Terry Butcher admitted both he and his Inverness players felt an overwhelming sense of relief following their late victory over plucky Elgin City in the Highland capital.
The Scottish Third Division side looked to have earned themselves a Scottish Cup fourth round replay at Borough Briggs, but substitute Dani Sanchez struck two minutes into injury-time before Adam Rooney hit a 94th minute goal to spare Inverness' blushes.
"There's a lot of relief. I know there were a few disgruntled fans, but I think there were a few disgruntled players in the dressing room as well because we felt we might have won it more comfortably than we did," said Butcher.
"I felt we dominated the game, although in the second half Jonny Tuffey had to make a good save and then there was a little bit of stramash, which we just about survived.
"At times our final ball could have been better and we were perhaps guilty of trying to be a little too intricate in the final third on occasions, but the boys showed great belief to keep going.
"Fair play to Elgin because they were well organised. They came here, kept it tight and stopped us from playing. We had plenty of chances, however, and although it would have been good to see the first goal come much sooner than it did, I was delighted when it arrived."
The loss of two late goals was harsh on Elgin given the effort they had put into the match and naturally manager Ross Jack was proud of his players' efforts, even if in the end it was not quite enough.
"That was absolutely gut wrenching," he stated. "It was very hard to take.
"I'm very proud of the spirit we showed and the way the players carried out the gameplan we had worked on. However, we didn't just sit in. We took the game to Caley Thistle at times and I thought at 0-0 we had the best chance of the game through Craig Frizzell.
"But you know against teams of the standard of Caley Thistle then you have to take those chances and we were made to pay for not doing so."
Source: PA
