Celtic to play Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Celtic take on Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the third round of the Co-Operative Insurance Cup on Wednesday evening at Celtic Park. The two Premier League side meet for the second time this season having played in Inverness in the first match of the season.
On that occasion Celtic ran out 1-0 winners with Tom McCourt scoring the only goal.
Celtic will look at the Insurance Cup as a chance to win a trophy after a dismal exit from the UEFA Cup at the hands of the Dutch side FC Utrecht. Apart from their UEFA Cup blip, Celtic have had a great start to the season with five wins in their first five
games of the season. Manager Neil Lennon has been given transfer money to strengthen the side and has brought in the likes of Daryl Murphy and Anthony Stokes. Stokes scored his first goal in Sundays win against Kilmarnock while Murphy also got on the score
sheet in a 2-1 win over Kilmarnock. Celtic moved on to 15 points allowing them to join Rangers at the top of the table as joint leaders. Celtic have scored 11 goals and have conceded only one so far this season.
In contrast, Inverness have been in indifferent form so far this season. They convincingly beat Peterhead 3-0 in the last round of the Insurance Cup. Peterhead are bottom of Division 2. Inverness have only won one game in the league so far this season in
an emphatic 4-0 away win to Dundee United. They have drawn 1-1 with Hibernian, but have lost games to Hamilton, Celtic and Hearts. Hearts beat Inverness 3-1 with Eric Odhiambo scoring their only goal.
Inverness will hope to kick start their season with a result against Celtic who will be massive favourites for the tie. If Inverness are to have any chance of upsetting the odds they will be reliant on the likes of Martin Rooney up front who has turned in
a number of good performances this season. Inverness will hope to soak up the pressure at Parkhead and hit Celtic on the counter attack.
Celtic will approach the game in a different manner. They may choose to rest a number of their stars and the likes of Murphy, Scott Brown and Sean Maloney may all drop out of the side while some of the players rested on Saturday will be hopeful that they
will start. Georgios Samaras will be one of the players who will be eager to impress having found himself as a substitute against Kilmarnock. With Murphy, Stokes and Maloney all vying for the position, the Greek striker will be keen to show why he deserves
a place in the team.
Celtic will be wary of Inverness who have knocked them out of the cup on previous occasions. Manager Lennon will be looking for a good run in the competition especially since Rangers have dominated the domestic competitions over the past number of seasons.
Lennon will need to win a trophy on his first full season. A win against Inverness could be crucial in order for Celtic to achieve this.
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