BILLY DODDS firmly believes that his Inverness side can upset the odds and lift the Scottish Cup after a ruthless performance saw them defeat Falkirk at Hampden.
A double from Billy Mckay either side of a Daniel Mackay goal booked the Highlanders a return to the national stadium in June to face either Celtic or Rangers, who face one another in the second semi-final tomorrow afternoon.
Dodds knows that his men will go into that game as massive underdogs, but says that his team are capable of pulling off yet another shock after dumping two Premiership sides out of the competition on their road to the final, and that they won’t be coming back to Hampden just for a day out.
“As a club, brilliant to be there for the occasion,” Dodds said.
“Financially, [it’s] massive. Everybody looked at the figures when they came out and that brings its own pressures, you know.
“It’s not my remit but a chance to make £800,000, a million quid plus…it puts extra pressure on you. It’s not just a great chance to get to a final against a team from a lower league but there is incredible financial reward.
“Since I’ve been in football as a player, coach or now as a manager I’ve never turned up to a game and thought ‘we can’t win.’ That would be madness.
“Of course, we are going to enjoy the day and of course it’s a big ask against one of the Old Firm.
“But we’re hoping not to just turn up and take part in the final, and that’s it. We’re not just going to take our financial reward just because we’re in the final.
“I’ve got good players - we saw that today as the game went on - and if we’re right at it then we can give anybody a game. As we have proven against Livingston and Kilmarnock.”
Inverness do now however face something of a fixture pile-up, with Dodds hoping they can reach the final of the Premiership play-offs as well, which are due to take place over the same week as the Scottish Cup Final.
“I’d like to have the play-off final complication,” he said.
“Championship clubs are hard done by. Some of our injuries came from the workload we had at the end of last season - six games in a few weeks. We were back after three weeks rest which isn’t enough. Championship teams are being asked to play longer.
“If we reach the play-off final we’re meant to play it the day after the Scottish Cup Final.
“So, they don’t legislate for Championship teams. They might have to work a wee bit harder and look at that.”
Falkirk manager John McGlynn was proud of his defeated players, but rued the lack of quality in the final third, and particularly a golden opportunity spurned by Callumn Morrison to level the game in the first half.
“I felt we had opportunities, Max (Kucheriavyi) had two,” McGlynn said.
“At the other end, one great, quality ball in Mackay scores with a header. That's the difference in the game.
“We start the second half well, on top, then they get a really, really good ball in. From our point of view, not particularly happy about the defending for these two goals but that's the difference. They were clinical in their finishing.
“[We had] two open goals. You can't quite legislate for that. Our guys worked hard, they kept on going, we kept trying to find a way through but we couldn't finish anything today. We should have equalised, 25 yards out, into an open goal and we couldn't do it.
“The character was there throughout the whole game. We never gave up at any point, we kept on pushing. It will stand us in good stead going forward because we've still got a lot to play for. We've got one league game left and then we go into the play-offs.
“The aim from the start of the season was to get into the Championship and we still have a great opportunity to do that. We've had a good cup run and we're proud of the players for that. We've had plenty plaudits for our style of play, but games are won with goals and congratulations to Inverness, they've done the job, and good luck to them in the final.”
