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The story of 1989-90 through the eyes of David (DJS) Sutherland:

Scottish Cup 3rd Round Replay

24th January 1990

Caley 1 Airdrie 1 (Caley win 5-4 on penalties)

Caley's Scottish Cup run of 1990 saw some remarkable games. It started in the Borders against Gala Fairydean and before this game was over I had given up hope on there being any run at all. Following events on my radio in Inverness, by 4.50pm I had come to the conclusion that Gala had won 2-1 and the trannie got switched off in disgust. A thoroughly miserable evening was spent contemplating Caley's humiliation at the hands of one of these southern teams who never beat teams from the Highlands. Around lunchtime the following day, during a visit to the in-laws, I plucked up the courage to pick up a Sunday Post and read the gory details. Much to my delight and embarrassment, I discovered that that a late Polworth equaliser had saved the day for Caley. Fairydean looked like a team who already had their Gala Day the following Saturday and the Blues easily dispensed with them 4-1 in the replay.

Next up was a trip to Broomfield to face the Diamonds. This was the kind of tie nobody from the Highlands wanted in the Scottish Cup. You were not likely to make much money out of it and a win looked unlikely as Airdrie were pushing hard with St Johnstone for promotion to the Premier League. However, the two games it took to settle the tie live long in the memories of Caley fans. The game very nearly did not need a replay as Caley led 2-1 deep into injury time before Airdrie managed to scramble an equaliser. There was deep disappointment after the game as nobody could work out why so much stoppage time had been necessary. However, all this was forgotten after one of the most remarkable games ever seen at Telford Street.

Nobody could believe the game went ahead that night in Inverness as the day had been one of near constant sleety snow. The pitch was extremely heavy with quite a bit of snow lieing but well over 3000 still made the effort to get to the game and were rewarded with a pulsating cup tie.

It all looked pretty horrid after three minutes when Alan Lawrence nodded home a corner from the Airdrie right. Quite quickly, though, Caley started to get a grip and were rewarded after around twenty minutes when Wilson Robertson, put through on goal by a Martin Lisle flick, deposited the ball beyond John Martin. For the rest of the game and extra time both teams huffed and puffed from one end of the pitch to the other creating very few chances. The expected mistake which everyone felt would settle the tie never came with both defences playing particularly well. And so the tie moved onto the dreaded penalty shootout.

The penalties were taken at the Howden End of the ground with Caley going first. Things looked pretty bleak when John Docherty missed the first one but everyone then held their nerve until the fourth Airdrie spot kick hit an upright. With the score at 4-4 after the five regulation kicks we moved into sudden death and while the Blues put the ball away, Airdrie's Evan Balfour's penalty was saved by Hamish Morrison sending the home crowd wild with delight.

A visit to Stirling Albion in the 4th Round gave genuine hope of a quarter final place. Due to Albion's plastic pitch, the tie was played at neutral Brockville and, on another unpleasant evening weather wise, Caley were badly beaten 6-2, despite having pulled a 3-0 defecit back to 3-2 before half time.

The night Caley beat Airdrie, though, will live with me all my days. It was far from the best Caley team I ever saw but they showed great fighting spirit against a team with genuine Premier League aspirations. It was one of those nights when all your troubles went out the window, and you shook hands and hugged everyone round about whether you knew them or not. If you could just bottle these moments and uncork them briefly from time to time.

Airdrie Match Highlights Download


Date last modified:

9Nov2008