FOOTBALL'S carbon footprint is the only loser so far in this William Hill Scottish Cup tie.
Inverness Caledonian Thistle fans spent about six hours journeying most of the length and breadth of the country yesterday. Now, the most hardened of the Stranraer support will have to make the long trip north for the replay a week on Tuesday.
John Hughes' League Cup finalists were held by an enterprising and hard-working display from the part-time home side, who briefly dared to dream after Jamie Longworth fired them into a 2-1 lead with less than 20 minutes remaining. However, Billy McKay popped up out of nowhere to head home the equaliser two minutes later.
Hughes said: "We showed character to dig deep and we're still in there. They deserve their replay, that's for sure. We gave them two goals, but they were clinical in their finishing. We'll need to be at our best to make sure we make the next round."
The opening goal came with five minutes remaining of what had been a poor first half.
Aaron Doran was just a little too quick for the Stranraer defence all afternoon and after conjuring a pocket of space inside on the left inside the penalty box, he curled the ball beyond David Mitchell, who could but stare as it nestled in the bottom corner.
On the stroke of half-time, however, Stranraer's Mark Docherty raced the length of the pitch to receive the ball on the overlap.
He curled a high ball to the far post, where Martin Grehan was needlessly pushed by Graeme Shinnie. Grehan, who had had a tough task leading the line for the hosts, thumped home the penalty. "I thought it was a shove," admitted Hughes.
The Inverness manager threw on Richie Foran just before the hour, the captain making his first appearance since December after recovering from a shoulder injury.
He has mostly played in the centre of the park this season, but was restored here to the attack, alongside McKay. Foran's arrival almost paid dividends when lightning break saw Doran feed him on the right. Foran played the ball across the six-yard box where McKay was lurking, but it was cleared.
Stranraer got the break all their hard work deserved midway through the half when Longworth pounced on a loose header on the halfway line.
He flicked the ball behind Josh Meekings, who misjudged a long hoof out of defence, and suddenly he was in. Not the paciest, the striker was being caught up quickly; he knew he had to take it early.
With a swish of his right boot, just outside the area, he sent the ball past the onrushing Dean Brill for his 20th goal of the season.
Inverness were shellshocked but they regrouped quickly. McKay fired a warning shot from a corner before he nodded in from a Foran cutback. Both teams brought on fresh legs as they pushed for a winner but the defences held strong.
"It's going to be tough," Stranraer manager Stephen Aitken said of the replay. "Midweek games are difficult for part-time clubs and the boys will need to get two days off work.
"But it is what it is. I tried to throw as many men forward as possible to try to win it at the end, but if you'd said before the game that we would get a draw I would have been delighted."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article