The Scottish Cup brings fond memories to Jamie McCart’s household but the Caley Thistle defender says his father Chris is too modest to raise the subject of his 1991 triumph with Motherwell.
Defender McCart is aiming to help Inverness reach the Scottish Cup final tomorrow, when John Robertson’s men face Hearts in the last four of the competition.
McCart has the added incentive of attempting to emulate his father’s feat of being part of Well’s side which won the competition in a dramatic 4-3 final win against Dundee United 28 years ago.
The 21-year-old says the victory is kept quiet by his father, who is head of youth development at Celtic, and he said: “The 1991 final isn’t really spoken about a lot, just now and then. My dad doesn’t really like to talk about stuff like that, he is quite modest about it.
“It was mostly other people that told me about it, rather than my dad or my mum.
“It was mostly family friends and people I run into – it didn’t come from within. Other people spoke about it and I just realised about it.
“Hopefully I can emulate my dad, but we just need to get through the semi final first.
“He was the biggest influence on me, without a doubt. Even today, he’s still massive for me.
“He’s someone I can lean on for support and advice, which some players are not lucky enough to have.”
McCart is eagerly anticipating his maiden senior Hampden outing, and dares to dream of going all the way with the Highlanders.
He added: “It’s the biggest game of my career so far.
“Playing in front of a big crowd at Hampden in a semi final, with massive importance, I’m really looking forward to it.
“I have played at Hampden a couple of times with Celtic in the youth cup, and against Queen’s Park. But nothing to the magnitude of a Scottish Cup semi final.
“It’s definitely the biggest occasion so far.
“My whole family will be there, I don’t think they would miss it for the world.
“Any cup win outside the Old Firm, or maybe Hearts and Hibs winning it, should be inspiration for the smaller clubs – like this club did in 2015.
“It shows it is possible. I think you need to take inspiration from quite a lot of cup runs.”
After knocking out Edinburgh City and East Kilbride in the early rounds, Caley Jags defeated Championship top-two Ross County and Dundee United to reach the semi final stage.
Although McCart knows tomorrow’s encounter with the Jambos will be a sterner test, he is embracing the task of upsetting Craig Levein’s side.
He added: “We have had a good run up until now, so this is our first real big test against one of the best teams in Scotland. It will be interesting to see how we do.
“Now we are here we are so desperate to get to the final, we even felt that in the last round.
“We are massive underdogs, so in that sense some of the pressure is off us and we can just go out and enjoy it.
“Everyone expects Hearts to win, but I think on our day we could beat most teams in Scotland.”
