to bring John Hughes to the Tangerines in October was rejected by Inverness, leaving Hughes frustrated. The club's defence of the Scottish Cup began by beating Stirling Albion after a replay. In the following round, a Jordan Roberts goal set-up a tie against Hibs. Inverness lost a replay to the Edinburgh club, who eventually went on to win the competition. Hughes left at the end of the season after mutually terminating his contract, citing a collapse in relations with the board. Club captain Richie Foran was appointed as his successor, despite having no previous managerial experience. The club started the season scoring fifteen goals in four League Cup group games. They also recorded a 2–2 draw in the league against Celtic, the only club to take a point off the Glaswegians for close to a year. However, this good form dropped off, and Inverness did not win a league game from October until February – when a last-minute overhead kick from Billy Mckay lead to a 2–1 win over Rangers. Inverness CT were relegated to the Scottish Championship on the final day of the 2016–17 season, despite recording a 3–2 victory over Motherwell. After Foran was sacked from his position, former manager John Robertson was appointed as his successor on 14 June 2017. Inverness reached the 2017–18 Scottish Challenge Cup Final, after a 3–2 win over Northern Irish invitee side Crusaders at home, meaning the club's would make their fourth cup final appearance, and John Robertson's second challenge cup final at the club. Inverness went on to lift the cup on 24 March 2018, with Carl Tremarco scoring the only goal of the game seconds before the game was due to go into added time. Robertson became the first manager in the cup's history to lift the trophy twice with the same club. This cup win kick-started an unbeaten run of 13 games as Inverness went from lingering around the lower echelons of the table to mid-table. However, despite a late push, an injury-time equaliser in the final home game of the season against Dunfermline meant ICT narrowly missed out on the promotion play-offs by just two points, finishing in 5th place despite winning 3–0 away to Greenock Morton on the final day, which would've confirmed a play-off slot had Dunfermlne either drawn or lost to Dumbarton. In August 2018, the club was saddened to learn of the death of