Inverness Caledonian Thistle win first home game but in front of low crowd
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 3
Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic 0
Scorers: Brooks (9) Bray (16) Longstaff (42)
INVERNESS Caledonian Thistle won their first match of the season but it was in front of a mid-three figure crowd at the Caledonian Stadium.
Only an official attendance of 682 fans came to see Caley Thistle’s first home game of the season in the Premier Sports Cup clash.
A first half blitz was enough for Inverness Caledonian Thistle to kill the game off at half time as they cruised to a comfortable victory over Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic.
Caley Thistle responded well to their 1-0 defeat at Annan Athletic seven days previously with an impressive first 45 minutes to keep their hopes of progression from the group stages.
Inverness had the first chance of the match early on when they won a free kick at the edge of the box.
Luis Longstaff whipped in a free kick to find Danny Devine whose header from six yards went wide of the left post.
But the deadlock was broken after nine minutes when Matthew Strachan’s cross into the box found Adam Brooks.
The former Celtic youth star fired home from close range to give Inverness the lead.
Inverness doubled their advantage in the 16th minute when Billy McKay did well to hold off his marker in the box.
He then played provider to set up Keith Bray who fired a low drive past Tom Ritchie from 12-yards out.
Inverness should have found their third goal on the half hour mark when Strachan played provider from the left wing as his cross found Brooks who turned his defender and his shot hit the right post.
But Inverness did find their third, three minutes before half time when Luis Longstaff fired a low drive from 12 yards out.
Caley Thistle took their foot off the pedal in the second half as they looked confident that the job was done in preparation for the clash against Arbroath on Tuesday night.
Inverness: Newman, Bray, Strachan, Davidson, Savage, Devine (Walker 62), Gilmour, MacLeod (Thompson 73), Mckay, Brooks (Ferguson 73), Longstaff (Mackay 75).
Substitutions: Rebilas, Nixon, Keogh Corner.
Bonnyrigg: Ritchie, Martynuik, Mercer (Young 50), Murphy, Currie (Higginbotham 50), Rodden, Grigor, Arnott, Somerville (Forbes 75), Osadolor Scarborough (50), Barrett (Wardell 45).
Substitutes: Andrews.
Referee: Ryan Lee.
