Caley Thistle coach Barry Wilson was relieved to scrape through to the last-16 of the SPFL Trust Trophy with a penalty shoot-out win over Brechin City.
Inverness were held to a 3-3 draw by their Highland League opponents, who clawed back a two-goal deficit to force the match to spot-kicks.
Robbie Deas netted the winning penalty to secure a 4-3 shoot-out triumph, after Ryan McInnes saw the previous penalty saved by Cammy Mackay.
Although he admits the performance was far from perfect, Wilson insists advancing through to the fourth round of the competition was all that mattered.
Wilson said: “I am pleased to be through. At 3-1, I can only assume the boys have taken their eyes off the prize a wee bit and dropped their guard.
“When you do that, it’s hard to get going again.
“They got their second goal out of the blue at a time when we were totally dominating, but we then couldn’t go up a gear again.
“We are through, it wasn’t pretty but when you go into these cups, I was always told as a player to just somehow get into the hat for the next round.
“We have done that. To be fair to the boys, they stood up and took their penalties well and Cammy got us through with that penalty save.”
Inverness boss Billy Dodds reshuffled his side, making eight changes from the side which defeated Dundee 3-2 on Championship duty last weekend.
Among the players that came in was teenage winger Calum MacKay, who made his first senior start.
Wilson was pleased to get more players up to speed, adding: “The positive was to get boys some game time. Max Ram got an hour in his first outing since the first game of the season.
“It was good to get Cammy Mackay an outing to keep him up to speed in case anything happens to Mark Ridgers.
“It allowed us to look at other things, such as Wallace Duffy at right back.
“There were maybe more questions than answers but it served its purpose. We got the boys the amount of game time we wanted.
“It wasn’t our best performance, but we got through.”
Brechin boss Andy Kirk was proud of his players efforts after running their Championship opponents close.
The Angus outfit have won their opening seven Highland League matches and Kirk was thrilled with the way they acquitted themselves at Caledonian Stadium.
Kirk said: “To a man I think they gave everything they had. We spoke before the game about leaving everything on the pitch and seeing where it took us.
“I thought some of our play in the game was excellent.
“I’m immensely proud of the group for what they have given me since the start of pre-season til now. It has been nothing short of magnificent, in their effort and application.
“We’ve got to keep pushing to keep the standards high.
“We were away from home against a top team in the Championship who will be up there challenging for promotion.
“There are some younger ones in the group with aspirations to get better and move up the leagues.
“This was a chance for them to test themselves and see where they were. Every week we are adding something to our game.
“It’s important we take the confidence from that and produce another performance next week.”
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