The day we won at Home

Hold on to your hats, folks! The impossible has happened! WE WON AT HOME!!!!! No joke – at long last, ICT have got the monkey off their backs, having stuffed Morton 4-1. Adam Rooney led the charge with a hat trick, making it the first time since I don’t know when (Wyness and Ritchie perhaps?) that Caley Thistle have had hat-tricks scored in consecutive matches. Nauris Bulvitis, of all people, was also on target as Terry Butcher’s sudden change to an attacking setup added to the five goals procured at Ayr last weekend.

Hold on to your hats, folks! The impossible has happened! WE WON AT HOME!!!!! No joke – at long last, ICT have got the monkey off their backs, having stuffed Morton 4-1. Adam Rooney led the charge with a hat trick, making it the first time since I don’t know when (Wyness and Ritchie perhaps?) that Caley Thistle have had hat-tricks scored in consecutive matches. Nauris Bulvitis, of all people, was also on target as Terry Butcher’s sudden change to an attacking setup added to the five goals procured at Ayr last weekend. In light of the Ayr result, there was no surprise that TB went with the same starting eleven again, especially as Russell Duncan had overcome a back problem to keep his place in centre mid. So Adam Rooney continued up front, with Richie Foran and Dougie Imrie wide and Danni Sanchez as an old fashioned number 10 (okay, he was wearing number 7, but you know what I mean). Our opponents, in contrast, were scunnered by injuries; with seven players out, Morton had three youth team players on their bench. James Grady also named himself as a sub, but his co-manager Alan McManus was in the starting lineup. As we have become accustomed to in our home games, things started slowly and tentatively at the TCS. Attempts to play out from the back were a bit wayward, though Morton were toothless up front. The main talking point from the opening quarter was the outrageous hairdo belonging to Morton striker Brian Wake, who sported a Jonathan Woodgate-style mullet-with-hairband job. While the debate ranged over whether headbands should be allowed in the Scottish first division, Caley produced a goal almost out of nothing. The punt forward from the back by Grant Munro was no surprise; however the fact that Dougie Imrie climbed highest to knock the ball on was. No time for us to rub our eyes in disbelief, however, as Adam Rooney seized the opportunity and smacked a ferocious half volley into the bottom right hand corner of Colin Stewart’s net from the edge of the box. If the keeper had got anything on it, he would have probably have ended up in the net with the ball. Suddenly, Caley tails were up, and Morton heads were down. The home side went for the jugular, and soon had their reward. Sanchez tossed in a corner, and while it was difficult to tell who won the initial header (Foran possibly?), there was no doubt that, after the keeper did well to parry, it was Nauris Bulvitis who stabbed the loose ball into the roof of the net. You couldn’t help feeling that, if he had been two yards further out, the ball would have flown over the bar, but no matter; Caley were two up and coasting. “What the f*** is going on?” chanted the North Stand support. Cue a return of the car crash defending that has been so prevalent this season, as Morton hauled themselves back into the match. The centre of the Caley backline promptly went AWOL, allowing Erik Portaloo – sorry, Paartalu – to waltz into the box and knock it past Ryan Esson. And, for a few minutes, there was a nervous feeling that we might just mess it up again. Then the visitors made the mistake of making Richie Foran angry. The Irishman got a stern talking to after clattering Ryan McGuffie, then ended up in the book for dissent. He responded in the best way possible, breaking between Morton’s central defenders ten, with no space to shoot, he showed tremendous awareness to square the ball to Rooney, who deposited it into the net again, with the half-time whistle imminent. In truth, the game was probably done and dusted by this point, but ICT came out for the second half determined to make sure. Ten minutes into the second period, Dougie Imrie, livewire as always, beat his full back for the umpteenth time and, with space opening up for a shot, he was wrestled to the deck for a stonewall penalty. It was a given that Rooney would grab the ball, and he duly sent the keeper the wrong way from the spot to clinch that elusive first home win in the league, and a hat trick for himself. The match effectively became a training game after that, though Rooney continued to scavenge for goals. First Stewart produced a first class save to keep out a point-blank header, then he managed to get in behind only to drive his shot wide from an acute angle. Rossco nearly added to the rout, glancing a header wide from a corner, and there was still time for the Obligatory Andrew Barrowman Miss, as the substitute somehow failed to convert Lee Cox’s cutback from three yards out (in Barrowman’s defence, a Morton player might have got a foot in). But in the end, it was a comfortable win, and one which now leaves ICT only four points off top coming into the derby in Dingwall next week. Even some rain on the way home wasn’t enough to dampen spirits. Bring on County!

The Patented Hislopsoffsideagain Man Of The Match Award No doubt over who wins this. Adam Rooney was the star of the show. Honourable mentions go to Dougie Imrie, who was a constant menace, and the midfield pair of Proctor and Duncan, who broke up every Morton attack that came their way.