Danny Devine was a Scottish Cup winner eight years ago with Caley Thistle – and he took plenty of pride at being a runner-up to Celtic in Saturday’s Hampden final showdown.
The experienced centre-half helped ICT win the coveted silverware in 2015 as a top-table club, beating the Hoops in the semis and Falkirk in the final.
This time, Inverness are a Championship team, and they came up against the green giants, whose 3-1 triumph in the sunshine landed their club a world-record eighth domestic treble.
Goals from Kyogo Furuhashi and Liel Abada gave Celtic a two-goal cushion before a late header from on-loan Hibs winger Dan MacKay halved the scoreline. Celtic wrapped it up in stoppage-time thanks to a strike from Jota.
Wild predictions in the build-up to the match had many of a green persuasion expecting a thumping rout, but Caley Thistle were well-drilled and made life tough, with the opening goal not arriving until seven minutes before the break.
Two cup finals in eight years for ICT
When asked whether he can still walk away from Hampden proud of the club’s efforts, Devine said: “Of course. This is sport, this is football. You win some, you lose some. Celtic are the best team in the country. We learn from it.
“We had that amazing time in 2015, but this is us on the other end of it. Where the club has come in such a short space of time is incredible.
“Two cup finals in eight years. We look forward and we keep looking to build on what we’ve done so far.
“Celtic have top players. I remember watching the Real Madrid game (3-0 defeat, but 0-0 for almost an hour last September) and in the first half they were unbelievable. We managed them for large parts of the game.
“I know we weren’t as much of a threat going forwards as we would have liked to have been, but I thought we stifled them for as long as we could and got the goal back.
“Obviously, anything can happen. They’re a good team and they deserved to win.”
Four-week break not reason for loss
Caley Thistle went into Saturday’s final without a competitive fixture since May 5 when their league season ended in a 2-1 defeat against Ayr United, which denied them a play-off spot.
Devine says that was not the reason they lost to Celtic, but the 30-year-old defender admits it didn’t help their cause.
He said: “You can’t emulate game situations in training – that competitive edge, the sharpness. You just can’t do it.
“The four-week break isn’t the reason we lost. We could have had games all the way up and could have run out of steam. But Celtic are an incredible team.
“We did ourselves proud in terms of sticking to our task. We would have liked to have been a bit braver and created some more chances, but it’s difficult. All credit to them. It’s a sore one. It was a great achievement getting here, but we look forward to next season.”
Devine keen to remain at Inverness
Devine is one of 13 senior players who, along with boss Billy Dodds and his coaches, are now out of contract.
The Northern Irishman hinted he wants to be part of a fresh promotion push in the Championship.
He added: “It’s a club that constantly needs to rebuild. Players move on and we’ll see what happens. If I’m still around next season, then we go again and we keep defying the odds in that sense.”
Summer rebuild ahead of new season
And Devine is confident the club will be well equipped for a fresh push for a step up to the top-flight next year.
He said: “I think we have a good mix of experienced boys who have been around the block and been in the Premiership for several years.
“We have some good young lads coming through, so it’s just about building. Last season (in 2022), we went close to getting back in the Premiership.
“We didn’t have a lot of rest coming into this season and all the injuries. If I’m still here, we need to keep looking to build, but we’ll see what happens in the summer.”
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