Finnigan finding his feet - Hughes

08 March 2009 14:18
The former Newcastle striker scored a first-half penalty on Saturday to book his side a place in the last four of the Homecoming Scottish Cup. With Michael Higdon suspended, Hughes was glad the 22-year-old got on the scoresheet after an injury-plagued season. He said: "I think that is only Carl's third or fourth start of the season as he has really been hampered by injury and illness. He is still finding his feet but the one thing about Carl is he is an honest, hard working boy who puts in a shift." Hughes revealed after the game that Finnigan was not his side's designated penalty taker. "Carl showed great composure to take the penalty," said Hughes. "Scott Arfield is our usual penalty taker but he was missing so we decided that Burton O'Brien or Mark Stewart would take the penalty if we got one. "But Carl grabbed the ball and I like players that show the confidence to step up and take it. He showed great responsibility." Hughes is now hoping the motivation of a place in the starting eleven for a Scottish Cup semi final will help his side move off the foot of the table. "Hopefully the result will give us a springboard that we can kick-on from," he added. "The boys will all be fighting for a place in the team for the semi-final and that can only bode well for the club. "It will be a great day out for the fans as well and I'd like to think we can take 10-12,000 supporters down to Hampden." Inverness boss Terry Butcher was impressed with his Scotland colleague Steven Pressley's performance at the heart of the Falkirk defence. Butcher, who is also the Scotland assistant coach, said: "It was his sort of game. We were putting lots of high balls into the box after they went 1-0 up and he defended very well. I thought he had a wonderful game but the fact that he played so well means that we have given everything going forward." Caley were reduced to 10 men just on the half-hour mark when Lionel Djebi-Zadi hauled Finnigan to the ground in the box. The Frenchman was given his marching orders for the reckless challenge and the Falkirk striker smashed home the spot-kick. But Butcher said he was pleased with how his side performed in spite of their numerical disadvantage for the majority of the game. "I'm really pleased with the effort commitment the boys showed and there are a lot of positives we can take from the match," he added. "It has certainly been quite a week for us. We had a slap in the face against Motherwell last week and then we took an almighty lift by beating Rangers on Wednesday. I wouldn't say today was another slap in the face though - it felt much more like a blow to a lower part of the body!"

Source: Team_Talk