Inverness Caley Thistle go into their fourth league cup semi-final on the back of three straight 2-1 defeats in the SPL. The losses to Dundee Utd, Celtic and Motherwell have raised relegation fears at the Caledonian Stadium and fans will be hoping that the CIS Cup offers some relief from a torrid period of league form. Caley haven't had an easy path to the quarter finals, only overcoming Second Division Arbroath on penalties and First Division Morton after extra time. Both ties were played away from home and with relatively experimental line ups. Falkirk have advanced thanks to a 3-1 away win over Raith Rovers and a 2-1 home triumph over Queen of the South.

FALKIRK v INVERNESS CT

Falkirk Stadium, Falkirk

Tuesday 28th October, 7:45pm 

In the league Falkirk have had a faltering start to the season. After a promising campaign last time out when John Hughes' much admired young side were pipped to a top six spot by Aberdeen.

The Bairns have added experience to their playing pool, with Lee Bullen, Jackie McNamara, Steve Lovell and Neil McCann coming into the club. Many saw these players as the bridge to the top six for Falkirk and it was a surprise when Hughes' side lost their first four games of the season, culminating in a home loss to the Jags at the end of August.

Since then Falkirk have rallied, winning three league games to pull themselves off the foot of the table. They will approach the tie with confidence and will be keen for the opportunity to set right their last runin this tournament when they were beaten 3-0 in the 2007 semi-finals by a Steven Naismith inspired Kilmarnock.

Past Meetings

Inverness Caledonian Thistle have played Falkirk more times than any other side since the Jags election to the SFL in 1994. Of the 34 contests Falkirk have won 17, Caley Thistle ten and there have been seven draws. The only cup tie meeting between the sides came in the league cup in season 2006/07 and saw Charlie Christie's side eliminated 1-0 in a low key tie. The goal was scored by Anthony Stokes, the then Arsenal youth team player, who took Scottish football by storm during his three month stint at the Falkirk Stadium. The goal that night was his first for Falkirk and the first of six he scored in three games against Caley Thistle, including a hat-trick in his farewell match that December.

Both sides were involved in some great tussles during their time in the SFL First Division. In the final few seasons spent in the division both sides were challenging for the title and the games had a great deal at stake. Strangely in Caley Jag's title winning season Falkirk took ten points from twelve from the eventual champions. John Robertson's glory season started off with a Russell Latapy-inspired defeat to Falkirk at Stenhousmuirs Ochilview with few of the travelling fans predicting the silverware that was to follow that day.

The season before that saw Falkirk win the title but denied promotion due to their failure to meet the then SPL requirements for the 10,000 capacity seated stadium. Caley Thistle maintained a fight through the season until a top of the table clash on the 8th of February (a significant date for Caley fans) when Falkirk triumphed 4-3 in the Highlands. Despite taking a 2-0 first half lead through Barry Robson and Dennis Wyness, Caley were pegged back by half-time thanks to a goal from Collin Samuel and the familiar sight of Owen Coyle bagging a goal against the Jags. Although John Robertson's men retook the lead in the second half through Paul Ritchie, Coyle bagged two more goals to seal a hat-trick and a fantastic win for the Bairns.

Players To Watch

Five Caley Thistle players remain in the first team squad from that game and it is these more experienced campaigners that Craig Brewster will look to tomorrow night. Caley Thistle have been unlucky in the last few weeks with poor refereeing (Adam Rooney's goal disallowed wrongly at Tannadice) and superb goalkeeping (Artur Boruc's saves from Garry Wood and Dougie Imrie) costing the Jags some morale boosting results. With such a young squad the Highlanders could have allow heads to drop and it is the old guard of Tokely, Duncan, Munro and McBain who must push the younger players on and ensure that they stay fully focussed. The younger and less experienced players have shown in flashes what they can do at points this season (Rooney's great strike last weekend, Imrie's man of the match display against Celtic) and a combination of measured experience and the vigour of youth is what this Caley Jags squad need to overcome a tough cup tie.

In the Falkirk line up, young Scott Arfield burst onto the SPL scene last term and has continued his good play this season. The 19 year old scored his first senior goal at Caledonian Stadium and already has four goals from midfield so far this campaign. International recognition has come with a call up to the Scotland Under 21s and rumours of interest from the Premiership will continue to drive this young talent.

Prediction

After three difficult games it's hard to see Caley Thistle prevailing easily against a Falkirk side that have shown character and class to rally back from an appalling start to the season. Despite this the Jags have shown real guts in this competition to go to two difficult lower league venues and prevail in back-and-forth matches. The travelling Caley fans will have to hope that they will be able to repeat the spirited performance given in August at this venue as on current form the likely winners look to be in navy blue.