INVERNESS CALEDONIAN THISTLE are going to have to do it the hard way if they are to retain the Scottish Cup they won so memorably last May. For a third draw in succession, the fates have conspired to send them on their travels, this time to face the winner of Tuesday’s replay between Hibernian and Hearts. After having fought their way past Stirling Albion – at the second attempt - and Motherwell, they have shown themselves capable of surviving without home comforts. With the semi-final and final probably both taking place at neutral Hampden, should they go on to lift the trophy for a second successive season they will have done so without playing an original tie in Inverness.
“It’s a very difficult draw for us,” admitted assistant manager Brian Rice. “We’d have liked to have been at home as this is our third away tie. Hearts are in our league and we know a lot about them, while Hibs are doing fantastically well and have done well against Premiership opposition this season. So it’ll be a very difficult away tie again.
“But we’re defending the cup and we use these draws as inspiration for the boys. Motherwell was a hard tie and the next one, whoever it is, will be just the same.”
Should Hibs prevail, it will mean a first working return to Easter Road for Rice since he and John Hughes vacated the dug-out by mutual consent more than five years ago.
“This would be the first time I’d been back and it will be different people, different players, and different staff there now. Hibs are doing fantastic this year. They are in one cup final, looking to get in another cup final and still challenging in the league. It’d be very difficult but they’ve still to play Hearts, so it could be Hearts we play. It doesn’t matter who it is, it looks as though it’ll be the tie of the round regardless. If you want to win the cup or retain it, as we’d like to do, these are the sorts of games we’d like to win.”
Injuries and suspensions have made this a difficult campaign for Inverness. “It’s been stop-start,” admitted the former Nottingham Forest midfielder. “The injuries have been well documented. We only had one substitute at one stage this season and 14 people out. Every club has injuries and suspensions although ours seemed to happen all at once.
“At the beginning of the season we had four or five young kids who’d never been involved in the first team before just to make up the numbers on the bench. But the lads are coming back now and the squad is looking a lot stronger with more depth to it after we added a couple of lads last week.”
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