Inverness Caley Thistle victorious in final home match of 2022/23 Scottish Women's Championship season against Dryburgh Athletic
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Inverness Caledonian Thistle's women claimed all three points from their final home game of the season against Dryburgh Athletic.
With fifth place in the Scottish Women's Championship already sewn up, the post-split fixtures present an opportunity to try out new things and build momentum ahead of next season.
A back-and-forth contest at Millburn Academy saw each team have moments where they looked the better side, as well as some scrappy exchanges, but it was the visitors who broke the deadlock.
Alma Codegoni put Dryburgh in front in the 70th minute, but it was not an advantage that lasted long.
A nice move six minutes later started with Julia Scott, who sprayed the ball out to Iona MacArthur on the left flank for Caley Thistle.
Her cross then picked out Rhea Hossack at the back post, who saw her first shot blocked before opting to tee up Katie Cleland – making just her second appearance after a close to two-year lay-off through injury – who made no mistake as her finish found the back of the net.
At that point, the momentum was well and truly with the Caley Jags, and in the 79th minute Inverness took the lead.
Kayleigh Mackenzie, who this week started in attack but had moved back into the heart of defence, played a long ball over the top of Dryburgh's backline for Scott to latch on to, and she made no mistake to make it 2-1 to ICT.
From there it was a fairly comfortable closing stretch for manager Karen Mason's side, who have rounded off their home season with back-to-back victories.
"It was a good way to end our season at home," Cleland said after the full time whistle.
"We've got two more games, so we're not getting ahead of ourselves, but we've got a run going now and a little bit of momentum about us.
"Hopefully we can keep carrying it forward.
"I think Karen is of the mindset that she's going to try different players in different players – and rightfully so.
"We'll see where people are comfortable playing, and hopefully we can have some consistency next year and fewer injuries moving forward."
