Christie on brink of leaving Inverness

INVERNESS CT 1 Cowie 58

CHARLIE Christie may have presided over his last match as the manager of Inverness Caledonian Thistle, after it emerged last night that he has asked to leave the Premier League club and faces talks with senior officials today.

Christie will meet with director of football Graeme Bennett and chairman Alan Savage after becoming downhearted only 19 months after replacing Craig Brewster at the Caledonian Stadium. Both Bennett and Savage are keen to retain Christie, who has won 24 of his 66 matches in charge, but privately it is understood that the manager may have made up his mind to leave.

Brewster, now playing for Aberdeen, would be a strong candidate to return to Inverness.

Matters are believed to have come to a head with Christie in the aftermath of Saturday's 2-1 reverse at St Mirren. Inverness are rooted to the bottom of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League, with no points from their opening three matches, and the manager, a former player with Inverness Thistle, Caledonian and Celtic, has taken criticisms of his side's efforts to heart.

If Christie does depart, and insiders have stressed it would be on mutual terms, Caley Thistle would be searching for only their fifth manager since entering the Scottish League in 1994.

Inverness fell behind at Love Street to goals in each half from Argentine Franco Miranda and a Mark Corcoran but pulled one back through Don Cowie after 57 minutes.

The on-loan Miranda, 22, was apparently advised by former Helsingborgs team-mate Henrik Larsson to jump at the chance of a move to St Mirren following a spell in Swedish football. No doubt, Miranda is delighted he listened to what the Celtic icon had to say, with his name being chanted after just 19 minutes of his debut.

The reason for such quick recognition was clear. St Mirren were still without an SPL goal until the left-sided midfielder struck after capitalising on a well-judged pass from Hugh Murray.

"There are aspects of his game we need to work on," said St Mirren manager Gus MacPherson, "but he took a fantastic first touch on his 'wrong' foot and showed a lot of composure to hit the target, also with his right.

"I just wish the fans would sing more players' names because of the affect it has on them in terms of boosting confidence. Next to the players, the fans are the most important people on match days and I don't think they appreciate their importance."