Luis Longstaff admits Caley Thistle deserved to lose Scottish Cup tie against Spartans

A disconsolate Luis Longstaff trooped off the frosty Ainslie Park pitch after Inverness had been eliminated from the Scottish Cup.

Their fourth round tie against League Two pacesetters Spartans ended in a penalty shootout triumph for the Edinburgh side following 120 goal-less minutes.

“It just wasn’t good enough,” was the immediate reaction of the Caley Jags attacking midfielder, who had been sent on to the pitch by manager Scott Kellacher with just over 20 minutes of normal time remaining in an attempt to overcome the battling part-timers from the capital.

“To be honest, we didn’t deserve to win,” acknowledged Longstaff.

“We didn’t create enough chances.

“In the past couple of games we’ve defended well and kept clean sheets but we’ve not been creating enough and that was the problem again today.”

One of the key factors in Caley Thistle’s failure to win the tie was the performance of Spartans’ goalkeeper Paddy Martin who had an exceptional afternoon between the sticks, stopping everything that the visitors threw at him during both normal time and extra time then proving to be the hero when the tie went to penalties, saving spot kicks from David Wotherspoon and Chanka Zimba.

“To be fair, he had a great game,” continued Longstaff.

“I think he, and his team mates, deserved what they got in the end.”

A below-par display from ICT

Longstaff had been thrown into the fray by Kellacher along with Zimba and Adam MacKinnon in a 69th minute triple substitution with a view to saving the Caley Jags from an embarrassing cup exit.

The former Cove Ranges player said: “We were told to get on and try to create an impact on the game but we didn’t do that.

“We didn’t really impact the game in the way we needed to do like creating chances and stuff.

“I think it wasn’t really good enough from everybody who played today, those who started the game and the substitutes. We weren’t playing at the standards we should be playing at.

“Spartans dug in. They knew what they had to do and they played the game very well.”

Inverness almost snatched an early lead when Martin’s headed clearance fell to Billy McKay who managed to lob the stranded keeper only to see his shot blocked on the goal line by Spartans defender Ayrton Sonkur.

Although the Highlanders dominated play for the rest of the first half they were continually denied by the brilliance of Martin who made excellent saves from McKay, Joe Chalmers and Danny Devine.

The second half was more evenly contested, and although Martin was again forced in to action to deny MacKinnon, Longstaff and Liam Sole, Spartans almost edged ahead in the closing stages when their captain James Craigen  saw his blistering shot rattle Ross Munro’s crossbar.

The feeling of disappointment which was evident amongst the noisy travelling support was magnified when Jordan Alonge found the net in stoppage time only to see his effort disallowed for offside.

After a comparatively uneventful 30 minutes of extra time, the home side progressed to the next round of the tournament with, fittingly, Martin proving to be the hero.

Caley Jags boss Scott Kellacher said: “It was disappointing but the frustrating part was that our penalties were good on Tuesday when we beat Partick Thistle.

“We pretty much controlled the whole game but we need to be better in the final third, we need to be more ruthless.”

[Source: Press and Journal]