Butcher warns Caley not to treat Queen's Park lightly

Published on Friday 30 July 2010 20:37

Inverness manager Terry Butcher has urged his players to treat the visit of Queen's Park just as they would if it was their return to the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.

Inverness open their competitive season against the amateur side at home today in the first round of the Co-operative Insurance Cup.

Butcher is not one to stand for complacency and the former Motherwell manager is even more wary given the match comes two weeks before his team start their SPL campaign.

Butcher said: "Just go back 12 months when we played Montrose in the Challenge Cup. We drew 1-1 after 120 minutes and then scraped through on penalties. That gave us a scare.

"We know Queen's Park will come here with nothing to lose. Gardner Speirs knows the Highlands very well from his time as manager of Ross County, and they will be buoyed by their win over Livingston last week. We want to make sure we prepare just like it was an SPL game."

Butcher, who is hoping to secure international clearance for Frenchman Kenny Gillet to make his debut, added: "I was at Motherwell when we lost to St Mirren, who were a First Division club at the time. It's not nice.

"These are always difficult games, particularly in this case because it comes very early in the pre-season preparations. We don't start our SPL season for another two weeks."

Butcher's side won their last nine league games before collecting the Irn-Bru First Division trophy and he will do everything to make sure that winning mentality remains.

"The last time we played here we lifted the First Division trophy," the former England captain said. "Rod Stewart was playing here as well the last time I was here for a big event. There were 19,000 people on the pitch that night. The atmosphere might be slightly flatter but we want to have good memories again."

Meanwhile, Jim Hamilton is expected to make his debut for Arbroath this afternoon against former side Dunfermline - the 12th team of the 34-year-old's nomadic career. The former Dundee, Hearts, Aberdeen and Dundee United player suffered an anxious summer in his hunt for a new club after being released by Livingston at the end of last season.

But, having followed Almondvale colleague Danny Griffin to Gayfield, where he will team up with experienced campaigners such as Kieran McAnespie, Marc McCulloch and Stuart Malcolm, as well as player-manager Paul Sheerin, Hamilton is relishing another new challenge. He said: "I've not got enough fingers to count up all my clubs so I've lost count! But, whatever it is, I'm delighted to get something sorted out. It's been a frustrating summer since I left Livingston at the start of May. Clubs, understandably, don't want to pay anybody during the summer but you start to worry when teams are back for pre-season and still nothing is happening.

"But to get this move to Arbroath is great.I know a few of the boys, they are ambitious, determined to bounce back from relegation and have players, like Gavin Swankie, who should be playing at a higher level."

Arbroath pushed Dunfermline all the way in last Saturday's 1-0 defeat in the Alba Challenge Cup and Hamilton is hopeful he can contribute to a better result this afternoon. He added: "It's always nice to go back to a former club. It was a very close game last weekend and hopefully we can build on that.

"But I've not done a proper pre-season so it will take me a while to get my fitness up again and hopefully I can be more up to speed for the start of the league next weekend."