A tremendous start, a blow just before half time and in the end bitter disappointment. Craig Brewster followed the same pattern as previous rounds by resting himself and Graham Bayne returned from his SPL suspension to replace him. Mark Brown achieved a magnificent milestone when he started his 150th match – and 150th in a row. He is now well past Dennis Wyness’s previous record of 119 in a row. Livingston replaced injured goalkeeper Roddy McKenzie with Ludovic Roy.

Caley Thistle took the lead in just 54 seconds when the Livingston defence failed to clear a Ross Tokely cross from the right and Dargo struck from inside the six yard box.

Caley Thistle pressured for much of the rest of the first half but couldn't add to the lead. Barry Wilson had a 25 yard effort saved by Ludovic Roy in 5 minutes, Graham Bayne saw a shot blocked by the keeper in 9 minutes and in 24 minutes, a David Proctor effort was deflected by Paul Tierney and looked to have gone over the line before being cleared by Pinxten. Ian Black tried from distance in the 31st minute and Craig Dargo also had another chance in the 38th minute from a Barry Wilson corner and although his close range effort beat Roy it was cleared off the line by Walker.

This failure to kill off Livingston would come back to haunt the Caley Jags just before the break when Dave MacKay took advantage of defensive errors to strike home from the edge of the box. He took a James McPake pass and hit home from 12 yards.

Half Time: 1-1

If Caley Thistle had the upper hand in the first half, the tables were turned in the second half and it was Livi who looked the more likely.

McPake had a chance just after the break but was well marshalled by Tokely and Munro and his effort went wide and although Wilson had a spectacular 30 yard shot tipped over the bar and Tokely headed over from the resultant corner, and Bayne produced a somewhat tame effort after a fine cross from Hastings the second half was destined to end in a draw meaning the match would go to extra time and possibly penalties.

Ninety Minutes: 1-1

Craig Dargo and Alan Morgan both had chances in the early stages of extra time before Ramon Perreira missed a golden chance in the 97th minute. Dalglish beat Dods and then crossed the ball to the far post area where an unmarked Jason Dair headed it back across goal into the path of Perreira. He somehow managed to head the ball over from all of six yards out. In 107 minutes, a Dave MacKay shot from 25 yards was tipped over by Brown.

In 110 minutes, Paul Dalglish shot wide from the edge of the box, but this was only a teaser ! 6 minutes later, with penalties looming he would deal Caley Thistle a fatal blow when he shredded the Caley Thistle defence and then took the ball round Brown and into the empty net.

The final chance of the game was from Caley Thistle when Ian Black hit a tremendous 30 yard effort that looked destined for the top corner, but Roy managed to turn it out for a corner and the game was lost.

aet: 2-1