Barry Douglas had his debut for Dundee United ruined by a hammering from the Highlanders and the young defender is looking to make Inverness pay.
Douglas, making his first appearance for the Tangerines as a substitute for the last half-hour, suffered along with his new team-mates as they crashed 4-0 at home to Caley Thistle on August 22.
The 21-year-old was well aware the transition from Queen’s Park in the third division to the SPL would be a challenging one, but he could hardly have expected it to be as difficult as that.
United, who at the time were in the midst of a Europa League battle with AEK Athens, hit the lowest point of their season that Sunday afternoon as every ball the Caley Thistle players hit seemed to end up in the back of their net.
As Douglas pointed out, though, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then for both player and team.
The Tannadice men are on a 10-game unbeaten run going into this one, while Douglas has firmly ensconced himself in Peter Houston’s thoughts and featured 17 times.
Now he is looking for a victory that would ease the painful memories of the 4-0 loss and, more importantly, send them ahead of ICT and further up the table.
“I think they just caught us on a bad day back then,” reflected Douglas. “We were in the middle of the two European games.Focused”This time, we will maybe be more focused than we were that day and can certainly go up there and get the result we want. I would not say we are looking for revenge, but it would be nice to get a win.
“The season has not really got going for us yet. We have so many games on hand on the teams above us including four on Inverness but we need to get points from those outstanding matches.
“It won’t just happen for us, though, and we will hard to work hard for them.
“The good thing is we are getting key men back from injury like Craig Conway and Danny Swanson so we are looking forward to what remains of the season.
“There is still a lot of football to be played. Where we end up in the table is in our hands. We can really do ourselves a lot of good by winning matches like this one against Caley Thistle.”
As for himself, Douglas admitted the rest of the campaign has gone better than he could have expected.
“When I first joined I thought I would give myself a year to get into the first- team reckoning,” he said. “But things have happened more quickly than I could have hoped for.
“When I signed, I was a young player coming from Queen’s Park and going into a squad of Scottish Cup winners, so I thought I would need to be patient and wait for my chance.
“I guess the manager has shown a lot of faith in me to put me in as often as he has and I hope I have done OK.”BuoyantUnited are in buoyant mood following Sunday’s comfortable 3-0 win over Hibs.
“It was a great win for us and long overdue,” he said. “The boys were so happy to get a convincing victory like that behind us. We know we can play better, but I still think the manager was well happy with the result.”
United boss Houston is hopeful of receiving international clearance for his new signing from Ajax, Timothy van der Meulen, in time for tonight’s clash.
He has seen the 20-year-old defender perform in YouTube clips on the internet and would love the option of having him available to face ICT.
Houston, who revealed the Dutch giants insisted on a sell-on clause as recompense for allowing the player to move for free, trawled through video footage of the player when he was first recommended and reckons he has bagged a bargain.
“I have watched some clips of Timothy playing matches on YouTube as well as seeing him in training and he looks a very good player,” said Houston.
“He is really comfortable on the ball and I would say he is more in the mould of Andy Webster or Sean Dillon than a robust Scottish defender.
“When you sign players you want someone with the right character.For me he has shown that because he is desperate to play football.
“We see it here with the Old Firm where players can stay there too long and it harms their careers.
“He is not in the team at Ajax, despite their wanting to keep him, so he decided to move on, come abroad to a different country and make a go at it.Top side”Ajax are one of the top teams in Europe, so there is no doubt this is a step down for him, but sometimes you need to take a step back to go forward.
“Ajax have insisted on a sell-on clause because they think he is a player of potential. Although they have let him come here for free they have wanted to cover themselves because they think he could make something of himself.
“If they thought he just wasn’t good enough they wouldn’t have done that.
“If he does well and we have to give Ajax some money further down the line I would be delighted because it would mean he has been a good signing for United.
“Now we are just waiting on the final paperwork to come through and if it does he will be in the squad for Inverness.”
Houston will hold off naming his team until as late as possible today in order to give midfielder Morgaro Gomis time to prove his fitness.
Danny Swanson is also a concern, while Paul Dixon, Mihael Kovacevic, Scott Severin and Darren Dods are all still sidelined.
Chris Hogg and Alex MacDonald are set to be added to the Inverness squad after joining the Highlanders during the transfer window but Jonny Hayes, who suffered a knock against Aberdeen, is out and Grant Munro is suspended.