National cups are something special for many teams and supporters. Today's match will decide whether it's Hamilton Academical or Inverness CT that keep their silverware dream alive.
One slightly interesting match fact is that this game is played on artifical turf and that the visiting Inverness CT have a different surface at their stadium (grass). The impact of this is hard to measure exactly, but the visitors stats on artifical turf is 3-3-4 (win-draw-loss) from ten matches.
Both teams should be fairly well rested for this game, as they have had some quiet days to prepare. Hopefully this will translate into lots of action on the pitch.
Hamilton Academical form and stats
Last season their Challenge Cup adventure ended in the quarter-finals.Hamilton Academical's struggle is real here at Fountain of Youth Stadium with only 5 points collected from 8 Championship games. The win-draw-lost numbers are ugly: 1-2-5.
Ecrepont (own goal) was the last player to score a league goal for Hamilton Academical and it's becoming a more and more distant memory as Academical haven't scored in 190 minutes.
Hamilton Academical are hoping to put things right at home after a defeat in their previous match, the score 0-4 away versus Queen's Park. As you see from the result above, Academical suffered greatly in their last game. Thankfully the team has a new chance to prove themselves in this one.
A home win before that one, as predicted. The team were huge favourites against East Kilbride and won 4-0. This is expected to be a close game, with Hamilton Academical perhaps considered small favourites due to their home advantage. Looking back at earlier matches similar to this one (expected to be close with Hamilton Academical as a small favourite), we find 6 games. Hamilton Academical has won 1 of these, drawn 2 and lost 3.
Hamilton Academical are certainly not overdoing their scoring at home in league matches, having created 9 goals in 8 games.
Inverness CT form and stats
Last season their Challenge Cup adventure ended in the quarter-finals.4-1-3 is the win-draw-loss statistic for Inverness CT in their Championship matches away.
This fixture can not go any worse than the last one, the home loss versus Dundee with 0-1 on the scoreboard.
Before that match, the win at home against Stirling Albion in the Scottish Cup (3-2). So, this is expected to be a close game, an even contest. Looking at earlier matches with Inverness CT playing away and similar expectations, we found 11 relevant matches. Results were 4 Inverness wins, 4 draws and 3 defeats.
Inverness CT have scored 9 goals on their travels this season, from 8 away games in the league. Inverness CT struggle to build an impenetrable defensive wall in away matches with a total of 12 goals conceded from these games.
Head 2 Head
H2H stats regardless of arena (last ten matches): Academical four wins, three draws and Inverness CT three victories. As for goals, five matches ended with three or more goals (over 2,5), five games had two or less.
Top Goalscorers
  B. McKay 5 goals |   A. Ryan 4 goals |  N. Shaw 4 goals |
Hamilton Academical missing players
Inverness CT missing players
| Hamilton Academical | Inverness CT | ||||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 25 | 12 | Played | P | 12 | 25 | ||
| 7 | 3 | Won | W | 7 | 11 | ||
| 6 | 3 | Drew | D | 1 | 7 | ||
| 12 | 6 | Lost | L | 4 | 7 | ||
| 37 | 20 | Scored | S | 13 | 34 | ||
| 44 | 22 | Conceded | C | 17 | 32 | ||
| 100% | 100% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 92% | 96% | ||
| 84% | 92% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 58% | 64% | ||
| 60% | 50% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 50% | 44% | ||
| 44% | 42% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 33% | 36% | ||
| 16% | 25% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 17% | 20% | ||
| 44% | 58% | BTTS | BTTS | 33% | 48% | ||
| 24% | 17% | Clean Sheets | C S | 50% | 32% | ||
| 32% | 25% | Failed to Score | F T | 25% | 24% | ||
| 6.6 | 8 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 4.4 | 5.2 | ||
| 4.7 | 3.8 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 8.4 | 6.5 | ||
| 1.8 | 1.8 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 1.8 | 1.5 | ||
| 3 | 1 | Red cards | R C | 0 | 0 | ||
| 8.4 | 9.6 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 8.6 | 7.9 | ||
| 3.8 | 4.5 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 3.3 | 3.2 | ||
| 37% | 37% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 33% | 42% | ||
| 10 | 11.3 | Shots against (avg) | S A | 10.8 | 7.8 | ||
| 4.5 | 4.8 | Shots on Target against (avg) | S O | 5.2 | 3.7 | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Ayr United | 17 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 36 | 22 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 19 | 9 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 17 | 13 | 14 | 32 |
| 2 | Dundee | 17 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 28 | 20 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 11 | 8 | 31 |
| 3 | Queen's Park | 17 | 9 | 3 | 5 | 32 | 26 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 18 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 14 | 14 | 6 | 30 |
| 4 | Greenock Morton | 17 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 25 | 17 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 12 | 8 | 29 |
| 5 | Partick Thistle | 17 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 32 | 30 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 19 | 13 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 13 | 17 | 2 | 24 |
| 6 | Inverness CT | 17 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 19 | 21 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 12 | -2 | 23 |
| 7 | Raith Rovers | 17 | 7 | 1 | 9 | 21 | 23 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 16 | 12 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 11 | -2 | 22 |
| 8 | Cove Rangers | 17 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 25 | 28 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 14 | 9 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 11 | 19 | -3 | 18 |
| 9 | Arbroath | 17 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 11 | 23 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 13 | -12 | 13 |
| 10 | Hamilton Academical | 17 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 16 | 35 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 16 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 19 | -19 | 11 |
- Hamilton Academical FC
- The Scottish Sun - (local newspaper)
- Daily Record - (local newspaper)
