Drink it all in.
It is an expression used often in the middle of an unforgettable moment, a reminder to try to push emotion to one side and commit the sights in front of you to memory.
That was the encouragement John Hughes, pictured below, gave his Caley Thistle players in the aftermath of their Scottish Cup final success. With families and friends at Hampden along with the hundreds of fans that lined the streets of Inverness on the Sunday, moments were there to be savoured.
For Ross Draper, it was something that did not really sink in until a few years down the line. How could he truly appreciate something so momentous when it had only occurred in the last 24 hours?
“Yogi always used to say ‘take it in’. When we were on the top deck (of the bus) he was encouraging us to enjoy it, take pictures, have pictures taken, get our families involved.
“At the time you don’t really believe him. But now looking back he was bang-on. It was such a big achievement and we did enjoy it. I’m not sure the players will go on and do something like that again, so it was a big achievement.
“There was great support and we were all surprised at how many we took down there. It makes it what it is. If there’d have been hundreds rather than thousands there, it would have been a bit of an anti-climax. But for all fans to come out, the place was packed and it was brilliant. All the lads appreciated it.”
Ask him to recall the build-up to the Falkirk game itself and there is little that comes immediately to mind. They had to grapple with being firm favourites for the game, contrary to the mentality Hughes had drilled into them all season about being the underdog.
“I’d love to go back and relive it, for what an experience it was. It was a big opportunity for the lads and I remember being nervous, of course,” he said.“We’d gone from being huge underdogs against Celtic – we’d have probably been underdogs against Hibs, although they were in the Championship at the time. To go from that to being firm favourites was a bit of a mentality switch that we weren’t used to. It was something the lads dealt with eventually.”
Inverness were second-best for much of the second half and when the double blow of Carl Tremarco’s dismissal and Peter Grant’s equaliser landed, they were on the back foot. If they had held on and it had gone into extra-time, it would have been interesting to see how it went. Speaking to a lot of the lads, we were so drained during the game. Maybe the mentality of being favourites – lads hadn’t been and done that before, so maybe that was a bit of an unusual feeling.”
Draper and midfield partner Greg Tansey formed part of a back six for the closing period of the game, trying to weather the storm Falkirk were bringing. James Vincent took a glance over at the two of them and knew they were not for moving. Legs had gone. That gave him the freedom to charge forward. Someone needed to support Marley Watkins, after all.
“To have that winning feeling, last minute, was brilliant. We held on and that little bit of quality we had with Marley and Vinny got us over the line,” Draper said.
“To win it that way, with only a few minutes to go, they didn’t really have a chance to respond. It knocked the stuffing out of them.
“I was done. With 20 to go my legs were done. I think it was me and Danny Devine that just collapsed on the halfway line. We celebrated like it was a golden goal and thought the game was over. That was because we were so mentally drained.
“Vinny is fit anyway so he’d have been up there regardless. We had a back six for a good 10 or 15 minutes and for him to get forward and score the winner was brilliant.”
