Darren Dods, his players and his coaching team will make the lengthy journey north up the A9 to kick off the competitive action for season 2017/18 against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

Only a few weeks ago, two leagues separated the clubs but relegation from the Premiership for the Highland side and a memorable Championship Play-Off victory for City ensured that the clubs would meet again for the first time since 2003/04.

Now, grouped together within the sectional format of the Betfred Cup, the 2 sides clash earlier than anticipated in this season’s opener.
The home side appointed John Robertson as manager during the close-season, and ICT fans will doubtless be eager to see how the former Scotland internationalist sets about blending his new signings together – as the game against Brechin is the first competitive action of his new tenure.

Suspensions and injury have been particularly unkind to Darren and the squad will have to face the Highlanders without several influential figures – including Liam Watt, Finn Graham, James Dale, Chris O’Neil and Ryan McGeever.

Given that Cup competition rules state that trialists cannot be played, the SPFL offices will have been busy with numerous clubs looking to convert successful trialists into permanent signings in advance of ‘the real ball coming out’.

At Brechin City we played our part in this with a flurry of activity including the signing of former Livingston captain and centre back, Sean Crighton, as well as youngsters Kalvin Orsi and Jordan Sinclair both of whom made a couple of substitute appearances against City last season for Queen’s Park and Livingston respectively

It’s the first League Cup meeting of the two clubs in any of its sponsorship guises, and both sides share a group with City's Betfed Cup opponents of last season, Falkirk and Stirling Albion, along with county rivals Forfar Athletic.

The competition enjoys a unique twist with drawn games going straight to a penalty shoot-out, the winner of which earning a bonus point which is carried into the mini-league table for each section. The winners of each group will progress to the more conventional knock-out second round, along with the 4 best placed runners up – where they will be joined by Scotland’s European representatives: Celtic, Aberdeen, Rangers and St Johnstone.