Stark lesson for Raith

After the cup game, it was back to league duty at Starks Park today and in the end it was a convincing victory for Inverness.

Goals from Adam Rooney, Jonny Hayes, Nauris Bulvitus and Daniel Stratford saw the CaleyJags run out 0-4 winners. .

from CTO: Just in, awful and woeful in the first half, much improved after the break very reminiscent of the October game. Munro and Golly worst offenders of hoofing instead of playing the simple pass. Ummmm Foran's attitude was shocking today. Now on to the positives, we are VERY well organised and well drilled. Bulvitis has improved vastly since day one, and Hayes? What a find he has been. Proctor gets my man of the match once again, he is hard-working and very good on the ball. Oh and the pie wasn't bad either. Attendance just over 1,500,just after a brilliant display in the cup poor show from them.

We have given ourselves a very good chance I believe it will come down to last game of the season. Who said the first division was dull eh?? Who knew...

Maryhill has it covered:

That was another excellent away day. The result isn't really a reflection of the whole game though. As a few people have mentioned, the first half was dreadful: although we probably had more of the ball, I don't recall us creating a single decent chance. There was far too much long ball stuff from Munro and Golabek, and we missed Sanchez' composure and eye for a clinical pass in the middle. Eric Odhiambo couldn't get into the game at all - he wasn't helped by a succession of passes that seemed to land just behind him - and Hayes was double-marked and therefore much less effective than usual. Just as in the previous game here, Raith looked well-prepared and well organised, but very lightweight. They did, however, produce the best chance of the first half with Esson making a decent save from a downward header.

We started the second half more brightly and it looked like Butcher had told the players to be more aggressive. Russell Duncan in particular had a storming second half and got all over the pitch: you can forgive him the odd misplaced pass when he drives the team forward like that. Odhiambo had a couple of decent runs on goal, but seemed a little too keen to pass when he might have been better shooting. When he was hooked for Sanchez, the game did turn, but Sanchez didn't seem to influence it directly. The opening goal looked a bit fortunate - Rooney appeared to control the ball with his hand before finishing well - but as soon as it had gone in, Raith collapsed completely. Nice turn and finish from Hayes for the second, Bulvitis forced the third over the line from fairly close in and Stratford knocked in a nice diagonal shot from a loose ball around the edge of the box for the fourth.

The positives were the obvious determination of the players to keep going for a win when nothing was coming off for them early on, the performance and influence of Russell Duncan and a very solid performance from Bulvitis, much needed after last week's mistake for the first Killie goal. Slight concerns are that despite his obvious talent, we still don't seem to know how to use Odhiambo, and that left back will be a vulnerable area for the rest of the season: Golly did far better than Lionel did last week, but his lack of pace and hasty distribution might be problematic against more effective attacking sides.

Impressive ICT support, by the way - more than 200, I'd say - and good and vocal throughout. Hope we can keep this up throughout the run-in.

We're coming for you Dundee....