Inverness CT 1 - 1 Dunfermline: Late despair for Pars as ten-man Caley fight back

Jim McIntyre believes his embattled Dunfermline side showed all the traits required to keep themselves in the Scottish Premier League as they came within seconds of a much-needed victory against ten-man Inverness.

The Pars have taken only one point from their last seven SPL games but looked to be getting back to winning ways in the Highlands when Andy Barrowman headed home from close range in the 30th minute, just after Inverness defender Kenny Gillet had been shown a straight red card for fouling the goalscorer. But, incredibly, in the fifth of six minutes of added time, Caley Thistle winger Jonny Hayes ran on to slot the ball into an empty net after goalkeeper Chris Smith, who had made costly errors in his previous two games, dashed out of his penalty area and completely fresh-aired his attempt at a clearance. It was desperately harsh on Dunfermline, but manager McIntyre is adamant that if the performance can be repeated in the league then the SPL’s bottom club will give themselves every opportunity of escaping their current predicament.

He said: “I think we deserved to win. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t hold on. The boys worked tremendously hard for each other and showed a great team spirit and togetherness. If we can take these type of performances into the league then I’m sure we would start to climb the table.”

Inverness may have left it very late to ensure their name would be in the hat for today’s draw, but manager Terry Butcher felt his side fully merited at least a replay, especially as Dunfermline could not make the most of their numerical advantage following the contentious red card shown to Gillet.

Butcher said: “We’re just happy to be in the draw for the next round, but I believe we deserved it. The effort the players put in was fantastic. For the majority of the game, it was 10 versus 11, but this wasn’t really reflected in the match.”