THIS turned out to be quite the 21st birthday party.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle, that club born in 1994 out of a hostile and widely-opposed merger between two of the city's Highland League teams, chose to celebrate their coming-of-age at a gathering attended by more than 37,000 guests in the south side of Glasgow. They departed with the William Hill Scottish Cup tucked under their arms, the first major trophy in the club's short but already eventful history. Judging by the boisterous nature of the celebrations at full-time, this was a shindig set to continue all the way up the A9 and then take root in Inverness for some time to come.

This has been a stellar season for John Hughes and his players. Out of the disappointment of last year's League Cup final defeat to Aberdeen, they have bounced back emphatically. A third-placed finish in the league guaranteed them a maiden crack at European football, but this was the one they wanted. The Scottish Cup will now reside in the Highlands for the first time and nobody seemed prouder than Hughes, even if he could not resist scolding his players for the poverty of their second-half performance.

His team had been hot favourites to beat second-tier Falkirk but the manner of their victory was far from straightforward. Guarding a narrow first-half lead, they lost a player to a red card with 15 minutes to go, conceded an equaliser five minutes later and were hanging on grimly for extra-time as Falkirk smelt blood. Out of nowhere, however, came an Inverness counter attack that concluded with James Vincent putting them back in front with just four minutes remaining. This time Falkirk had no response.

As they watched Inverness go up to collect the trophy, manager Peter Houston and his players all wore the look of a man who had the winning lottery ticket in his hands only for a gust of wind to blow it away. None will feel the pain of defeat more than Jamie MacDonald. The goalkeeper, part of the Hearts team that had trounced Hibernian in the 2012 final, will not recall his role in the winning goal with any huge fondness. There was little power in Marley Watkins' shot after the forward had hared goalwards from the halfway line but MacDonald, inexplicably, could only push it weakly to the side. Vincent, following up just in case, could scarcely believe his luck as he rammed in the loose ball. MacDonald's reaction at the end - as he passed through the media zone without uttering a word - seemed to be that of a man who knew he had royally messed up.

He and his team-mates will look back and wonder just how it all slipped from their grasp. They had struggled for fluency in the first half but, emboldened by the appearance of substitute Botti Biabi, suddenly found hope anew. Their case grew stronger when Carl Tremarco was sent off after getting himself in a horrible fankle just inside his own half, allowing the ball to run away from him and into the path of Blair Alston. Tremarco's desperate tackle got only the player and not the ball and before he had even stood up referee Willie Collum was thrusting a red card in his face.

Falkirk thought they should have had a penalty two minutes later when the ball seemed to strike Ross Draper on the arm but continued to plug on regardless. They were duly rewarded 10 minutes from time as Alston send over a free kick and Peter Grant rose highest to nod in an equaliser. All the momentum was with Falkirk now but one breakaway and a goalkeeping mistake ended up doing for them in the end. Houston's bid to become only the third manager to win the cup with two different teams was over.

Watkins could barely walk by the end but he had more than played his part by then. As well as an assist for the winning goal, it was he who had put his side in front seven minutes before half-time. It was the most clinical act of a staccato first period that lacked any real fluency. Edward Ofere shovelled a pass across to Aaron Doran who in turn flicked the ball with the outside of his right boot into the path of Watkins. There was still a lot for the Englishman to do but he showed great composure to circumnavigate MacDonald before depositing the ball into the empty net.

It was his first goal for almost three months but he evidently had sufficient confidence in himself pre-match to plant a T-shirt on the Inverness bench that he scampered over to fetch as soon as the ball was nestling in the net. On it a poignant tribute to a family friend that simply read: RIP Roy Lewis. They paid him suitable tribute in a dramatic second half as Inverness became history-makers.