Second Half Show

An instantly forgettable first half where nothing happened was soon erased from the memory banks with decisive goals from Marley Watkins and Ryan Christie setting Inverness on easy street, but we gave St Johnstone a glimmer of hope allowing Brian Graham a free header and ended up hanging on to our slim lead to claim all three points.

Ross Draper and Graeme Shinnie returned after serving their suspensions in the League Cup game at Ibrox pushing Tremarco and Williams onto the bench and Simon Lappin started for St Johnstone who had Murray Davidson on the bench as his return to full fitness gathers momentum.

The first half was memorable. Memorable for the fact that it was a total non-event where both keepers could have gone to Tesco's for some shopping and nobody would have noticed.

Small crowds are part and parcel of the Scottish game just now and a paltry 2,770 turned up to watch nothing happen. People were staring around in silence trying to generate their own entertainment as the folk on the pitch moved the round thing about the park. It was a weird experience and the two way de-motivation continued until Calum Murray had enough and ended the first half with unsurprisingly, no goals scored.

Half Time 0-0

Words must have been exchanged at the interval and we showed a bit more purpose after the break. Draper was cautioned inside two minutes of the restart.

Still it took until the hour mark for the game to ignite when Inverness broke rapidly down the left flank. Aaron Doran did all the leg work sprinting down the flank and his low cross picked out Watkins who took a touch before squeezing the ball through Mannus in the Saints goal. No more than we deserved really but it took a long time coming.

We looked to have more buzz about us now and Billy started running again instead of forlornly kicking blades of grass as pass after pass were going astray in the previous hour.

Doran was buoyed by his successful rampage and hit a dipping shot which Mannus turned over the bar as we now had the bit between our teeth.

Five minutes after the opener, we scored again through Ryan Christie. Some comedy defending from St Jojnstone helped to set up the next goal. Doran held the ball up well right on the bye line. The defenders seemed to nick it off him then parted like the Red Sea which allowed Shinnie to set up Ryan. Again, Mannus won't want to see too many repeat videos of this as Christie hammered a low shot goalwards from the left edge of the box, the ball once more going through the normally reliable keeper and into the net.

Christie was starting to run the show up front for Inverness and the goals prompted a double substitution by Tommy Wright as he introduced O'Halloran and Morgan for Lappin and Wotherspoon as we looked like going on to increase our lead.

Unfortunately our defence had other ideas and on more than one occasion we managed to carve out openings for St Johnstone who were finding it difficult to create their own.

Christie had won a free kick in a dangerous position but Shinnie showed that we need to do more practice on the training ground as he fired it well over.

We created our own downfall after 77 minutes as slack play on the left allowed Millar to send in an innocuous looking cross, but big Brian Graham was unchallenged as he nodded the ball low past a diving Brill.

Game on again and Perth sensed that we might create another opportunity for them and they weren't wrong. David Raven was caught out a few times today, losing the ball cheaply but he wasn't alone and Brill's rushed clearances were none too clever as we sat deeper and deeper as the game neared a conclusion.

However, despite having to give away a series of corners in the last few minutes we did hang on and the home fans were able to remove their fingers from over their eyes to applaud as the final whistle sounded.

Full Time 2-1

The highlights show that maybe something did happen in the first half, but it was all a bit Sunday League for my liking, more urgency after the break though and that has to be applauded .........

   

Similar to the Kilmarnock game, the first half was dire, but having kept a clean sheet we then moved up a gear and should have won this game without conceding, so one paced were St Johnstone. However we gifted them an opening they greatly accepted and we looked a bit rattled and relieved as the game ended with St Johnstone trying to get a point they barely deserved. We rightly won the game and I am thankful for the three points, but we will need to perform for ninety minutes against better teams. And can we please stop faffing around at the back, it almost cost us. That's all.

tm4tj MotM:- It's not often that the sponsors get it right but they managed to pick the right boy today, and that boy was Ryan Christie, one of only three contenders today. He looks a class apart and his creativity is starting to even baffle his own team mates. He was best assisted by Aaron Doran and Marley Watkins. I have to say, that the award is only for the second half as the first half never happened.
(what first half I hear you say)

Here's the view from the Perth camp....................