Hibernian blew their chance to go top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League as they surrendered a two-goal lead to draw with Inverness.
Eoin Doyle's opener and a terrific strike from David Wotherspoon had given the home side a comfortable advantage. However, Conor Pepper pulled one back before Richie Foran grabbed a late equaliser.
Inverness remain without a league win this season, but they had cause to be happy with a point from contest that should have been over by half-time.
Hibernian's leading scorer, Leigh Griffiths, missed out with an ankle injury as manager Pat Fenlon opted for Ross Caldwell ahead of Shefki Kuqi in attack.
For Inverness, Owain Tudur Jones started his three-match suspension after being sent off in the 1-1 home draw against Aberdeen last Saturday. Pepper was his replacement.
Hibernian started the livelier with Josh Meekings fortunate to see a Wotherspoon shot shave the outside of the post after the defender inexplicably dummied the effort.
Wotherspoon's perfectly weighted through-ball then gave Doyle the chance to cross for Caldwell, who fired into the side-netting.
Inverness almost took the lead out of nothing when a sliding Aaron Doran shot forced a one-handed save from Ben Williams.
Straight from that passage of play Hibernian took the lead. Paul Cairney's ball over the top utilised Doyle's pace as he outsprinted his marker and charged into the penalty area. The striker's initial shot was blocked by Ryan Esson but he was able to force the rebound over the line.
The architect of that goal was then unlucky not to get on the scoresheet, Cairney seeing his shot from 20 yards beat Esson but come crashing back off the goalkeeper's left-hand post.
Esson and Inverness' luck only lasted so long as Wotherspoon doubled the home side's advantage in spectacular style.
Allowed space 25 yards from goal, the Scotland under-21 international unleashed an unstoppable shot on the half-volley that found the top corner of the net.
After being denied once again by a low save from Williams, Inverness found a route back into the match after 38 minutes, albeit in controversial circumstances.
Alan Maybury hit the deck after being pressured by Pepper, but referee Euan Norris waved play on as the Inverness player raced through and drove his shot in off the far post.
Hibernian were clearly rattled by the incident and almost surrendered their lead a minute before half-time. Doran's clipped cross into the centre was powered goalward by Gary Warren, but the centre-back was denied by a strong one-handed stop from Williams.
Inverness pressed for a quick equaliser after the break but the first chance would fall to the hosts, with Caldwell sidefooting a volley high over the crossbar after being picked out by a Tim Clancy cross.
Hibernian should have wrapped up the points after 75 minutes.Doyle's headed pass to McPake saw the defender chest and smash the ball on the turn inside the six-yard box. The Hibernian captain was denied by Esson throwing himself in front of the ball and diverting it for a corner.
The hosts had looked comfortable for most of the half, but saw all their hard work evaporate as one defensive lapse allowed Inverness to equalise.
Following a set-piece, Meekings collected the loose ball and took two defenders out of the game with a turn.
His shot was deflected into the path of Warren who, again, saw his effort superbly denied by Williams. However, in came Foran to smash the ball home off the underside of the crossbar.
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