Before I turn to on the field matters, a rant. Once again we must thank the fixture computer for this piece of nonsense. Who on earth thinks its sensible for us - or Kilmarnock or Motherwell for that matter - to go to Inverness at this time of year? And I'd be making the same point if they had to come here. Surely they could play Ross County, or Aberdeen, or Dundee United. OK, they aren't exactly just down the road but it's a lot closer for them than for someone from the west of Scotland. An insane decision but it's never picked up on by anyone outside the club aggrieved - unless it's one of the Old Firm of course.
To continue my calendar related rant I am slightly curious why we are playing Inverness again now. We took on Caley Thistle on the opening day of the season, all the way back at the start of August. Since then we have played the majority of other teams twice, which makes me even more confused about the magic workings of the SPL's fixture computer. Our recent record against the Highlanders isn't particularly good as we only took a point off them last season, although we did draw with them on the opening day of the current campaign. And if you want an omen the last time we beat them was in Inverness on Boxing Day two years ago...
Anyway, enough of that - there is due to be a game on and it could be a cracker. Caley Thistle are currently second - SECOND! - in the table and are in tremendous form, having hammered Dundee on Saturday. Meanwhile, we have rediscovered our winning ways after seeing off Motherwell on Friday night, producing some lovely football in the process. If we can be even more clinical we have a chance, but if we defend the way we did for the last 20 minutes when we restricted Motherwell to a single goal more by luck than anything else than we could be in for a pasting.
Unfortunately we're going into this one with a defence even more unfamiliar than the one we fielded on Friday. Jim Goodwin and Marc McAusland, who both started against the Steelmen, are out through suspension. Lee Mair and David van Zanten are the likely replacements, but that doesn't have the making of a solid back line. Someone is going to be out of position beside Mair, David Barron the most likely option unless we move Paul Dummett into the middle of the defence.
Even without that pair missing we wouldn't have our troubles to seek. We looked knackered at the end on Friday and it seems the three players subbed - Barron, Dummett and Gary Teale - all came off because they had knocks. Kenny McLean and John McGinn also seemed to be struggling towards the end and our thin squad is likely to be stretched to the limit over the next week. Hopefully our key players will be fit enough for us to put out a strong side tomorrow. Losing more than one of McLean, McGinn and Teale would be a huge blow as they have all been fantastic for us of late. We do have Paul McGowan back in the squad but I doubt he'll play yet, while Thomas Reilly and Darren McGregor are still missing.
Inverness Caley Thistle are the perfect example of why the SPL is so wonderful this season. They didn't win a league game until the end of September, yet two months later they were joint top of the table for a day, having managed to beat Celtic at Parkhead along the way. They have already managed to match their goal total for the whole of last season, which is incredible. It has been a fantastic turnaround and proof, if ever it were needed, that from a footballing perspective we do not need Rangers. Terry Butcher has done a wonderful job this season, especially as he lost a whole host of top players over the summer, and his post match interviews are usually entertaining regardless of the result, with talk of fish suppers after away wins. As I mentioned they're currently second so finally breaking into the top six has to be the minimum, with Europe surely the ultimate objective. They're also in the semis of the League Cup so they could end up with some silverware.
Butcher is able to call on the services of both the Shinnie brothers this season, having had to make do without Andrew for part of last term due to injury. He and his sibling Graeme were excellent when fit last season and have continued that in the current campaign - the problem now being how long the club can hold onto them. Andrew has been excellent in midfield, scoring 10 goals and probably creating at least that number, and managed to force his way into the Scotland squad for last month's game against Luxembourg. By starting he became the club's first Scotland international (Don Cowie had long gone before he starting getting capped) - which is only going to raise his stock further. Nick Ross, who came through the youth system, has also been doing a fine job in the last few years and will be one to watch when he recovers from his shoulder injury. Aaron Doran is a talented winger while Owain Tudur Jones and Ross Draper seemed to like kicking folk on the opening day of the season.
Fortunately for our players the Inverness defence no longer contains Ross Tokely but it certainly doesn't make things easy. As I mentioned, they have Graeme Shinnie and Gary Warren has done well since joining him in the summer, although David Raven has looked a bit shaky at right back and Simon King has been injured. Caley Thistle are also able to boast of a former Real Madrid player in the shape of Antonio Reguero, although I believe he played as many games for the Spanish giants as me. He took over when Ryan Esson got injured a few months ago and it is perhaps no coincidence that came about the time their form started to pick up.
Caley Thistle have been hugely helped this season by a drastic improvement in form from Billy McKay, who has hit 12 goals in his last seven games - a stat that would still be impressive if the numbers were the other way round! The striker didn't exactly score too many goals last season, which wasn't too big a problem as the mercurial Gregory Tade and Johnny Hayes took care of that. With the pair of them gone he is under more pressure to score and has done just that, with an incredible turn of 17 so far. Richie Foran has also got on the goal trail again this season which has helped things out no end, especially as he isn't often being used as a striker these days.
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