Inverness Caley Thistle end Arbroath fairytale to reach Premiership play off final but Willie Collum takes centre stage

Mark Ridgers was the hero as his spot kick save settled a nerve-shredding play-off semi final and sent Inverness to within 120 minutes of a Premiership return.

On a night when Billy Dodds’ side had to dig deep into their reserves after being reduced to nine men to take the game into a spot kick shoot out, Ridgers dived to his right to deny Arbroath legend Bobby Linn.

It teed up veteran Kirk Broadfoot to slam home the final penalty and set up a home and away showdown with St Johnstone as they look to end their five-year top flight exile.

Dodds had challenged his side to ignore the script as they headed to Gayfield with what seemed like every neutral in Scotland behind Dick Campbell’s part-time shocktroops.

It was far from pretty. It was tense, edgy, pretty brutal at times and the match ball would have been deserving of a heavy dose of paracetamol.

But Dodds and his players won’t be giving a damn as they head into the final.

Gayfield was rammed to near capacity with around 600 travelling fans making the 300-mile round trip in the 5154 crowd. And how they partied after watching their heroes dig out a result at a venue where Arbroath had only lost once in the league all season - ironically to Inverness on the opening day back in July.

The two sides who finished highest scorers in the second tier during the regular season couldn’t conjure up a goal between them in 210 play-off minutes - plus injury time.

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