Inverness welcome league leaders St Mirren to the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium as they look to continue their good form after wins against Dumbarton and Dundee United.
The Saints are the only side in the league that the Caley Jags haven’t taken any points off this season despite putting in good performances against them.
Referee: Alan Newlands Assistants: David McGeachie and Simon MacLean
The Manager: John Robertson
“It’s another big game, St Mirren are flying and they’re closing in on the title and, like most teams in their position, they’ll want to get it as quickly as possible. We’ve had three terrific games against them this season and have taken nothing which is disappointing but not on the part of the players for a lack of effort.”
“What we need to do is to, play to the same level we have for long stretches of the matches but be more clinical at either end of the park. We spoke on Tuesday about three massive home games and if we win all three then we’d get ourselves back into the hunt, and this is the second one of the three and we want to win it.”
“It would give us a huge lift to give us all three points going into another home game against Brechin, we’ve said that right now momentum is massive and now’s the time to hit form, the time to put an unbeaten run together then it would put us right where we want to be. I thought the players attitude on Tuesday was tremendous and we need to carry that on Saturday.”
“St Mirren have been dominant from the start of the season. They started the season well and normally there’s a blip somewhere but they’ve not really had a blip, they were neck and neck with Dundee Utd until December but then they’ve just put their foot down.”
“Whilst teams have been missing games, St Mirren have managed to get theirs on and win them. They’ve just got further and further away, got the points in the bag and they’ve done it the way every title winning team does it, they’ve kept a lot of clean sheets and they’ve got a front four who believe they can score every time they go out.”
“They deserve to be where they are, we’ve played terrifically well in the three matches against them, but we just need to try and get points on the board against them on Saturday. When you’re in that position, they don’t want to take any chances, they’ll not want to take any defeat, they’ll want to want to keep steam rolling towards the title and get it done as quickly as possible.”
“Then, they can switch off to a certain degree, you’ve seen it many times before the amount of times that a team win a team win a title then their intensity and concentration drops.”
“I would think that other teams that have St Mirren later in the campaign, will be licking their lips and hoping they carry on their winning streak, win the title quickly then they are left to pick them off because the job is done.”
The Opponent
St Mirren are only eight points away from promotion back to the Scottish Premiership and have been the outstanding side in the Ladbrokes Championship this season. Key for the players for the Saints include the front four of Gavin Reilly, Lewis Morgan, Danny Mullen and Cammy Smith.
Manager Jack Ross took the side over in a relegation battle last term but has transformed the club in his short time there and has even knocked back the chance to become the manager of Barnsley to stay with the Saints.
St Mirren have scored the most goals in the Champonship this season with 57 so far and only their rivals Morton have conceded fewer.
Team News
Jake Mulraney is a doubt with a thigh strain picked up while on international duty with Ireland U21
Head-to-Head: ICTFC Wins: 27 Draws: 15 St Mirren Wins: 12
Last Meeting: St Mirren 1-0 ICTFC (06/01/2018)
Gavin Reilly’s tight angled finish was enough to seal all three points for Saints against ICTFC back in January.
Liam Polworth had a shot scooped off the line by Saints keeper Craig Samson in the early stages of the second half.
Form Guide
Inverness CT: St Mirren:
W Dundee Utd (H) 1-0 W Dumbarton (H) 5-0
W Dumbarton (N) 1-0 W QoS (A) 3-1
D Dundee Utd (A) 1-1 W Dunfermline (H) 2-0
L Dunfermline (A) 0-1 W Brechin City (H) 1-0
L Morton (H) 0-2 L Livingston (A) 1-4
W Crusaders (H) 3-2 W QoS (H) 2-0
Last Line-Ups
ICTFC (V Dundee Utd): Ridgers, Mckay, Donaldson, Warren, Tremarco, Polworth, Vigurs, Trafford (Chalmers 81), Austin (Mackay 60), Doran, Oakley.
St Mirren (V Dumbarton): Samson, Smith, MacKenzie, Davis, Eckersley (Stelios 60), McGinn, Magennis (McShane 78), Flynn, Smith, Morgan, Mullen (Reilly 67).