Race For The Scottish Premier League: ICT Vs Celtic

Kick Off:- 18:00 GMT, Wednesday 4 May 2011
Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, Inverness

With 4 out of their last 5 games played away, Inverness Caley will be pleased to be getting a home game, even if it is against points-hungry Celtic. This is the last of the pre-split fixtures and is Celtic’s game in hand over Rangers, and as you can see from the table below, Celtic will take the top spot if they win it.

ICT usually put up an extremely robust performance against Celtic wherever they play them, but particularly so in their own stadium. Never have Celtic recorded a comfortable win here and with ex-Rangers man Terry Butcher in charge of the Inverness men, there is nothing surer that Celtic will be in a real battle for the points again. Lucky for them that a draw would also put them back on top, ahead of Rangers on goal difference.

However, if you were to offer the draw to Celtic, such is their confidence just now, in spite of the intense pressure of playing catch-up to Rangers all the time, they would say “… thanks, but no thanks – we can win this…”. Celtic’s confidence is well-founded, with all their recent results going their way – including that 0-0 at Ibrox, which was a much better point for them than it was for Rangers.

Scottish Premier League Table
Last updated: 19:22, May 01, 2011

	Team	P	W	D	L	Pts	F	A
1	Rangers	35	27	3	5	84	77	28
2	Celtic	34	26	5	3	83	74	19

Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s last 5 game record reads…
[Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s score first]
30 April    Away        0-1    vs    Aberdeen (SPL)
25 April    Away        3-0    vs    St Johnstone (SPL)
16 April    Home        1-1    vs    Heart of Midlothian (SPL)
9 April        Away        1-1    vs    Kilmarnock (SPL)
19 March    Away        0-1    vs    Dundee United (SPL)

Celtic’s last 5 game record reads…
[Celtic’s score first]
1 May        Home        4-1    vs    Dundee United (SPL)
24 April    Away        0-0    vs    Rangers (SPL)
20 April    Away        4-0    vs    Kilmarnock (SPL)
17 April    Hampden    4-0    vs    Aberdeen (Scottish Cup)
12 April    Away        1-0    vs    St Johnstone (SPL)

Don’t be expecting a barrow-load of Celtic goals here, but do expect just enough to give them the victory. As ever it will be extremely hard-fought and very close, but  the Hoops will emerge triumphant in this game which will certainly be their most difficult of  their run in, with the sole exception of Hearts at Tynecastle on Wednesday 11 May.

Tags: Celtic, Dundee, Hearts, inverness, Kick off, Rangers, Result

Category: Football, Scottish Football