League Cup Third Round

It's league cup action on Tuesday night as Inverness travel to Dens Park to take on Dundee in the third round of the tournament.

This will be our third away game in a row, having been to Kilmarnock and Aberdeen since defeating Hearts at home in August. We surrendered our undefeated start to the season losing 1-0 at Pittodrie in a tense meeting with the Dons, but in all honesty it was a bit of a continuation of the dour stuff we witnessed at Kilmarnock. Gone is the fluent defence splitting moves that saw us tear Hearts apart and the long ball has returned, which seems to have sapped the confidence from the team and fans alike.

This game is a potential banana skin with the Dark Blues in indifferent form. They too suffered at the weekend going down 3-1 at Falkirk and their season has been littered with poor results and a sprinkling of decent scores. They were knocked out of the Challenge Cup on penalties by Stenhousemuir, but stuffed Livingston 3-0 in the Championship. In the second round of the League Cup they accounted for the Rangers conquerors Forfar Athletic by 2-1.

This could be an ideal opportunity to let some of the fringe players show what they can do and possibly give Ryan Esson some game time but at the same time Butcher needs to ensure we do enough to continue in the competition, something he would clearly like to accomplish after last seasons disappointment in the semi-final. It's a choice only he can make but Dundee must not be underestimated at any cost so I imagine the changes will be kept to a minimum.

One or two players will need to get back on track and James Vincent is one that is in this category. He started the season impressively but has been conspicuous by his absence in recent games, seemingly disappearing into thin air as games go on, possibly a victim of the long ball as the game by-passes the midfield.

Dundee will be without midfielder Kevin McBride who is suspended after being sent off against Forfar in the last round. Midfielder Jamie Reid and forward Leighton MacIntosh will not be in the squad through injuries although Nicky Riley could come into contention should he prove his fitness. The tricky wide player will be one to watch if he makes a start and he has proven himself against Inverness before, scoring in the league game at Inverness last season.

Kirishima has this take on our tussle with Dundee......................enjoy

So, for the first time this season, ICT have to come off a defeat in their upcoming match. The excellent reaction of the Inverness fans after the Aberdeen game will have shown the players and management that we are no fair-weather fans. Terry will be looking for a similar reaction from his players, but the third round of the League Cup will no doubt see a few SPFL teams fall by the wayside to supposedly “lesser” opposition. For Inverness, a tricky away tie against Dundee (the last team ever to be relegated from the SPL) is not a break from anything; it is business as usual.

The team sheet for this game will be interesting reading as media reports differ. The BBC expects Terry to rotate his starting XI and there is no better time for a minibus load of fringe players to finally make their mark. The Sun, however, expects an unchanged side and Terry has stressed his team is keen to “bounce back” after “falling off the bar stool” and so a raft of changes would be unlikely on that logic.

Ryan Esson desperately needs game time and, with Brill so far only signed up until January, he must be frontrunner to start. Torbjørn "Toby" Agdestein, with six appearances from the bench, could replace either James Vincent or Billy McKay. Danny Williams has also been used consistently as a substitute for Vincent and could potentially feature from the off. In all, there are at least 10 first-team players yet to start a game for ICT but who have the pedigree to start in a cup tie against lower league opposition. This, then, will be the most eagerly anticipated team sheet for some time.

Terry will be reunited with old* Rangers pal and defensive team mate John Brown. Famed for his impassioned speeches of love for Rangers, Brown has no less than seven ex-Celtic players in his squad (and two Rangers players to bring balance to the force). Dundee are eight points off the lead in the Scottish Championship and have slipped to fourth position following some mediocre performances. One man has been brought in to change all that: Craig Beattie. Beattie spent four years with Celtic before moving on to West Brom for £1.25m in 2007 and then Swansea, Hearts, St Johnstone, Barnet before Dundee signed him up. Brown is a fan of out-of-favour Beattie, "A fit Craig Beattie will cause havoc for our opponents all season." The 29-year-old, 6ft striker, could make his debut against Inverness with a point to prove. Peter Macdonald, with six goals this season, is no less of a threat. Luckily for ICT's physio, hatchet-man defensive midfielder Kevin McBride (32) is suspended and old faithful Gavin Rae (35) might not be helped out by a sought-after sprightly Nicky Riley as the latter struggles with an injury.

There are still scores to settle. Despite ICT having by far the better head-to-head record, it was just four years ago that Dundee broke Invernessian hearts in the Alba cup final in Perth. Only two players, Esson and Foran, will remember that day, but for the fans, cup games against Dundee have another edge to them. Will this be the year ICT lift a major cup? If they do, it all started here.

*N.B. This sentence refers to Messrs. Butcher & Brown as former, ex-, alumni, parted-but-not-forgotten pals, and is not an attempt at subterfuge regarding the status of the aforementioned colleagues’ previous employer in any way shape or form and these views are my own and not necessarily those of CTO or any other platform in which this sentence may be viewed. Any such inference to the status of said club is purely accidental and shall not, will not, and cannot be construed as anything other than for the purpose of highlighting Auld Lang Syne-esque camaraderie.