Saints draw a blank once more as Jaggies cruise home.

Inverness saw off a determined challenge from goal shy St Johnstone to eventually cruise to a comfortable 3-0 victory.

Saints spurned great opportunities in the first half and Inverness profited from their deficiencies to steal a march on the Perth outfit.  A fabulous header from the much maligned Chris Innes opened a gap that Saints were unable to close in the second half.  Aaron Doran curled a delicious second from eighteen yards before Richie Foran clinched the points with a deserved third, wrong footing the defenders and keeper as he bore goalwards.

You have to feel sorry for the lads from Perth as they could not buy a goal tonight, on another occasion they might have scored three or four, such is their luck just now.  Esson saved smartly from a Jackson effort early on, (are you still watching Levein), and Maybury rattled the foot of the post with a brisk strike while Murray Davidson should have done better than skew a shot wide, but such is life, when it's not running for you, it's hard to break the mould.

Biker Davie will give us the full details when he gets back to the land of the living after his cycle south, and here it is, home safe and report typed out for you, cheers wee man.

Hands up anyone who saw that coming?

A 3-0 win in a dead rubber end of season yawn fest that had 0-0 untidily scrawled all over it. The 0 for Saints was a near certainty, as they have been unable to score since Adam was a lad. What the score would be for ICT was anyone’s guess, the creative engine of Hayes literally putting his feet up.

ICT started with an interesting back four including Chris Innes, drafted in for the luckless Tokely and the makeshift look was reinforced in the first minute with Ryan Esson forced into a smart save from Jackson. Saints were the brighter starters on a pitch that had more bobbles than a tattie field and their crisper passing was causing problems. The hirsute May was making an impression in midfield, as was Davidson. Chances came and went, including a decent header from Foran but in 20 minutes Maybury exploded a left foot drive off Esson’s post from 25 yards that deserved a goal. ICT’s handling of corners was not the best at this point, Foran being required to clear off the line and it seemed Saints were picking up every second ball that came back out. Defending at corners was to be proved important shortly afterwards, when ICT were awarded a corner on the far side, which Shane Sutherland took. A mediocre effort, it was cleared back to him and he made amends with a peach of a delivery that was cannoned off INNES’ forehead into the pokey. 36 minutes gone, 1-0 up and yes that was the sound of St Johnstone deflating. Perhaps the most telling moment came in 38 minutes, when Davidson burst through ICT’s high line and was clean through on Esson. The ball went wide, Davidson claimed a corner and those in the stadium went nah, you’re joking. He wasn’t, and you can see it at 2:58 in the BBC highlights. In a season of superlative saves that was one of the best.

Half Time: St Johnstone 0 Inverness CT 1

A tad lucky was the half time general opinion, but that was put to bed fairly quickly thereafter. Shane Sutherland was coming on to a real game, and Nick Ross was creating all sorts of passes and through balls, but ICT still had to weather an initial flurry of disobedience from Saints. It was eventually punished in 56 minutes by DORAN, who nicked the ball beautifully from a ponderous Maybury, shimmied a bit and then despatched a curling coup de grace into the top left corner – a strike worthy of winning any game. Saints and their fans gave up at this point, and their resistance to Inverness attacks became progressively weaker. By the time FORAN collected the ball, breenged past a couple of challenges and trundled the ball past Smith in 69 minutes, you could sense that Saints just wanted to be put out of their misery. They duly were, and it could have been more – Adam Rooney deserved a fourth when he shot over after collecting another cracking through ball from Ross and how Mr Madden missed a blatant penalty in the second half is beyond me.

Full Time: St. Johnstone 0 Inverness CT 3

MOTM?  The general consensus was Foran, who was dashed nearly best attacker and defender. Me? I’ll go for Ryan Esson for that sublime moment at 2:58. Scotland’s best uncapped goalie. (Hello Craig, knock knock, waves at Mr Levein) All in all a great display that made your correspondent and everyone else’s journey worthwhile. My own journey had started at 10.30 am when I set off on the bike. It’s a great day out, but you really do forget how tortuous the old A9 was and it’s linked by strips of rubble that pass for a cycle track. Not conducive to making great speed, neither was the “creative” off roading at Crubenmore or the journey into the darkest recesses of Perthshire (what happens in Logierait?) Thanks to those who tooted, the Saints lady that gave me 2 free pies and to Paul Chalk for the lift back up the road. I was heartened by the amount of you who thought I was a nutter, and I’m sorry that Alex had to sit beside me, clad in smelly lycra. Stadium to Stadium 134.4 miles and I felt every one of them!

Aye davie, yer legs are getting shorter laddie.