GRAEME Shinnie admits it proved a surreal day as he tussled with the brother he used to kick mercilessly in the back garden.
It was a day of sibling reunion and rivalry for the Inverness Caledonian Thistle stand-in captain with ex-Caley man Andrew starring in Birmingham City's flattering 3-1 victory over the Highlanders.
With mum and dad Gary and Linda down from Aberdeen to watch, the Shinnie brothers relived their childhood scraps, but Graeme admitted: "I was moved to left back by the time Andrew came on today and I didn't really get near enough to kick him!
"But it was a very good moment for both of us to be on the pitch in opposing sides. It's a moment we'll always savour. There's parental pride, but definitely for ourselves as well."
Of greater importance to Caley Thistle was the coming together of the John Hughes masterplan.
Birmingham ultimately resisted a powerful Caley Thistle recovery to maintain their near-flawless pre-season.
The Midlands outfit had won four from four in pre-season without conceding a goal and were always going to represent a powerful test for the Highlanders.
And it wasn't long before the hosts were showcasing the strength of England's second tier division.
They swept to a seventh-minute lead, with Lee Novak swerving a wonderful 20-yard shot high past Dean Brill before England under-18 international Demarai Gray struck the second in 38 minutes.
Andrew Shinnie's entrance from the bench for Birmingham after 64 minutes had the away support chanting his name in honour of past endeavours.
But the hosts were very much back in the match after 74 minutes thanks to a Gary Warren header.
And when Clayton Donaldson was brought down in the box by scorer Warren, former Celtic starlet Paul Caddis squeezed the ball past Dean Brill's glove into the corner of the net to put a sheen on the score City scarcely deserved.
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