Inverness manager John Hughes refused to snipe back at his doubters after picking up the PFA Scotland manager of the year award.

Moments after he collected the prize in Glasgow on Sunday night, his club's official Twitter account reminded fans that Hughes had begun the season as the bookmakers' favourite for the Scottish Premiership 'sack race'.

Hughes had taken over from Terry Butcher midway through the previous season and led Caley Thistle to fifth place and the League Cup final but found wins harder to come by than his predecessor.

But the former Falkirk boss - who had been on the end of unscheduled departures from Hibernian and Hartlepool - has taken Caley Thistle into uncharted territory this season.

The 50-year-old has led the Highland club to their first William Hill Scottish Cup final and they can move seven points clear in the race for third spot in the Scottish Premiership - and their first European qualification - if they beat Dundee United on Tuesday.

However, his main emotion was gratitude after collecting the award as he dismissed questions over proving the sceptics wrong.

"I wouldn't even go down that road," he said. "You can have a bit of banter but I just keep my head down, be humble and grateful for what I'm doing, coaching and managing and making a living out of the game. To tell you the truth, I would do it for nothing, I absolutely love it.

"The age I'm at right now, I don't know if you mellow but it's the appreciation of what's going on.

"After beating Celtic in the semi-final of the cup and the high that gives you, taking in what you have done, to going home and the next morning going to see my in-laws in the care home, and my father-in-law suffering with dementia, and having not seen him for six weeks and walking in and the shock of him being skin and bone.

"That puts football into perspective for me and it makes you humble.

"Sometimes we all get blase but I'm grateful, and grateful for the chairman to give me that opportunity in Inverness. I just love football, it's for everybody else to give their opinion. That's what makes Scottish football fantastic."

Hughes was close to breaking down when he thanked the friends and colleagues that have helped him along his way, from mentors Jim Jefferies and Billy Brown to former team-mates such as John Collins, Neil Oliver and Brian Rice.

But he will be focused on getting three points against Dundee United come Tuesday night.

"It can all go pear-shaped," he warned. "We need to put the Scottish Cup on the backburner, that will take care of itself. We have got league business to take care of and we have St Johnstone and Dundee United breathing down our neck.

"But I wanted to be there in this part of the season getting success for the club and hopefully we do because we deserve it.

"The players have been a wonderful bunch. I keep asking them to go back to the well, keep going again and keep going again. I appreciate we won't win every game but what the boys have given me has been absolutely outstanding and all credit to them."