For long stretches, this looked like the kind of cup tie that could be decided by one moment, one clean chance and one mistake. In the end, that is exactly how it finished, with Alfie Stewart scoring the only goal in the second half to give Inverness CT a 1-0 win over Montrose in the Challenge Cup.
The final scoreline was narrow, but the timing of the breakthrough mattered. Inverness CT kept pushing into the closing stages, and Stewart’s goal settled a match that had already been shaped by fine margins. Montrose had their own openings, too, but they could not find the response they needed after falling behind.
Cammy Gill was called on to keep Montrose alive, saving attempts from Daniel Mackay and David Wotherspoon in the second half. Those stops mattered because they briefly kept the tie in reach, even as Inverness CT continued to ask the sharper questions in the final third. Then came the decisive moment, and it belonged to Stewart.
Montrose also had a chance to change the script. Sean McGinty missed a header in the second half, a missed opportunity that now sits alongside the saves at the other end as one of the key turning points in a game decided by a single goal. In knockout football, that is often the whole story: one side takes its moment, the other does not.
What the result means
Inverness CT move on after a 1-0 victory, while Montrose exit after coming up short in a tight Challenge Cup contest. The match did not produce a flood of chances, but it did produce the kind of late decisive action that defines cup football. Stewart’s winner gave Inverness CT the edge they needed, and in a game this close, that was enough.
