Inverness Caledonian Thistle aim to avoid another Scottish Cup rout in Glasgow
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There will be elements of deja vu as Caley Thistle Women visit Glasgow Women in the Scottish Cup this Sunday.
For the second year in-a-row, they are drawn away at a SWPL One club who are languishing at the foot of the top flight.
Again, though, Inverness will be significant underdogs, with the higher-tier outfit heavy favourites to progress.
ICT’s task this time around will be to avoid a repeat of the scoreline too.
This time last year, Hamilton reached double digits as they cantered to victory, but while expectations are low Caley Thistle manager Karen Mason is hoping to avoid such a one-sided result on Sunday.
“I wouldn’t imagine that the Scottish Cup is anywhere near a realistic aim for us,” she reasoned.
“It will be nice to go up against a team in the top division to see how we fare, and it will give people the chance to play against a side they won’t have before and get some minutes under our belts before we start up again in the league.
“We probably saw the quality that is needed at that top level against Hamilton. They weren’t a bad side at all, so seeing what it takes to play at a top level might inspire people.
“This season we will see if there is much difference in the scoreline – any improvement would be a blessing.
“We’ve just got to go out and give it a shot. At the end of the day it’s the old cliche – it’s 11 against 11 – so we have to hope it’s our day.
“If not, we’ll take it on the chin and move on.”
Mason expects a thin squad to travel to Glasgow this weekend, but while their opponents may not know too much about Inverness it is a similar story in return.
“Glasgow are probably one of the less high profile teams in the SWPL One,” she added.
“We played them coming through the leagues, but even that was way back when we were the Premier League team and they were coming through.
“It’s been a while, and they’ve got players who are on professional contracts and are training full time. It’s night and day in terms of set-ups, we’ve just got to hope there’s a surprise on the day.
“We’re going in as underdogs, nobody is expecting us to do anything, so there’s no pressure on the girls. They can just go out and express themselves, and you never know what could happen.”
