DUNCAN SHEARER will urge his Inverness Caledonian Thistle side to go for the kill early against Morton today.

With the club's managerial search continuing, the Highland club's caretaker will reluctantly fill the home technical area for a second week running alongside fellow youth coach Scott Kellacher.

It is not a role the former Aberdeen and Scotland player wants to make permanent, and the Scottish Cup tie cannot be over quickly enough in Shearer's mind. Wary of Morton's League Cup upset against Celtic, he said: "The message from me to the boys is that we go at it early. We get out of the blocks and at them pretty quickly. We're on a good run and have kept a couple of clean sheets now, so we're just looking to progress on Saturday.

"Hopefully, when the final whistle blows we will be into the next round and we can draw a wee sigh of relief when the chairman tells me the new man is coming in. We can sit down and have a chat and see where we go from there."

Morton, ironically, are in a similar position to Inverness, with Allan Moore having lost his job and David Hopkin in temporary charge.

"I've already spoken to the boys about Morton's situation," Shearer said. "Sometimes teams can take a spur from that because they want to impress. And they will love coming up here and playing on the big pitch. They'll look forward to it.

"If they can beat the team sitting top of the league [Celtic] in the League Cup, they can definitely beat the team sitting second top in the Scottish Cup. So we have to be wary."

Meanwhile, the search for the new manager continues. The problem is though, that many candidates, will take the glass-half-empty attitude to Inverness' prospects and believe that the only way is down. The club sits an unlikely second in the SPFL Premiership, enjoying fine form and unshakeable spirit and unity. To some, it will seem like ripe opportunity. To others, it looks set for a fall. Whatever potential managers might think, though, the pessimistic outlook just does not cut it with Gary Warren.

The Inverness defender and his team-mates believe they are only just setting off on the upward part of the journey.

"At the moment, we're sitting second in the table and in the semi-final of a cup," he said. "But until we get to the final of the cup and finish second or third in the league, we won't have achieved what we set out to. Last year, we finished fourth and got beaten in the semi-finals of the cup. So this year we're looking for improvement from last year and there's plenty to come from us yet.

"Our aim this year is to get to a final and win a cup. That's what we set out to do at the start of the season. Anything else is a bonus in my opinion. You want to better yourself and the team each year. To do that, we have to finish third or higher and get to a final. That's what it will take and that's what we are out to do."

Terry Butcher and cohort Maurice Malpas will fly past their old haunt today with Hibs, en route to Dingwall to face Ross County.

But it is testament to the strength of the pair's legacy that, for now at least, their presence will not be missed all that much.