It looks like the ideal fixture to get things off to a good start. We're at home and against one of the teams that finished below us last season. Like us, they have lost some important players and appear to have struggled for replacements. However, our record against them at our new ground is abysmal (one point from five games) and our record in season openers is even worse. Since the turn of the millennium we have managed to start the new league campaign off with a win on just two occasions - in 2004 and 2006. On the plus side, the latter was in the SPL against Caley Thistle so perhaps tomorrow will be the time the curse is finally broken.
Looking further ahead, this is a game we really have to be looking to take three points from if we want to crack the top six. The hopes and dreams of such an achievement have been talked of for the second summer running and it's nice to be aiming high rather than worrying about the drop - although staying up is still the primary target even though it's the minimum these days rather than the ultimate goal. Personally I still think it's a bit of wishful thinking as we have been weakened over the summer, but beating the likes of Caley Thistle - who are also hoping to make the top six for the first time - at home is an absolute must if we are to achieve it.
While our task has been made harder by players leaving and not being replaced, our top six dreams have been boosted by the departure of Rangers. It goes without saying that in their old guise they were a shoe in for the top six (the SPL rules would probably have been re-written if they hadn't made it on merit) and their absence opens up a spot that last season's bottom six will all be gunning for. After a summer learning all about quantums, liquidation, newcos and TUPE legislation I for one am delighted we're now getting back to what football should be about - 22 blokes on a pitch with a ball giving it their all in the quest for glory.
By my reckoning, we have just 13 first team players available thanks to suspension and injuries - and two of them are goalies Craig Samson and Grant Adam. The others are, in squad number order, David van Zanten, Darren McGregor, Lee Mair, Dougie Imrie, Jon Robertson, Paul McGowan, Kenny McLean, Sam Parkin, Gary Teale, David Barron and Lewis Guy. With the youngsters only likely to be on the bench it'll probably be 10 from those 11 that start - Steven Thompson, Marc McAusland and Jim Goodwin are suspended and Graham Carey are injured.
Samson will probably be in goal while the back four - assuming we don't go 3-5-2 - will almost certainly be van Zanten, McGregor, Mair and Barron. Paul McGowan is a certainty to start so that leaves five more places that will determine our shape. I'll go for us playing a 4-4-2 with Imrie and Teale on the wins, Guy and Parkin up front and one of McLean, who has been struggling with injury, and Robertson slotting in alongside McGowan. Of course, we could go with some weird and wonderful shape but I'm not going to go through all the possible permutations at the moment.
We're not the only team looking to improve on last season's finish by making the top six. Inverness Caley Thistle were rather disappointing by their standards last season, finishing third bottom, and will be looking to return to form this year. Manager Terry Butcher wasn't helped by major injury problems - the amount of changes to the team not down to some fancy rotation policy - and he will be hoping those have cleared up over the summer. Like ourselves Butcher has had to put up with severe financial restrictions over the summer but unlike certain other managers hasn't had the cheek to moan about it while nicking players from other clubs by offering them more money. Take note Kenny Shiels and Steve Lomas.
So who has he been able to bring in? Well, for starters he's got a goalie who used to be at Real Madrid. Unfortunately for Caley Thistle fans it's not Iker Casillas but instead someone called Antonio Reguero - who I think has played about as many games at the Bernabeu as our own Sam Parkin managed for Chelsea. Also coming in is Gary Warren, who seems a decent enough defender even if he was playing for Welsh non-league side Newport County. David Raven, who I seem to remember signing in Football Manager when he played for Liverpool, joins him at the back along with ex Gillingham man Simon King, with Macclesfield's Ross Draper and St Patrick's Athletic's Conor Pepper coming into midfield and Crewe's Jason Oswell being brought in up front.
Oswell is only a youngster but will have huge pressure on him as Caley Thistle have lost their two main goal getters over the summer. Johnny Hayes has signed for Aberdeen while the even more mercurial Gregory Tade has gone to poor, penniless St Johnstone. Oswell, Billy McKay and even veteran Richie Foran - who is moving further and further back as the years go by and is suspended for tomorrow - will be expected to make up the deficit. On the plus side midfield goal machine Andrew Shinnie is now fully fit and should recapture the form he showed early last season.
The good news for our players' legs is Ross Tokely has gone after 15 years at Inverness - although we'll come up against the thug later in the season when we take on Ross County. The likes of Foran and regular goalie Ryan Esson are now probably the longest serving senior players, although young stars like Graeme Shinnie and Nick Ross will have been around for a wee while as well. Aaron Doran is another young player who has impressed, having started out his career at Blackburn Rovers, while Welsh midfielder Owain Tudur Jones could be a real star if he can put his injury nightmare behind him. Teenage defender Josh Meekings also has experience from playing down south, having started off at Ipswich, and is relatively solid at the back.
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