Former Ross County defender ends Inverness Caley Thistle's Scottish Cup dream scoring winner for St Mirren
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Scottish Cup fourth round
St Mirren 2
Caley Thistle 1
Scorers - St Mirren: Dennis (50) Fraser (88) ICT: Todorov (48)
Inverness Caledonian Thistle's Scottish Cup dream is over after a late Marcus Fraser goal sent St Mirren into the quarter final.
Nikolay Todorov scored his sixth goal in five games to give Inverness the lead before Kristian Dennis equalised two minutes later.
But the former Ross County defender found the winner for Saints with a close range effort.
Caley Thistle made one change from the team that drew 1-1 at Queen of the South as captain Sean Welsh came in for Roddy MacGregor.
The first chance of the game fell to St Mirren when an uncharacteristically poor clearance from Scott Allardice fell to Jamie McGrath, but he could only shoot wide of the post.
But Caley Thistle responded well with Daniel Mackay causing problems and forced Jack Alnwick into a save as he connected with Scott Allan’s pass from the left wing before seeing a second shot also saved by Alnwick.
MacKay continued to create havoc in the St Mirren defence with a terrific run down the left wing, running 50 yards before crossing into the box to find Todorov who turned his defender and fired a low drive which was parried away by Alnwick.
Inverness continued to dominate and David Carson burst out of defence to go on a 50-yard run and sent in a cross to find Scott Allan at the edge of the box, whose shot rattled against the crossbar.
Inverness were fortunate to go into half time level though when they failed to deal with a ball into the box which found Kristian Dennis whose shot from 10 yards out was deflected on to the crossbar.
But Inverness took the lead three minutes into the second half when Todorov powered into the box and volleyed Allan’s corner kick into the net from eight yards.
However the lead last only two minutes as Kristian Dennis fired a powerful shot past Mark Ridgers from 15 yards out.
St Mirren continued to pressure and hit the woodwork twice on the hour mark, first Ilkay Durmus hit the crossbar and Dennis followed up with the rebound which hit the outside of the left post.
But Inverness started to take control of the game and went close when Allan saw his host go inches of the left post.
Saints went close to taking the lead in the closing stages when Ilkay Durmus's header hit the left post.
But the hosts did win it with two minutes remaining as Fraser tapped in Brandon Mason's cross from the left wing from close range.
