Inverness Caledonian Thistle get perfect preparation for Premiership play-offs by thrashing Hamilton Academical in the Scottish Championship
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 4 (Walsh x2, Sutherland, Hardy)
Hamilton Academical 0
Inverness Caledonian Thistle thrashed Hamilton Academical in the perfect tune-up for their upcoming play-off push.
The Accies looked as though they were already on their holidays, barely putting up any resistance as the Caley Jags appeared able to score at will.
As it was, Tom Walsh, Shane Sutherland and Joe Hardy gave the hosts a four-goal lead by half time, and though the goalmouth action tailed off in the second 45 minutes it was still a comfortable victory for the home side.
With nothing at stake for the Caley Jags, head coach Billy Dodds made five changes, bringing in Lewis Hyde, Cameron Harper, Shane Sutherland, Tom Walsh and Joe Hardy.
Kirk Broadfoot, Sean Welsh, Reece McAlear, Austin Samuels and Aaron Doran fell out of the line-up, with only Welsh, McAlear and Samuels on the substitutes' bench.
One of those players introduced got ICT off to a flying start, as Walsh opened the scoring inside four minutes.
From his point of view, it was a simple enough goal – he gained possession of the ball inside the Hamilton half, ran past his marker and picked out the bottom corner from the edge of the box to put Inverness 1–0 up.
It should have been two minutes later, when Walsh almost turned provider by feeding in Hoe Hardy in space just inside the penalty area, but the on-loan Accrington Stanley forward saw his effort saved by Accies goalkeeper Ryan Fulton.
Hamilton did go close from Mihai Popescu's header at a corner kick, but that proved to be the exception to how the early stages went as Inverness went 2–0 up.
Walsh played a very similar pass to the one that nearly assisted Hardy for Shane Sutherland this time, and the wide-man expertly picked out the top corner in the 15th minute, giving Fulton no chance.
It was three inside 22 minutes. Sutherland, who himself had received the ball from an excellent pass from Roddy MacGregor, repaid the favour by slipping in Walsh to score his second of the evening.
In the aftermath of the goal, though, Inverness were forced into a change as Wallace Duffy went down injured, having to be replaced by Sean Welsh.
Caley Thistle nearly made it 4–0 with Walsh involved again, slipping Billy Mckay in for the striker to take aim at goal, only for Fulton to deny him.
They did get a fourth before the half-hour mark, though, with Walsh again playing a key role as his low cross went all the way through to Joe Hardy, who sent it back across Fulton and into the corner.
That goal prompted Stuart Taylor to make an early tactical switch, as Ellis Brown made way for Brian Easton, which did help to shore up the visitors' defence and the scoreline remained 4–0 at the interval.
Whether it was more solidity at the back for Hamilton, or whether Inverness were just trying to conserve energy ahead of the play-offs having already built up a commanding lead, the action in front of goal was not so frantic after the restart.
At most both sides only had half chances to score, with Hamilton generally restricted to shooting from distance while the closest Caley Thistle came to adding to their tally was when substitute Austin Samuels found space in the box, only to be flagged for offside.
Sean Welsh still had to be alert to block a Lewis Spence effort just after the hour mark, though, and Andrew Winter did have the ball in the net for Hamilton only to see the offside flag deny him too.
Otherwise it was a comfortable second half for the Caley Jags, who will now turn their attentions to a trip to Firhill to face Partick Thistle in the play-off quarter final on Tuesday evening.
Caley Thistle: Ridgers (MacKay 46), Duffy (Welsh 25), Harper, Deas (McAlear 58), Carson, Mckay (Samuels 46), Sutherland (Chalmers 64), MacGregor, Walsh, Hardy, Hyde.
Hamilton: Fulton, Popescu, Smith, Spence (Winter 73), Mullin, Mimnaugh (Hughes 46), Moyo (McGowan 90), Lawson, Shiels, Brown (Easton 29), O'Reilly.
Subs not used: Smith, McGinn, Newbury.
Referee: Graham Grainger
Attendance: 2131
Yellow cards: Hamilton – Popescue (34), Easton (58).
