Caley Thistle head coach Billy Dodds is delighted to have skipper Sean Welsh ready to face Morton after his red card was changed to yellow on appeal.
The midfielder was sent off in last week’s 1-0 Championship win against Partick Thistle for a challenge on Scott Tiffoney.
However, the Scottish FA panel decided this week to change it to a caution and the captain will be in the line-up at Cappielow on Saturday.
Inverness sit sixth in the table, four points adrift of their weekend hosts, and six points away from Partick, who have played one more match than both.
The club is pleased to announce that the SFA Fast Track Appeal Panel has upheld our appeal against club captain Sean Welsh's red card from Friday night. It has now been reduced to a yellow card. pic.twitter.com/ifyT4ma7Wr
— Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC (@ICTFC) March 29, 2023
Consistent panel decision made sense
Dodds insists the right decision was made and explained just how crucial a player he is for the side.
He said: “It was a common sense one for me.
“I was delighted with the result, and when you see a couple of them earlier in the season – like (Rangers’ John) Lundstram at Hibs – the panel have shown a consistency.
“They had to, because common sense prevailed.
“That’s great for us, because he might be our most important player to have available because he’s our captain.”
Welsh has ‘put his body on the line’
Welsh has scored vital goals against Livingston and Kilmarnock in the Scottish Cup on the way to the semi-final against Falkirk on April 29, and against Ayr United in the league recently.
Dodds stressed that Welsh delivers for the team in terms of his leadership and football qualities.
He said: “You need your experienced ones, but also your central ones – whether that’s midfielders, defenders or strikers – to build around.
“It’s alright saying that when it’s your captain, but they’ve got to be doing the business as well, and Sean has shown how important he is with the goals he’s scored.
“He has played in games he probably shouldn’t have, he has put his body on the line for us, and he wasn’t feeling the best before Partick but that’s the kind of boy he is.
“He has still chipped in with performances and goals, so we’re really pleased with that.”
Weekend win would put ICT in mix
The crucial victory against Partick kept alive ICT’s slim chances of making the top-four and Dodds underlined the importance of adding another big result down at Cappielow.
He said: “We really need to make sure that we carry on.
“There are seven games to go, and they are all cup finals for us.
“We’ve got to take as many points out of them as we can, and with Morton being four points ahead of us, we need to take something out of the game.
“We want to win the game of course, but we also want to give ourselves a chance of making the play-offs.
“It’s not the be-all-and-end-all if we draw the game, but if we win it, we’re right back in the mix.
“If we do that, it gives us plenty of momentum going into the semi-final.
“I don’t want to talk about that too much, but you want to be in good form going into such a big game. It’s a crucial time of the season.”
Ankle injury keep Ram on sidelines
Dodds also provided an update on defender Max Ram, who has been sidelined since playing in the 6-1 rout of Cove Rangers in January.
He added: “We would love to have Max fit, and to be fair to him he soldiered on when he first got injured and made it worse.
“It has taken longer than we thought, it was a bad ankle sprain – deeper than we first thought – so we’ve had to manage it and we’ve tried him a couple of times without success.
“It will still be a wee while for Max yet. He’s still been about the place and it’s been good to see him, but we’ve got to realise what we did for us by staying on the pitch when he was injured. Unfortunately, that’s what made it worse.”
There are a few “knocks and niggles” within the Inverness squad for the weekend, with centre-half Danny Devine a doubt with the calf strain which ruled him out against Thistle.
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