I'VE DONE BAZ UP LIKE A SKIPPER SAYS BREW

BARRY WILSON will take the skipper's armband for his 250th Inverness appearance at Tynecastle - but it will be no token gesture.

Player-manager Craig Brewster was unaware the veteran winger was reaching the proud milestone as the club's third most picked player.

With Stuart Golabek injured and recent stand-in Darren Dods suspended for the trip to face Hearts, Brewster turned to Wilson.

And it will be the first time in the 34-year-old's lengthy senior career at Ross County, Southhampton, Raith and Livingston that he has skippered a competitive match.

Wilson said: "It was an honour to be called in by Craig this morning and asked to be captain.

"It's nice he thinks highly enough of me to do that.

"I've never been captain before competitively, only in friendlies and testimonials. It's the first time - and probably the last."

Wilson's 250th appearance places him behind only Ross Tokely and Charlie Christie in the Caley Thistle record books.

He said: "I knew the landmark was coming up and it's a big milestone. But this is a big enough game for that kind of thing to be put completely to the back of your mind.

"We're really looking forward to the trip to Edoinburgh because we've done reasonably well at Tynecastle.

"Every week we go away from home pretty much as underdogs.

"But if you look back through the calendar year we've only lost to Dundee in January, when we played some of our best football, and away to Celtic, after going 1-0 up.

"So our away form is definitely top-six material and probably even better than that.

"But Hearts' home form is unbelievable - they've won every game and only lost a couple of goals - so it's a big ask.

"If we can frustrate them for the first 20 minutes, we'll have a chance because they do start reasonably quickly.

"We need to bed ourselves into the game quickly and take it from there."

Player-boss Brewster said: "I hadn't realised it was Barry's 250th game - I just feel he is worthy of that extra responsibility.

"He has done very well indeed for us this season."

On-loan Dennis Wyness is barred from facing his employers but Brewster has reason to be happy with his current strike partnership.

The player-manager is likely to pair himself with Craig Dargo, given the striker's recently rich seam of goals.

And Brewster said: "It's great for me to play with someone who is as clever as Craig

Taken from the Daily Record