Inverness Caley Thistle progressed to the third round of the Scottish Cup – but were given a scare by Highland League Buckie Thistle.
Daniel MacKay’s late goal was required to separate the sides in an entertaining tie at Victoria Park.
Inverness’ reward for their win is a trip over the Kessock Bridge to face Ross County in Dingwall a week on Saturday in round three.
We will play ICTFC in the 3rd Round of this seasons Scottish Cup… https://t.co/o0jPFk3Cc8
— Ross County FC (@RossCounty) March 23, 2021
Caley Thistle manager Neil McCann said: “I’m absolutely delighted, this was a tough game and Buckie put us under pressure.
“We had to deal with a lot of things thrown at us, we had a couple of young kids playing in the back four, which was a good experience for them.
“Cup football is all about getting through, we knew it would never be pretty on a bumpy pitch and in windy conditions.
“But the reaction to us conceding an equaliser was brilliant, going straight up the park and scoring a great goal.
“I said to the boys that it’s been littered across this competition, teams coming to smaller grounds against teams down the divisions and suffering defeat, so it was a great result as far as I was concerned.
“We showed a bit of resilience, that’s our third win on the bounce and we should be really happy with ourselves.”
Buckie in their first competitive fixture since Boxing Day, when they defeated Albion Rovers 3-0 in the first round, handed a debut to 19-year-old former Aberdeen midfielder Max Barry, while visitors Inverness made six changes to the side which beat Dunfermline on Saturday.
The Championship visitors made a quick start and hit the front after only 40 seconds.
MacKay charged down the left side and when his cross wasn’t fully cleared James Keatings was on hand to swivel and fire home from 10 yards.
Soon after MacKay beat the offside trap, but fired a low angled effort beyond goalkeeper Daniel Bell but just wide of the far post.
Buckie grew into the game and equalised after a quarter of an hour. Sam Urquhart’s inswinging corner from the left in a swirling wind clipped the junction of right post and crossbar, but Lewis MacKinnon retrieved possession on the right and his pinpoint cross was headed home by Jack Murray from six yards.
Caley Thistle moved ahead again on 27 minutes when Sean Welsh was allowed space 30 yards out to lash a swerving shot beyond goalkeeper Bell.
At the other end, goalkeeper Cameron Mackay held an Urquhart shot.
In the second period, Buckie captain Kevin Fraser headed wide from Mark McLauchlan’s deep cross and then McLauchlan fired over from the left side of the box.
Meanwhile, Caley Thistle sub Cameron Harper cut in from the left and curled a shot over.
With 10 minutes remaining Bell made a pivotal block from Miles Storey to ensure the score remained at 2-1 and shortly after Shane Sutherland was inches away from turning in a Welsh free-kick.
With six minutes remaining Buckie equalised. Substitute Callum Murray charged down Ryan Fyffe’s attempted clearance before beating Mackay.
But parity was only restored for a minute with a scramble in the Buckie box ending with MacKay controlling and finishing from close range.
Buckie manager Graeme Stewart said: “I’m proud of the players, but I’m also really disappointed, because I’m not into glorious failures.
“I’m really proud of them for the way we pushed Inverness when you take everything into account; not playing, not training, being part-time and losing three of our best players in the last week in Joe McCabe, Andy MacAskill and Scott Adams. I’m really proud of them.
“But I thought the game was there for us as well. I was thinking ‘let’s go and get the winner’ when we equalised, I genuinely thought we could.”