Summary It caps off a remarkable season for the Highland club.
GLASGOW (AFP) - Inverness Caledonian Thistle manager John Hughes praised the spirit of his side as they battled to a historic 2-1 win over Falkirk to lift the Scottish Cup on Saturday.
The Premiership side took a first half lead at Hampden through Marley Watkins before they were reduced to ten men when Carl Tremarco was shown a straight red for hauling down Blair Alston in the 75th minute.
The pendulum appeared to swing in Championship side Falkirk s favour when Peter Grant headed home a deserved equaliser in the 80th minute. But, with extra time looming, substitute James Vincent fired in an 86th minute winner to land Inverness their first major piece of silverware since their formation in 1994.
It caps off a remarkable season for the Highland club who also claimed their highest ever league finish of third to seal a Europa League spot next season.
"Over the course of the season we ve been a right good team and to finish off Scottish Cup final winners against a good Falkirk side means I am absolutely delighted," the Inverness manager said.
"I m absolutely elated to win the cup, but we didn t half make it hard for ourselves. I think the spirit to dig it out was absolutely exceptional.
"I am just delighted we got the goal. If it had gone to extra-time I don t know if we would have had enough in the tank to see it out.
"I am delighted for the boys and it s not the first time this year we ve been down to ten men and we ve shown a spirit to turn it round."
But while Hughes was delighted with his side s determination, he slammed their unacceptable second half performance, evoking memories of Sir Alex Ferguson s famous post-match rant at his Aberdeen side after they needed extra time to win 1-0 against Rangers in the 1983 Scottish Cup final.
"I felt we started a little bit nervous in the first ten minutes but then we got going and I felt we were the better team in the first half and got a good goal," Hughes said.
"I don t want to sound like Sir Alex Ferguson back in his Aberdeen days but in the second half we never showed up and it wasn t good enough.
"I was frustrated as we never played in the second half. We never got on the ball, we never passed it and it wasn t acceptable.
"We just kept giving it away and we couldn t hold it up and that s not a standard that we set ourselves."
Falkirk manager Peter Houston said his players were reduced to tears by the defeat as the club missed the chance to lift the Scottish Cup for the first time since 1957.
"We changed it about at half-time and it looked like we believed in ourselves a bit more in the second half and I thought we dominated and put them under a lot of pressure," Houston said.
"We got the equaliser and, if I m being honest, I thought there was only one team going on to win it.
"There are a couple of guys in tears in there. Human nature is that you make mistakes sometimes and David McCracken and Jamie MacDonald are disappointed in their particular parts in the second goal. But I thought these guys were superb and have been absolutely brilliant for us this season.
"I have got nothing but praise for the players and I m absolutely gutted for them and the supporters.
"They took the game brilliantly to Inverness in the second half and I think we deserved more."
