Danger, Craig Brewster. St. Mirren 2-0 Caley.

By: Ian Rose | December 13th, 2008

This has been a season of disappointment, punctuated by hope. We are halfway through the SPL season, with 18 matches under the belts of the men in blue and red (black on the road), and I think I can speak for all the dozens of diehard Caley Thistle fans when I say we are not pleased. We Jaggie supporters don’t expect to be hoisting cups and competing for Europe … but we do expect competitive play. Hard-nosed play has defined Highland football since long before the merger that created Caley Thistle, and it is the minimum to be expected of any Inverness side. Right now, we aren’t showing it.

The facts are these. Three weeks ago, we went to Celtic Park and competed. We didn’t play lovely … or pretty … or attractive even through the thickest of beer goggles. But we competed, and we largely shut down an offense far superior to our own. Today, the same Caley team went to Paisley to face St. Mirren and were not half so resilient. The fact is that as much as I’d love to think of trips to Celtic Park as our season’s most important matches, they simply are not. Those are friendlies – we expect to lose them and their results end up meaning very little to our season. The really important matches – the six-pointers, if you will – are with St. Mirren, Hamilton, and Falkirk. We are not title contenders. We are not top-six contenders. Not now. We are relegation contenders, and we had better start realizing that, or we will be more and more alone in that position.

Billy Mehmet’s scoring record aside, St. Mirren are a poor football side, and losing 2-0 to them is a truly sad result. The loss puts us in 11th place, just three points (though luckily ten goals) ahead of Hamilton for the drop. Thanks to the Hibees for putting down Hamilton (also 2-0) and at least keeping us off bottom for another few weeks.

The next month is absolutely key for Caley’s survival. First, we have Aberdeen at home, which on current form looks very much like a fourth-straight loss for our boys. A win over the Dons would do much for us anytime, and a huge amount now, but I’m not sure where we’d find it. That same day, Hamilton play struggling Motherwell, a game we’ll be praying by the radio goes all points to the Well. Then, two days after Christmas, it’s us taking on Motherwell, while St. Mirren and Hamilton face off in another real relegation sixer. Then we host Rangers, hopefully not to the tune of another shutout loss, and then we’re at Hamilton. At the end of this stretch, we could very well be in last place, facing the drop square in the eye, unless we decide to play like a top-flight Scottish side. If we don’t do that, we deserve to be playing Ross County again next season.