Billy McKay can be regarded as an Inverness great.
The striker has scored 95 goals in 234 appearances for Caley Thistle for a number of years.
His penalty against Kilmarnock on Friday night was the latest. The Northern Irishman beat Sam Walker with a cheeky strike straight down the middle from the spot.
It helped to send Billy Dodds’ men on their way to Hampden, as they defeat their Premiership opponents 2-1 to secure a Scottish Cup semi-final spot. Sean Welsh netted a deserved winner for the Highlanders.
McKay had not long left the club before their greatest-ever achievement – winning the 2015 Scottish Cup. What the 34-year-old would do for his own shot at glory with the club he loves so much.
“I left before the quarters in 2015 (to Wigan) so it would be nice to correct that,” he explained. “But we’ve got one step before we can get to the final although this was a great night for the club, getting to the semis again.
“I got to the semi-final with Dundee United (lost to Hibs in season 2015-16 when on loan from Wigan after a penalty shoot-out where he missed one at Hampden Where Hibs won 4-2 from the spot) and didn’t have the best of time so I have a bit of a point to prove.
“Beating two Premiership clubs just shows what we can do on our day. We know we have probably underachieved in the league but the cup run is brilliant for the club and the lads and I thought we deserved to win.
“I probably thought the ship had sailed. Fortune favoured us in the early rounds being out and then back in it. But the last two performances have been brilliant. I don’t think many people would have expected us to beat two Premiership teams.”
Depending on the draw, Inverness could end up playing either Ayr or Falkirk at the national stadium at the end of April. It clearly would present a fantastic opportunity for the club to reach the final.
McKay absolutely recognises that – but he’s keen to ensure he and his teammates don’t get too far ahead of themselves.
He added: “Who knows? The luck of the draw and hopefully we can kick on and make it to the final.
“The lads showed great character coming back from a goal down. I thought maybe it was going to be a long night. But I thought we were well the better team and probably unlucky to go in one-all at half-time. But we showed great reaction and dug in at the end so it was a great performance all round.
“It’s a strange one. We know we haven’t been good enough in the league. We should be up at the top fighting like last year when we were 45 minutes away from being promoted. We know what we can do when we are at our best and we haven’t been that enough this year, But there’s still time to get into the playoffs so we must use this performance to kick on in the league. If we play like that for the next nine games we are going to win a lot of games. So that’s our focus now.
“It was great to play at Hampden and it would be great to play there again.
“I don’t look back at missing out in 2015 with regret. There was an opportunity to go to the Championship and I took it and it helped my family massively. But I was cheering the boys on in the final and it would be great if we could get there ourselves and do.”
Meanwhile, Ash Taylor admits Killie face a bleak immediate future unless they can turn their dismal form around.
He said: “I don't know what went wrong. It is difficult to explain a performance like that.
“It is on us as players and we have to take full responsibility for that as it was nowhere near good enough.
“We had been banging on about how important it was to get the first goal given our poor away form. We manage to do that and then go into our shell a little bit. We retreated and let Inverness back into the game.
“It is something we need to rectify quickly. You can't have performances like that given where we are in the league. We are in a dog fight and we need to improve to get out of the position we are in.”
