Jamie Hamill went from hero to villain as Hearts suffered more pain in their most difficult season as nine-man Inverness reached the League Cup final with a dramatic penalty shoot-out win yesterday after the match had ended in a 2-2 draw.

Hamill scored from two free-kicks inside three minutes in response to Greg Tansey’s spectacular 54th-minute strike at Easter Road, and Hearts looked destined to face Aberdeen in the final when Josh Meekings joined fellow Inverness centre-back Gary Warren in an early bath as the 90 minutes elapsed.

But Nick Ross scrambled an unlikely equaliser in the fifth minute of injury-time and Inverness comfortably held out in extra-time before triumphing in the spot-kicks battle after Hamill’s miss handed them the advantage.

Ross Draper secured a 4-2 shoot-out success to send the Highland outfit into their first major final.

Caley Thistle’s win turned the tables following their shoot-out defeat by 10-man Hearts at the same stage and stadium last year and it denied the administration-hit Edinburgh side a much-needed financial boost.

Scottish Premiership: Celtic vs St Mirren 1-0.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.