Inverness boss Billy Dodds has told his Scottish Cup final stars: “If you don’t believe, don’t turn up.”
Dodds is looking to cause one of the biggest upsets of recent times by toppling Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic Treble-chasers at Hampden tonight. The Caley Thistle manager is looking to follow in the footsteps of John Hughes, who led the club to glory back in 2015. Dodds claimed: “You cling onto anything when you’re the underdog and a Championship team facing the champions in a Scottish Cup Final. You’ve got to – it is human nature to look at things like that. That’s what we’ve been working on.
“We know it is going to be difficult and we know the machine that we’re facing. But is it do-able? Percentage-wise, it is not very high, but absolutely. That’s not being blase, it’s being factual. I go no further than this season, with Darvel beating Aberdeen. If you don’t believe, don’t turn up.”
Dodds has also vowed to send his Championship out to have a go at glory. “I don’t want to go to Hampden and sit there in a shape, hoping for a fluke over 90 minutes or longer where we’ve sat back and defended on our own line,” he claimed.
“Celtic might force us back for long periods, yes, but I want to try and be a threat as well. We know we’ll face a lot of pressure, we’ll be backs to the wall at times, with a need for the boys to be focused and concentrated at all times.
“But we also want to be a threat – and we are. We usually score goals and there’s only been maybe three or four occasions this season we’ve had a zero to our name. We don’t want to sit back and hope.We want Celtic to know we’re a threat as well.”
It helps that the Caley Thistle will have guys like Danny Devine and Aaron Doran who won the cup with the Highlanders eight years ago. Dodds is confident his players will embrace the moment.
He admitted: “We all handle it differently, and I expect our dressing room to be very similar to that. That’s the way it will be, that’s just dressing rooms for you. I don’t expect anything different, but I hope, and I’m sure they will, handle anything that comes with nerves and trepidation about going into the final against Celtic.”
It has been a long time coming for Inverness who have had five weeks to prepare for the final. Dodds stated: “It felt like an eternity, but the time off was good. I gave the boys nine days off because I knew a month was a long time.
“I’ve experienced it myself with Scotland and a summer World Cup qualifier against Belarus. I know how demoralising it can be, so it was nine days with their families, some went on holiday and it was much-needed rest.
“Then it was a three-week build-up, not ideal, but we’ve had a couple of games, a bounce game and demanded a lot of them. We’ve trained them hard. They’re there on merit and we’re ready to go.”
Dodds, a number of his coaching staff and players are out of contract after the final. He is confident they can get deals in place for most of them.
Dodds revealed: “Still ongoing. Where we were earlier in the season, losing back-to-back with Hamilton, things got put on hold a bit, but they’re ongoing. Things will hopefully be happening in the next few weeks.
“I’m in a similar situation. Hopefully we’ll get something sorted out. We’re all in the same boat, the players, myself and my staff.
“Contracts are coming to an end and we’re hopefully going to get talking soon. I look at my time here as nothing but success. I really do. I couldn’t ask any more of the players, either last season or this season. For me, we’ve had nothing but success - and great times.”
