Inverness Caledonian Thistle will look to start emulating last season’s run to the KDM Evolution Trophy final when they host Montrose tomorrow night.

Last year, the Caley Jags balanced a League One title charge with a cup run, making it through to the final before losing out to Raith Rovers.

Momentum built up early in the campaign in the Challenge Cup’s newly-integrated league phase helped carry them to the brink of a trophy double, but as a Championship side this season ICT enter the competition in the knockout rounds.

There, their first test will be Montrose, who won four of their six league phase matches to finish 10th in the table.

The Gable Endies are also third in the League One table, so although Inverness will be favourites as the higher-ranked team it will not be an easy victory for them in the Highland capital.

“It was good for us, and it helped our squad get minutes. It was a shame, because we did so well to get to the final, but we never managed to give a good account of ourselves. That was frustrating, but getting to a final and winning the league in one year, we were delighted with that.

“It was good experience for a lot of our young boys, so it will be good to get back to it.

“Stewart (Petrie) has done a great job at Montrose, and he’s the longest serving manager in Scotland. He’s a good guy and a good friend, and year after year they do well in League One.

“He has recruited well so I’m sure his aim will be to get into the play-offs this year. We know it’s going to be a hard game – it wasn’t easy either of the last two years against them, so we’ll have to be at our best to beat them at home.”

It would be easy to think that there are higher expectations for Caley Thistle in the KDM Evolution Trophy as a Championship side after last year’s run to the final, but Kellacher moved to ease any pressure on his players.

“We don’t put too much expectation on ourselves, we just want to go with the flow,” he added.

“We know our targets, we know what we want to achieve and where we want to get to, so we approach every game the same.

“We’ll be looking to go and beat Montrose, and if it can take us on the same sort of journey it did last year, ideal.

“It’s a busy month with the KDM Evolution Trophy, Scottish Cup and the league, and it’s a tricky run of games.

“We will get our heads down and work as hard as we can, and here’s hoping we can put some wins on the board.”