two’ could return from injury. It’s also been said that Josh Meekings could still play despite his current injury. Long term absentees Dean Brill and Gary Warren will be unavailable for the Caley Jags. St Johnstone will be without Steven Anderson and Chris Millar. Steven MacLean will make a return from his suspension and there also could be a slight chance that captain Dave Mackay and Murray Davidson could make their returns for the hosts. ICTRoughi’s prediction:- With a combination of our current injury list and also the evident lack of fire power in the final third, I predict ICT won’t score a goal. I also think John Sutton and co will pose too much of a threat for our makeshift defence. We will give it our all as per but ultimately I think St Johnstone will win this one quite comfortably.

Toothless A disastrous opening fixture for injury hit Inverness. Adding insult to injury, (no pun intended), Gary Warren took a nasty challenge from Stephen Pearson and it would appear that the club have confirmed he has broken a bone in his leg. With Meekings also taken off injured and Tremarco, Vincent, Doran, Roberts, Brill, Foran and Ferguson all requiring treatment things look pretty bleak at this moment in time. I doubt Motherwell will be winning any fair play awards after trying to catch Inverness on the hop. The tried to sneak a goal after play restarted following Warren's injury. Thankfully they guided the shot just wide. Unsavoury incident though. Rig has a report that is too good to waste, and here it is.......... A truly honking performance from ICT with the tone set early on when Warren hacked down Skippy after only a few minutes of the game gone with our fragmented side struggling to settle into anything approaching a rhythm. As was so often the case with Inverness when Hughes first arrived we were architects of our own downfall and helped Well score the first goal. A slack pass by Tansey was eagerly seized upon by Well and it looked like Fletcher and McDonald linked well to create a chance which was well saved by Fon Williams however he couldn't collect the ball and Fletcher followed in from close range to put Well ahead. As anyone who has seen an ICT game this season will know we have a lot of the ball but do absolutely nothing with it. As Motherwell sat back and defended in numbers ICT stroked the ball about with no real creative spark to open up the Steelmen. Even on the odd occasion when a break could have been on we seemed content to advance slowly out of defence and keep the ball rather than go for the jugular and try and get right at Well. At one point, collecting the ball from a wasted Motherwell corner we had all of our players within about 10 - 15 yards of the ball in a couple of big lines with no one further ahead of the player with the ball and no one seemingly trying to get into space to try and stretch the remaining defenders. We were exceptionally sluggish whereas Motherwell were much more direct and aggressive with and without the ball chasing it down and snapping into tackles making it hard for us to settle things down. McDonald missed a penalty after Johnson showed great skill to roll his marker and sprinted into the box only to fall over under what looked like minimal contact from Devine. Regardless, Allan gave a penalty and Fon Williams did well to block McDonalds spot kick which was a nice height for the keeper to get to and keep out. Wedderburn, who was struggling with the quickness of Motherwell players closing him down, was subbed for Mutombo who injected a bit more creativity and pace into a lackadaisical ICT side. This was pretty much how the first half played out with the only other notable talking point being what looked like a horrendous challenge by Pearson on Warren which resulted in the ICT defender having to be subbed off. Pearson looked like he launched himself hard into a challenge going well over the ball with studs showing. It seemed a clear red card but fortunately for Pearson Allan only showed him a yellow. Pearson himself went off later on as he seemed to injure himself in the tackle as well. Will be interesting to see it again on the highlights if it's covered. Half Time 0-1 Motherwell started the second half on top and ICT again were in a mess at the back. Some good work down the Well right led to a good chance to extend their lead but fortunately an effort by Fletcher (I think) hit the post / was saved by Fon Williams. Not long after that Chalmers (I think) who was still up from a corner looked certain to score as he waited to tuck away a loose ball from only inches out but somehow Draper came in to clear the ball away. The second half largely replicated the first with Well starting strongly and ICT struggling to create anything. A half hearted penalty claim from Tansey who looked like he may have been clipped in the box and a free kick late on from the same player which was headed wide were as close as ICT came to threatening anything close to a goal in a match that was not high on thrills. Full Time 0-1 A good win for Motherwell who looked comfortable throughout but a concerning defeat ICT who, despite missing a lot of first team players, struggled again to create any really good scoring chances. With Meekings and Warren both coming off injured our back four is completely unrecognisable from that of last season. If we aren't going to score then we could at least have looked to a relatively resolute defence to keep the opposition out. It will be interesting to see how a potentially patchwork backline deals with the upcoming games against St Johnstone and Partick. Date: 01/08/15 Venue: Caledonian Stadium Attendance: 3307 Referee: Crawford Allan Inverness CT: 0 Lineup: Fon Williams, Raven, Warren (Polworth 43), Meekings (Horner 46), Devine, Wedderburn (Mbuyi-Mutombo 33), Tansey, Draper, Williams, Lopez, Christie Subs (not used): Esson, Brown Scorers: none Booked: Warren (1) Sent Off: none Motherwell: 1 Lineup: Ripley, Chalmers, Laing, McManus, Hammell, Law, Lasley, Pearson (Leitch 61), Johnson, Fletcher (Moult 66), McDonald Subs (not used): Twardzik, Kennedy, Clarkson, Thomas, Ferguson Scorers: Fletcher (4) Booked: Pearson (37) Sent Off: none

Back to business The domestic season opener arrives this Saturday with Motherwell the visitors to the Caledonian Stadium for a three o'clock kick off. Much has changed since Inverness won the Scottish Cup in May. Gone are second in command Russell Latapy, captain Graeme Shinnie, pacey frontman and Cup Final hero Marley Watkins, stopgap striker Edward Ofere and bit part midfielder and local lad Nick Ross. We also lost the services for the latter part of the season of striker Billy 'small k' Mckay. That's three strikers that have moved on and so far we have struggled to replace them. Andrea Mbuyi-Mutombo is the man targeted with filling the role vacated by our front three. Dani Lopez has shown that he is not an out and out striker and Yogi will turn his attention to the Congolese Belgian in a bid to find the goals that were missing in the Europa qualifiers against FC Astra. Motherwell did well to trounce the Rangers in the Premiership play-offs and retain their top league status. They have sealed the services of Scott McDonald for the season, not a bad bit of business for the Steelmen. David Clarkson is another returnee at Fir Park having left Dundee. Striker Wes Fletcher has signed from York City and will get the number 9 jersey left behind by John Sutton who is off to Perth. They have also added a pair of Louis' to the squad; striker Moult from Wrexham, who scored 23 goals in the Conference last season, and defender Laing from Nottingham Forest. Another defender Keiran Kennedy joins from Leicester City. They have also drafted in 22 year old keeper Connor Ripley from Middlesbrough, and he looks certain to go straight into the squad for Saturday. Motherwell will be looking to get off to a more promising start after last season saw them flirt with relegation before eventually seeing off the Ibrox club in the play-off. Inverness failed to progress in Europe mainly due to a lack of presence in the final third, however their build up play has shown the same qualities that we possessed last year and if we can add a proven striker to the squad then it should be another interesting season. Yogi's squad has changed and this will be a massive test of his drawing power as his trophy winning team is being rebuilt. Keeper Owain Fon Williams played in the Europa games at the expense of Cup winner Ryan Esson. Injuries to Carl Tremarco, David Raven, James Vincent and Dean Brill has curtailed our ability to cover all positions as we would have liked, but in has come the gigantic Ned Wedderburn from the Blue Brazil and he has acquitted himself well so far. Jordan Roberts has also been brought in although injuries have interrupted his participation, and Dani Lopez has been tried as a front man, but that needs addressing. Richie Foran has made a welcome return to the squad, but is far from the do or die player we once knew. All of these players need more time to get up to speed, but it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. Inverness have secured the services of attacking midfielder Andrea Mbuyi-Mutombo and he will be in the squad on Saturday. However, Jordan Roberts is struggling, along with Carl Tremarco and James Vincent. Richie Foran will be like a new addition and he will get stronger as his fitness returns to full throttle. Motherwell will be without Lionel Ainsworth who is carrying a two match suspension, and Craig Reid, but late addition, keeper Connor Ripley will be here. One man we all love to hate will be missing. Iain Vigurs has left Fir Park and was last heard of playing as a trialist for Inverurie Locos. Now that's a fall from grace. Incidentally, another former Motherwell player, Paul Lawson was trying his luck at Formartine. tm4tj prediction:- It's early doors as the league gets underway this weekend and with little to go on, I will be sitting on the fence for the season opener. No scoring draw on the cards, with Inverness strikerless and Motherwell looking to find their form. Go on, surprise me.

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