Inverness CT 2 - 0 Elgin City: TerryButcher seeking to transfer cup victory into league points

Published on Sunday 9 January 2011 15:31

Inverness manager Terry Butcher is hoping this Scottish Cup fourth-round victory can help his players recover their SPL form.

Inverness were fourth until consecutive home defeats to St Mirren and Kilmarnock over Christmas and a 1-0 loss at St Johnstone on 2 January dropped them down a place.

They have not won in the SPL since overcoming Hibernian 4-2 at home on 20 November, but Butcher is hopeful injury-time goals from substitute Dani Sanchez and Adam Rooney can provide the spark that has been missing of late.

"I hope the win against Elgin can bring us a bit more confidence," he said. "It was especially pleasing to see Dani Sanchez and Adam Rooney scoring. Adam certainly looked to be back on form, while I was also delighted for Dani as well. I thought his contribution after coming off the bench was fantastic.

"We also decided to give Jonny Tuffey an opportunity in goal and although he had a relatively quiet game, he still kept his concentration and it was good to give him 90 minutes, especially as he hasn't had many chances because Ryan Esson has been fantastic for us"

For manager Ross Jack and his Elgin team, the overriding feeling was one of disappointment having come so close to securing a replay at Borough Briggs.

Elgin will now return to maintaining their promotion push in the Third Division, where they currently sit in fourth place, although Jack only expects it to get harder over the remainder of the season for his players.

"Teams in our division will look at the result we got against Caley Thistle and try to raise their game now when they play us," he said.