Storm Arwen had largely blown over but there was still a wintry feeling around the Caledonian Stadium as Caley Thistle took on Morton in the Scottish Cup on Saturday.
The game started brightly and I felt we might be in for a real cracker.
There were chances at both ends. Morton came close to opening the scoring when a shot was deflected onto the post but it was the home team that made the breakthrough with Billy Mckay in the right place when Jack Hamilton couldn’t gather the ball.
However, once we got through the first quarter of the game it all went a bit flat.
There wasn’t much to get excited about, and as half time approached the visitors started to look the more likely to get the next goal.
That goal nearly came during the stramash to end all stramashes when only some determined and desperate defending saved Inverness.
I felt the half time whistle came at a good time for Inverness and hoped that after the break they would come out with a new sense of purpose, but that never really happened.
They rarely looked like scoring in that second half and there wasn’t too much happening at the other end of the pitch either.
It was Morton who managed to equalise when Gavin Reilly got on the end of a long punt up the pitch to fire home once he got round Mark Ridgers.
Kirk Broadfoot felt he was fouled in the build up but I think we would have been very lucky if the referee had blown for that.
So it’s a replay at Cappielow next Tuesday with Inverness returning there for a Championship game four days later.
While everybody seems to say they love the Scottish Cup it’s not borne out in the crowds turning up.
There haven’t been replays in the final and semi-finals for a long time now and surely their days are numbered in the earlier rounds as well.
A few years ago I think I would gave argued to keep them but now I feel it’s time to decide a tie on the day with extra time and penalties if necessary.