Lions Tamed

Livingston had the better of the opening exchanges and Nouble had the ball in the net but was flagged offside. Ridgers was the busier keeper early on but a swift counter attack saw Austin Samuels open the scoring after 37 minutes. Inverness held that advantage until the break. Daniel Mackay bundled in a second shortly after Max Stryjek was sent off for felling Austin Samuels in the box. Jason Holt pulled a goal back late on then proceeded to miss a penalty three minutes later as Inverness saw out the game to win 1-2 and go top of Group G.

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Inverness were without half a dozen regulars and no defenders on the bench: Sounds familiar. Devine, Duffy, Welsh, Walsh and Sutherland were the main casualties with Saturday's scorer George Oakley benched. 

Jason Holt was tasked with getting the game underway as Livi kicked off this Premier Sport cup tie.

Joel Nouble puts the ball into the net for the hosts but was adjudged offside. The bustling forward who was a nuisance at Arbroath last season will be a nuisance again tonight.

Former Hearts player Esmael Goncalves did well to fire a ball across goal for Scott Pittman, but he was unable to get on the end of it. Three minutes later the powerful Nouble and Goncalves combined well but Mark Ridgers saves well on his line.

All the early pressure came from the home side but in the nineteenth minute a Cammy Harper free kick was met by Robbie Deas and his header looped beyond Stryjek and the ball came back off the bar before Phill Cancar cleared at the expense of a corner.

Stryjek was called into action minutes later when Daniel Mackay bent a shot goalwards and the keeper pulled off a diving save to deny the Caley Jags forward.

Ten minutes before the break Ridgers did brilliantly to tip a Nicky Devlin shot from his own half onto the crossbar at full stretch.

Two minutes later and Austin Samuels gave Inverness the lead. From twitter @ASutherland1983: Woooof! Scintillating counter attack from Caley Thistle. Starts on our own goal line featuring a stunning pass from Allardice to get MacKay away and he crosses to the back post for Samuels to tuck it away from close range.

Just before the interval Jack Fitzwalker was booked for a late challenge on Scott Allardice.

HALF TIME: 0-1

Again, Livi came out of the blocks fast without over troubling Ridgers. The main topic of conversation happened on the hour when keeper Max Stryjek did some sort of Kung Fu on Austin Samuels.

RIG on Twitter: Livingston are down to ten men as goalkeeper Max Stryjek is sent off for a late challenge on Austin Samuels inside the box! Samuels is released by a quick ball from Ridgers and the Livingston keeper is sent off for a late challenge on the ICT striker.RIG saw it like this: The drama kicked off when a long clearance downfield by Ridgers got Samuels in behind the Livi defence and Stryjek came rushing out and leathered him in the face Street Fighter style. Out came the red card and Livi were down to 10. 

Cammy Harper was denied from the free kick as sub keeper Konovalov saved brilliantly in the top left of his goal.

RIG: A piece of MacKay magic saw us extend the lead. A raking pass sent Mackay away and he ghosted past Devlin using some kind of elastico type skill that had us on our feet. He drove into the box and stabbed an effort towards goal which looked like it may have gone in possibly with a touch off a Livi defender. It was a stunning piece of skill that I hope we get to see back again.

Inverness looked comfortable until the final few minutes when Livi got a lifeline. Substitutions maybe played a part in this as we looked disjointed with the incoming players getting up to speed.

The final few minutes suddenly became uncomfortable after Jason Holt reduced the deficit with six minutes left after he turned on the edge of the box and drilled a shot into the bottom corner of Ridgers' net. He missed a great opportunity to level the game three minutes later as he ballooned a penalty high over the bar after Oakley was deemed to have pulled Scott Bitsindou to the ground.

Game over as we saw out the remainder of the time.

Inverness were best served by the three D's. Delaney, Deas and Dan. Sounds like an Irish Showband 

If you can keep up with the ball, here's some highlights...Worms eye view form Tony Macaroni

At home to Albion Rovers next Tuesday night No game on Saturday.

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