Dundee boss Gary Bowyer will feel age catching up with him on Saturday when he reunites with former youth players he coached earlier in his career.
Although new to the Scottish game, Bowyer is not short of connections north of the border, with Gordon Strachan, Jim McInally and Fraser Fyvie all having crossed his path before.
The weekend’s clash will be the Dee gaffer’s first ever encounter with Caley Thistle – but he knows two of their key men well.
Familiar faces at Caley
Thistle stalwart Aaron Doran played under the Dee boss as a youth at Blackburn Rovers.
The Irish winger left Ewood Park for Inverness in 2011 and has since made over 330 appearances for the Highland side.
Nathan Shaw, meanwhile, joined the Caley Jags earlier in the summer from AFC Fylde.
The 21-year-old midfielder played under Bowyer at Blackpool.
“Aaron was part of my youth team at Blackburn so when I see him on Saturday, I’m going to feel pretty old!” the Dundee boss joked.
“He is a fantastic player; he’s had a very good career up at Inverness and has done really well for them over the years.
“He’s had a few injury problems but when he’s been fully fit everyone would agree what a talented player he is.
“I also worked with Nathan Shaw when I was at Blackpool as well, he was just a very young lad, so it will be great to see him in the senior game.
“So that will be two familiar faces this weekend.”
Bowyer on Inverness challenge
Doran and Shaw aside, Bowyer expects a tough afternoon on Saturday.
The Dark Blues welcome Inverness to Dens Park as they look to continue their promising start to the season.
Billy Dodds’ side meanwhile have yet to reproduce the form shown at the end of last season, as they linger in fifth place.
Despite a couple of defeats, at the hands of Partick and Morton, Bowyer does not believe that shows the full picture.
“Inverness are a good side who have had a few injuries and because of that a few results people didn’t expect in the last few weeks,” he said.
“But that sums this league up because everyone can beat everyone, it’s that competitive.
“At other clubs you’ve maybe been able to look at the fixture list and say ‘thankfully we are playing them this week’ but you can’t do that up here.
“There are ten teams in the league, which adds its own factor to it, and all ten are capable of winning games.
“It’s totally different to England in that the league sizes are smaller and up here it’s so competitive every single week.”
Conversation