Wilson urges Inverness Caledonian Thistle to avoid being on wrong side of Scottish Cup shock
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Barry Wilson knows from happy experience the cataclysmic shock and trauma a Scottish Cup giant-killing act can inflict on a football club.
Avoiding something similar in reverse tonight on the Moray coast could come down to personal pride, the Caley Thistle coach believes.
Wilson scored the opener and won a penalty in his team’s earth-shattering 3–1 victory over John Barnes’ Celtic in February 2000, a result that plunged the Glasgow giants into crisis and upheaval.
The triumph was rated one of the greatest Scottish Cup shocks, yet Inverness sat just one league tier below their hosts, to Buckie’s three.
Wilson will surely have offered quiet words of warning to the players by kick off at Victoria Park, with an enticing third round trip to Ross County’s namesake ground on offer.
“A few of the Buckie players have been at this club before, as was the manager himself, so they’ll be keen to show what they can do,” Wilson said. “When we play them in pre-season it’s like a cup final, so this week it will be even more so. We will treat Buckie with respect. If we show the right attitude we can get the right result.
“If I was a Buckie player, I’d be champing at the bit. They will think we might be tired from all of our league matches and if they come out with all guns blazing they can unsettle us.
“We have to be prepared for that.
“It would be great to set up a Highland derby, especially as it’s not as if we play County all the time now.
“Personal pride has to come into it. You certainly don’t want to be on the end of a shock.”
Wilson reckons the ICT squad, hit by injuries, has dealt with heavy fixture demands superbly of late in the league.
“We have had a horrendous run and we have been flogging the same horses, but the players have responded brilliantly,” he said.
“We haven’t had much training time because it has been an unbelievable run of games, it’s all about getting energy back in the legs.
“Since Neil McCann came in, we have been limited to what we’ve been able to do, but after this week we might get a chance to have a more normal week.”
Brad Mckay and David Carson are suspended for the Buckie match.
