Butcher makes double swoop for Caley Thistle

CALEY Thistle manager Terry Butcher has bolstered his squad with two new signings.

Midfielder Andrew Shinnie, 21, brother of left-sided ICT player Graeme, has agreed a two-year contract with the Inverness club, along with 18-year-old former Ipswich Town defender Josh Meekings.

This takes the tally of summer arrivals to five after on-loan defender Tom Aldred, midfielder Greg Tansey and forward Gregory Tade and there will be more to come this week after Butcher released 10 players at the end of last season.

Saturday's friendly at Livingston will allow the Inverness CT boss to further assess trialists Kerrea Gilbert, Jamie Stevenson and Jean-Francois Christophe.

Meekings was highly recommended to Butcher by his former Ipswich team-mate Russell Osman, who runs the club's under-18s and the player will see this fresh chance as an ideal way to get his career back on track.

The same applied to Andrew Shinnie, who after leaving Rangers as a teenager, had a loan spell at Dundee. He's played in all three games to date this pre-season, scoring twice in last week's win at Forres Mechanics.

See this week's Highland News for the very latest transfer news from the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium.