Caley Thistle boss Billy Dodds is grateful to have a second bite in the Scottish Cup after Queen’s Park were kicked out of the competition.
The Spiders, who are the Championship leaders, won 2-0 in Inverness last Tuesday to make their way into the fifth-round of the cup and earn an away tie against Premiership Livingston this weekend.
However, on Friday, Queen’s were punished for fielding an ineligible player in their win and the Scottish FA reinstated Caley Thistle for the fifth-round Tony Macaroni Arena clash on Saturday.
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The issue for the Glasgow club was they played on-loan Hearts forward Euan Henderson in last week’s tie, which came 10 days after the original game was postponed due to a snow-bound Caledonian Stadium pitch.
Henderson was not signed in time for the first scheduled match and, according to competition rule 12.5, they broke the rules, which led to ICT being reinstated.
‘Let’s take shot’ at Livingston – Dodds
Dodds – whose side came from behind to draw 2-2 with Morton in the league at the weekend – admits it was not the way he wanted to progress in the cup, but he’s urging his players to put on a show against a Livi side who are fourth in the Premiership.
He said: “It’s a huge boost both financially, and to get another crack at it.
“We looked as if we were out of the competition, but their wee striker (Euan Henderson) had two one-on-ones last week, so he had a big part in the game.
“I’m just looking at us… was I wanting to get through the cup-tie that way? Absolutely not.
“But I’m thrilled to get a shot at Livingston. Let’s take it, while it’s been made available to us.
“It’s a chance that I didn’t think we would get, but it’s a chance my players and I are going to relish.”
ICT seek repeat win in West Lothian
Cheap goals conceded and a flat first half were the low points as ICT toiled before striking back twice to share four weekend goals with Dougie Imrie’s Morton.
And January’s Championship manager of the month Dodds knows Caley Thistle must raise the levels as they seek to repeat the feat of winning in West Lothian, as they did in the group stages of the League Cup last July.
He added: “We will have to play better than we did in the first half against Morton.
“We must do the things we are good at. When we do, as we saw at the start of the season, we can give anybody a game.
“Livingston are in a slightly better place – because it was the start of the season (when the sides met in the League Cup), maybe they were a bit rusty at the time.
“(Manager) David Martindale has done his usual. He has found a formula to get them going and they’re flying high in the league.
“We are going to have to be better than we were on Saturday, because they (Livi) are better than they were when we played them earlier in the season.”
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