Inverness reach Scottish Cup final with Hampden victory over Falkirk

Inverness Caledonian Thistle are through to the Scottish Cup final after a 3-0 victory over Falkirk at Hampden on Saturday.

The 2015 winners are now only a game away from being the first Championship side to win the trophy since Hibernian seven years ago.

They will take part in the showpiece event at the national stadium despite losing 2-0 to Queen’s Park earlier in the tournament.

Inverness were reinstated to the tournament after the Spiders were found to have played an ineligible player and will now face the winner of Sunday’s Old Firm game in the first weekend of June.

A Billy McKay double and one from Daniel MacKay helped see League One Falkirk off in what was a repeat of the 2015 final.

The game was the first time both clubs have experienced VAR and it took four minutes before the technology intervened.

Nick Walsh was called over to the monitor and awarded a penalty to the Championship side for a handball.

Billy McKay stepped up and put Falkirk goalkeeper Kinnear the wrong way to give the Highland club an early lead.

Callumn Morrison should have pulled the Bairns level just a few minutes later but his effort came back off the post.

Falkirk had most of the possession as they pushed for the equaliser, but it was Inverness who got the next goal when Daniel MacKay was left unmarked in the box and headed the ball past Kinnear for the killer second to give the League One side a mountain to climb with just over half an hour on the clock.

The second half started in pretty much the same manner with Falkirk having the best of possession and four corners as they looked to get back into the tie.

But they failed to convert their possession into a goal and Inverness put the game to bed with another counter attack that was finished of by McKay for his second of the game and 19th of the season.

The goal was also the Northern Irishman’s 100th goal for Inverness Caley.

Billy Dodds’ side will be massive underdogs in the final but they have shown in the past they are more than capable of providing a shock result, particularly over Celtic, with three victories over the Hoops in the Scottish Cup.

The Highland side famously shocked Scottish Football with a 3-1 win at Celtic Park in 1999, before following that up with a 1-0 win over Martin O’Neill’s all conquering side in Inverness 20 years ago and denying Ronny Deila’s treble dream with a 3-2 semi-final victory in 2015.

They have also been a thorn in Celtic’s side in league action and beat Neil Lennon’s league leaders in the 2011 run in and ultimately cost them the Premiership title.