Terry Butcher was relieved as Inverness booked a place in the Scottish League Cup quarter-finals with a 6-5 shoot-out win over Stenhousemuir.
There was little to separate the teams after a 1-1 draw in 90 minutes and there were no further goals in extra-time.
That led to the shoot-out where Inverness goalkeeper Ryan Esson produced a good stop from Darren Smith's kick to end the Division Two side's hopes of an upset in a match played in driving wind and rain.
Inverness manager Butcher said: "It certainly wasn't comfortable and we are really pleased to be through.
"I said before it wouldn't be 0-0 and Stenhousemuir made it very difficult for us.
"Both sides deserve great credit for trying to play football in such difficult conditions and we are delighted that at the end we've made it through."
The SPL side opened the scoring after 24 minutes when Billy McKay raced onto Richie Foran's through-ball and lobbed a shot over Robbie Thomson.
They were unable to hold onto that lead though as Stenhousemuir drew level five minutes before the break after being awarded a penalty when David Raven chopped down Brown Ferguson.
Ferguson dusted himself off to coolly convert the resulting kick beyond Esson to make it 1-1.
Stenhousemuir were unable to find a winner in the remainder of the game, but manager Martyn Corrigan was nevertheless proud of his side's battling display.
"It's disappointing to lose on penalties but I can't fault the lads for their effort," said Corrigan.
"We had a great chance at the end of the 90 minutes but couldn't quite take it.
"The lads are disappointed but can take a lot away from their display tonight."
