No extra pressure on Inverness, insists Gary Warren

Gary Warren insists Inverness will not feel any extra strain as they make a second attempt at kicking off their William Hill Scottish Cup defence - because no one expects them to keep the trophy.

Last year's winners were held to a goalless draw by Stirling at Forthbank the weekend before last and will go at it again with the Binos on Tuesday night.

But stand-in Highlanders skipper Warren does not feel the weight of expectation bearing down on his team ahead of the Caledonian Stadium fixture just because they are the holders.

The Englishman claims not many expected Caley Thistle to knock out the likes of Celtic on their way to triumphing at Hampden last year and fewer still reckon they can repeat the feat.

He said There's no extra pressure on us this year. We were not expected to win the tournament last year and we're not expected to win it this year either.

To be fair, if you look at the size of our club we're one of the least-likely winners.

As players and coaches, we all know that, so we never put extra pressure on ourselves to do well.

If you come up against a side from a lower league it is always tough as they raise their game by that 20 or 25 per cent and try to make it hard for us. This is their cup final.

For us, it's just about being professional on Tuesday.

We need to be ruthless about how we go about the game. There is going to be a lot of press about and the sky cameras will be there because they want to see an upset.

That, though, should add extra motivation for us.''

Inverness boss John Hughes hoped his side had shaken off their disappointing first half of the campaign with a five-match unbeaten run across the festive period.

But their Stirling stalemate was then followed by Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Kilmarnock.

And Warren knows that blip could become something altogether more serious if they fail to see off Stuart McLaren's League Two side Albion.

It's been a frustrating couple of weeks with the Stirling result then losing to Kilmarnock,'' said the 31-year-old.

Credit to Stirling though. Although they are from the lower leagues I thought they were brilliant when we played them first time round.

They worked so hard and were very determined, which is what you expect when you play a side like them. It will be the same again in the replay.

We just need to make sure we are back to our best. When we reach that level we can beat anyone.''

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