Highland News Story

[Alex MacLeod]

Stolen from this weeks HN

Brew rules out Dods return

By Paul Chalk

Published: 28 August, 2008

CRAIG Brewster yesterday (Wed) announced that Darren Dods will not be making an Inverness return.

Rumours have been rife this week that the towering central defender was set to leave Dundee United to come back to the Highland capital after falling out of his manager Craig Levein's plans.

The 33-year-old joined ICT from St Johnstone in 2004, making 100 appearances for the club in a three-year spell before joining Brewster when he bossed at Dundee United in 2007.

The Tangerines are more than covered in central defence, with Garry Kenneth and Lee Wilkie commanding the starting slots and Danny Grainger and Sean Dillon waiting in the wings with Dods.

When asked about a possible return, the ICT manager said: "There's no chance of Darren coming back here. Most people know what I think of Darren, but a move won't be happening."

Meanwhile, Ugandan internationalist Dan Wagaluka will not be striking a deal with Caley Thistle.

The player spent more than a week with the Inverness club, but it's believed the chance has arisen for him to impress at Newcastle United in the coming days.

However, Brew is still on the look-out for players and chairman George Fraser has pledged to provide the cash required to bring in any more new faces before the transfer window closes on Monday, at midnight.

This commitment comes hard on the heels of the club's ?432,000 loss in the last financial year.

Caley Thistle will look to get their second win of the season when they go to Falkirk on Saturday, who have lost their opening three fixtures.

ICT's coaches were disappointed with the second half show in the weekend's 1-1 draw at home to Hibernian, which came a week after the lacklustre 1-0 defeat against Hamilton.

Assistant boss Malky Thomson said: "We have suffered in our last two games with the supply we gave to our forwards. The first half on Saturday was fantastic, but in the second half we lost the goal within 30 seconds which gave them a real lift. If we had not have lost the goal, we could have taken charge again and I think they would have petered out.

"The first 45 minutes against Hibs was like the standard the boys set at Pittodrie and they way they played in pre-season. That's what they must try to achieve in every game."

Falkirk took nine of the available 12 points against the Highlanders last season and Thomson knows they'll fancy their chances of getting off the mark this weekend, but he's confident the Caley Jags can head back north with the points.

He said: "Falkirk are well organised and they rightly get the credit for being a good passing team. It will be up to us to win possession of the ball and try and reverse the trend from last season by taking more points off them than they do from us.

"Although they are missing a few players, John Hughes still has a decent squad to pick from. I'm sure the replacements who come in will get their opportunity to impress their manager, but we'll be going down there to put on a strong performance."

The ICT assistant boss was satisfied by the frontline pairing of Andy Barrowman and Adam Rooney as they linked up for the first time on Saturday and he reckons if opportunities come their way, the strikers will take them.

He said: "It was encouraging because both players have a real spark about them. They are lively and they want to play as a pair. If we can improve on the quality of ball played into them, then we will create chances."

Skipper Grant Munro (knee) and Russell Duncan (hamstring), who were sidelined through injury last weekend, have resumed training and could be available for the trip to Falkirk.

David Proctor, however, will not train for the next week or so at least after damaging his ankle ligaments in training.

[CaleyD]

Probably means we'll sign him last thing on Monday then

[Scotty]

could I just point out that it is usually frowned upon by media outlets to cut and post an entire story from their publication or website ..... especially without a link.

The accepted format is to quote a few of the more pertinent lines, credit it to the publication, and add an external link to the full story.

Here is the story link: http://www.highland-news.co.uk/news/fullst...ods_return.html

Here is a link to their football page with a couple of other stories .... http://www.highland-news.co.uk/news/catego...4/Football.html

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Dods not coming - Dan the Man off to the Magpies - this has to be down to spondoolachs.

[alimci]

If Dan thought Inverness was cold, wait til he finds he's got to visit the Bigg Market on a Saturday night wearing only a thong in the midst of winter.

[KingBeastie]

I had a night out in newcastle once and thought it was called the pig market! A taxi driver thought that it was most apt!

[Joe DiMaggio]

Pity, we are lacking a Machine at the back