Terry Butcher says he will fight for a change to SFA laws after being told bookings issued during the first half of Friday night's abandoned Highland derby against Ross County will still count. The game at the unfortunately named Global Energy Stadium was brought to an early close at half-time, still goalless, following a floodlight failure. However, the Inverness manager is incensed to learn that that bookings shown to Caley Thistle players Ross Draper and Gary Warren will count as part of their disciplinary record. Referee John Beaton also brandished yellow cards to Melvin de Leeuw and Kevin Luckassen but Butcher has called for the rules to be changed and the cautions voided. Butcher - whose side host Dundee United in the League Cup quarter-finals tonight - said: "We are still angry about the game on Friday night. Not so much about the floodlight failure - there was nothing we could do about that. However, the fact is that we had two bookings in the game - Ross Draper and Gary Warren - and these bookings carry forward. They are part of the disciplinary process now and they will count. If it was a red card, it would also have counted and I would totally agree with that - but not bookings. Nothing else counts in the game - the score doesn't count and if someone had scored a goal, it wouldn't have mattered either. But these bookings count. So in effect for both ourselves and Ross County, our league season will be 38-and-a-half games. How can that be fair? From a fairness point of view, these bookings should be scrapped but according to SFA rules they have to be upheld. I'll be pushing hard for a change in the laws because it's absolutely ludicrous that players booked in an abandoned game tally up."Tonight's last eight meeting with Dundee United provides Inverness the chance to make up for last season's semi-final defeat to Hearts. The Highlanders missed out on the first ever major cup final when they lost out on penalties. Butcher wants his men to use the pain of those memories to inspire themselves towards a win. He said: "We want to go further than last year,. It was heartbreaking to go out on penalties against Hearts. We were angry because we thought we should have gone through over the 120 minutes. It was really disappointing but we can use that anger and turn it into a winning display against Dundee United and help get ourselves though to the semis. A lot of teams will fancy their chances with Celtic being out. There will be a name going on the trophy that wasn't expected to be there at the start of the competition when it started out."Butcher's opposite number, Dundee United manager Jackie McNamara believes his side could not have asked for better preparation for the game. The Tayside club head north on the back of Saturday's 4-0 Scottish Premiership home win over St Mirren. McNamara reckons it was his side's best performance of the season so far and the ideal morale-booster as they aim for a place in the last four of the competition. He said: "The lads are all looking forward to the tie. We're entitled to go there with some confidence after Saturday. That was probably the best we've played all season as a team. There were plenty of positives to take from the game, like the goals and the way everything gelled together. Now we have to take all that into the Inverness game and hopefully we can because we know it will be a very tough cup tie. We know Inverness are a strong side. That's shown by results at home, where they've only lost once.They have a real team work ethic which has served them well. But, like any game, it's about what we do and we'll be concentrating on ourselves. We know what we can do on our day and that's what we have to try and do. It's a one-off tie and we know what is at stake. It would be great for the club as a whole to progress."
Source: ScottishFitba
Source: FOOTYMAD
