CHARLIE CHRISTIE - Scottish Cup clash will be a royal ding dong between Inverness Caley Thistle and Queen's Park

Whilst 0-0 draws are often drab affairs that certainly wasn’t the case at Caledonian Stadium last Saturday when ICT and Queens Park played out a thoroughly entertaining match where either side could have emerged as winners.

It was the first time I’ve seen newly promoted Queens Park and I was hugely impressed; especially in the first half when their movement and link up play caused us significant problems and I was glad to hear the half time whistle with the score still level.

The second half was a more even affair and we had a couple of excellent opportunities to snatch the win but that would have been very hard on Owen Coyle’s side given what they had put into the game.

Apart from the entertaining game it was terrific to catch up with some well-known football figures from yesteryear – Inverness Thistle’s Alastair Black, Brian Black, Dave Milroy, Roshie Fraser and Jimmy Inglis along with Caley’s former player and manager John Docherty were all in attendance and it was great to get their opinions on the match. Former ICT boss Steve Paterson had also made the trip through, and it was great to see the man who, in my opinion, started the upward spiral of success at ICT.

I have always believed that, whilst ICT have made our own incredible history since our 1994 formation, the two clubs involved in the merger should never be forgotten and seeing these legendary figures from both former clubs at the stadium was a real pleasure and something the club should strive to maintain going forward.

The draw keeps us in the hunt for a play-off place and we certainly look like a more formidable side now that we are seeing some of our injured players return to the starting line-up.

With the current 10-point gap and the quality in their team it will be extremely difficult to catch table toppers Queens Park, but the play-offs are certainly an achievable goal with 15 league games still to go.

This weekend Queens once again make the journey up the A9 as we host them in the Scottish Cup Fourth Round.

Both managers would have learned a fair bit from the league encounter.

Queens were very tidy on the ball with excellent player rotations but also left spaces defensively which can certainly be exploited on the counterattack. Their full backs regularly push on to create overloads in the wide areas but again this can leave holes in their back line.

We have a terrific history in the Scottish Cup, and it would be a huge confidence boost going forward if we could cement our spot in the fifth-round draw.

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