INVERNESS travel to Aberdeen to face a Cove Rangers side who have utterly bombed in the Premier Sports Cup and know a win would go a long way to keep alive their hopes of qualifying.
Billy Dodds' side fought back from being two goals down at home on Saturday to League Two Stirling Albion to rescue a point. Previously, they comfortably disposed of fellow Highlanders Peterhead.
However, it's the form of Cove Rangers – who are most bookies' favourites to win League One this season – which has been a real surprise.
They've been heavily backed because of their eye-catching signings of Premiership players Iain Vigurs and Ross Draper from Ross County, which back ups the likes of Fraser Fyvie and Mitch Megginson in an expensively-assembled squad.
However, they've lost all three League Cup games to Stirling Albion, Hearts and Peterhead and looked shambolic. Manager Paul Hartley slammed his players after their defeat and Megginson is a doubt.
So with Cove already out and Caley Thistle needing the points, the Championship side should have their tails up for this game.
How the bookies view it
Inverness are 5/4 favourites with McBookie.com, with the Balmoral Stadium outfit 21/10 with Betfred. The draw is 13/5 with Unibet.
Recent head to heads
The clubs have only met twice and Inverness have won on both occasions. Both were League Cup ties and both were in Inverness and ICT won 3-2 two years ago and 2-0 three years ago. There was no footage of either game.
Players to watch
With Mitch Megginson a doubt for Cove with a knee knock, old warhorse Rory McAllister will be charged with getting the goals. He's 34 now, but has scored an impressive 266 career goals in 445 starts in all competitions. He'll be Cove's go-to man for goals.
Manny Duku was an eye-catching signing for Caley Thistle in the summer after netting nine goals in 16 starts for Raith Rovers last season in all competitions. He's already got his Inverness account up and running by netting on his debut.
Anything else catch the eye?
With Cove already out and manager Paul Hartley pledging to have everything sorted for their league opener a week on Saturday, it's hard to see them busting a gut here apart to restore some pride in a competition they probably put little stock into anyway.
Inverness look too strong anyway on paper and they will see this as a decent opportunity to get three more points on the board as they try to get through to the knock-out rounds.
They've scored two goals in both their games this season and the over 1.5 team goals with McBookie.com at 8/5 looks a solid investment.
This Scottish League Cup match between Cove Rangers and Inverness will be played on Jul 20, 2021 and kick off at 19:45. Check below for our tipsters best Cove Rangers vs Inverness prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
In December 2020 we sadly 
Inverness AH -0.25 seems to be a nice option imo!