Exorcising Demons: Caley v. Ayr United Preview

By: Ian Rose | August 15th, 2009

A sense of history can be a depressing thing sometimes. I’d love to just take last week’s away win over Dunfermline as a sign of things to come – the first step in an uninterrupted march to the First Division title and our rightful return to the SPL. But then I remember last season, when we started our campaign with a big win away at Aberdeen, our first victory ever at Pittodrie. That season started with glory, and ended in relegation. So let’s keep our feet on the ground.

On paper, our second match of this season should be one of our easiest. While we spent last season in the SPL, our visitors, the so-called “Honest Men” of Ayr United, finished last season second place in the third tier of Scottish football. Not even division winners, they find themselves in the First Division by means of a playoff win over Airdrie, who ironically are also in the First due to the open spot left by Livingston’s implosion.

It’s our home opener, our first league match at Tulloch Caledonian Stadium since that fateful day in May when we lost 1-0 to Falkirk and were sent down. Since then, we have lost a handful of players, but there has also been progress. As of today, Caley Thistle has sold more season tickets for this season than we did for the SPL campaign last year, impressive considering the lower attendances in the second tier. But those who will be on hand in Inverness tomorrow will have one thing on their mind – dulling the pain of that Falkirk loss.

Again, we should win this match, but there are a few reasons for worry. We are still without Ross Tokely in the back, serving a suspension. Our attack is without Andy Barrowman, who despite all evidence, manager Terry Butcher insists is tearing up the training grounds. More importantly, we lost Dougie Imrie for a still undetermined amount of time last week, when a harsh challenge knocked him out with an injury to his knee ligaments. A healthy Caley Thistle should take Ayr behind the woodshed … but we are not a healthy Caley Thistle.

Still, we should have enough. Imrie is out, but Richie Foran is back to take his place in the attacking half. He should be physically fit, but match fitness is something else, and we’ll see how they’ve been working him in training. Ayr had an impressive start to the season last weekend, drawing with Partick Thistle at home, and so they are not to be ignored. Like us, they have yet to find their lead scorer, with one each for Mark Roberts, William Easton and captain Chris Aitken in their three competitive matches so far.

Last week, I predicted a 2-0 win over Dunfermline, a result we were only able to halfway achieve. I’m going to predict the same scoreline here. Ideally, with Barrowman and Imrie as options, we should honestly be able to do more against this side, who were beaten in the first round of the Challenge Cup 2-0 by Albion Rovers. I don’t think they’ll have it in them to score on us in Inverness (despite I’m sure at least one serious defensive blunder), and I think we have a few goals in us, one coming from Foran on his return.

Let’s hope I’m right this time, though if I predict 2-0 every week, and every week ends 1-0, I’ll be able to live with that just fine too. Mon the Caley.