Inverness Caley Thistle picked up their first win of the season as they prove too good for Cove Rangers
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Scottish Championship
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 4
Cove Rangers 1
Scorers – Inverness: Samuels (6, 78) Doran (31) Shaw (90) Cove: Leitch (47)
Inverness Caledonian Thistle picked up their first win of the season as they defeated Cove Rangers at the Caledonian Stadium.
Inverness cruised into a 2–0 lead in the first half with goals from Austin Samuels and Aaron Doran.
Cove fought back in the second half through Robbie Leitch to make it 2–1. But Samuels grabbed his second with 15 minutes remaining with Nathan Shaw scoring in injury time to secure victory.
Caley Thistle made five changes to the team which drew Arbroath 0–0 at the previous match.
Wallace Duffy, Danny Devine and David Carson were all out of the squad with George Oakley and Nathan Shaw dropped to the bench.
Robbie Deas, Aaron Doran, Zak Delaney, Lewis Hyde and Austin Samuels all started.
Inverness had a great chance to take the lead after four minutes when Cameron Harper beat the offside trap to run on to Robbie Deas' through ball.
He charged into the box and fired a low drive which was parried wide of the right post.
But Inverness did take the lead after six minutes when Aaron Doran put a through ball to Austin Samuels who fired into the top right corner from 12 yards out.
Samuels then set up Billy Mckay 12 yards from goal as he fired a shot towards the goal which was well saved by Kyle Gourlay.
Cove Rangers pulled one back at the start of the second half. Cove pull one back and its a game off. Fraser Fyvie long ball finds Mitchel Megginson who only has goalkeeper to beat. Ridgers saves shot but rebound falls to Robbie Leitch to tap home into an empty net.
But Inverness restored their two-goal advantage with 15 minutes remaining as Daniel Mackay's long ball from the left wing finds Billy Mckay in the box and his cross into the six-yard box found Samuels to bang home his second of the season.
Inverness wrapped up victory in injury time when Samuels was denied a hat-trick by a block from Gourlay, but the rebound was pounced on by Shaw to fire into the net from 12 yards out.
Inverness: Ridgers, Harper, Deas, Mckay (Oakley 89), Doran (Shaw 83), MacGregor, Hyde, MacKay (Boyd 78), Allardice, Delaney, Samuels.
Subs (Unused) Mackay, Nicolson.
Cove: Gourlay, Logan, Scully, Ross, Neill (Vigurs 45), Megginson, Masson (Longstaff 70), Leitch (Mackintosh 79), Dunne, Fyvie (McDonagh 79), Reynolds.
Subs (Unused) McKenzie, Thomas.
Referee: Greg Aitken
Attendance 2106
