Inverness Athletic pay the penalty against Lewis and Harris
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INVERNESS Athletic were denied all three points after they conceded a stoppage time equaliser in a 1–1 draw with Football Times Cup group opponents Lewis and Harris at Inverness Royal Academy.
Athletic led through an early Phil MacDonald goal, but despite dominating for long spells in the second half the visitors had to wait until the 92nd minute for an equaliser.
Athletic’s caretaker manager Jason Golabek admitted it was a fair result.
“We started the game well and got the early goal which settled us, but it was backs against the wall in the second half,” he said.
“We couldn’t get a foot on the ball. We let them come on to us and got punished in the last minute. It was a fair result in the end.”
Athletic opened the scoring in the in the seventh minute when MacDonald shrugged off a couple of defenders and fired an low 20-yard drive into the bottom corner of the net.
Sandy Stephen was the busier of the two keepers in the first half. The Athletic number one produced a number of fine saves including a full length stop to keep out a goal-bound effort from Angus MacDonald.
It took some desperate defending to kept the islanders out, but in the second minute of stoppage time Smith squeezed the ball into the net from a yard out for a dramatic equaliser.
With an extra bonus point up for grabs Lewis and Harris won the penalty shoot-out 3-2. Only MacDonald and James Mackay converted their spot kicks for Athletic.
