The blackout which claimed Friday's Highland derby has at least allowed Terry Butcher the chance to shine a spotlight on a ruling he considers to be grossly unfair.

The match between his Inverness Caledonian Thistle side and Ross County was abandoned at half-time after three failed attempts to get the floodlights working again, although the four bookings which had been dished out during a goalless first half were not consigned to the shadows.

Instead, the yellow cards shown to Inverness' Ross Draper and Marc Warren and County forwards Kevin Luckassen and Melvin De Leeuw will still stand. The former pair are available to play in tonight's Scottish League Cup quarter-final tie when Inverness face Dundee United but Butcher is infuriated the bookings will contribute to any subsequent suspensions for his players.

"Now, I'm very, very angry about this and I speak on behalf of Ross County here [too]," said the Inverness manager. "In effect, our season in league games is 38-and-a-half matches. How can that be? How can we have 45 minutes more than other teams in which our players can get cautions? If the score doesn't count, why should the bookings?

"The match was abandoned and there will be no other records apart from the bookings. I understand if there's a sending off. If a red card is issued, that carries forward for violent conduct or whatever, but not bookings."

Butcher's temper can be soothed in part by the acknowledgement that his side's ambition has carried on too, with the Inverness squad speaking openly in the dressing room about their aspirations to reach the League Cup final. "That is just night and day compared to when we first came back into the top league in 2010," Butcher added. "It is a natural thing now for us to aim to achieve it."

Such an ambition is discussed among the players but it is shared by the other clubs in the quarter-finals, too, since Celtic were put out in the last round. United can consider their own prospects of reaching the final of this competition to be promising, not least after a dominant performance against St Mirren at the weekend. That was gilded by two goals from Nadir Ciftci and the Tannadice club are keen to extend the forward's contract beyond May 2015.

"I'd be keen to sit down and talk to Nadir about extending things," said Jackie McNamara, the United manager, who will recall both Sean Dillon and Keith Watson to his squad tonight. "He's done exceptionally well in his short time at the club and has got a lot of good attributes."