Inverness Caledonian Thistle move up to seventh place in League One as they prove too good for Stenhousemuir
Scottish League One
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 4
Stenhousemuir 1
Scorers - Inverness: Brannan (3) Gilmour (15) Bray (47) Allan (50). Stenhousemuir: O’Reilly (9)
Inverness Caledonian Thistle have moved up to seventh place in League One as they cruised to victory against Stenhousemuir at the Caledonian Stadium on Tuesday night.
The club made an appeal to the crowd asking if a qualified linesman or referee was in attendance to ensure the game could go ahead.
Billy Baxter, who was in attendance as a referee supervisor, volunteered to be a linesman for the match with Tommi Kerr promoted to referee.
The delay did not impact Inverness who went on to score the most goals in a single match this season. They are now on 32 points, but have moved up to seventh place in the table ahead of Montrose on goal difference.
Inverness took the lead after just two minutes when Ben Brannan, on loan from Kilmarnock since last month, put them in front when he ran onto a pass from Keith Bray and fired in a thunderous strike from 12 yards.
But the lead only lasted six minutes as Stenhousemuir equalised when a cross into the box was met by Euan O’Reilly who from eight yards out nodded into the net.
Inverness went on to suffer a major blow when Alfie Bavidge went down injured and was unable to carry on as he was replaced by Billy Mckay after 12 minutes.
But Inverness retook the lead in the 15th minute when Charlie Gilmour lashed a strike from around 12 yards in the box past goalkeeper Darren Jamieson to put them 2-1 in front.
Inverness could have made it 3-1 six minutes before half time when Paul Allan was allowed to have a shot from the edge of the box which clattered off the right post.
Stenhousemuir could have equalised just before half time when Matt Yates’ cross into the box was not cleared by the Inverness defence and the ball fell to O’Reilly.
His shot towards the bottom right corner was only prevented from finding the net by a terrific save by goalkeeper Musa Dibaga as Inverness went into the break 2-1 up.
Inverness went 3-1 up two minutes into the second half when Adam Mackinnon’s cross from the left wing found an unchallenged Keith Bray into the box but nodded into the net.
The hosts went 4-1 up in the 50th minute when Mckay’s ball through to Bray in the box and he set up Allan to fire home.
Dibaga had to be at full stretch midway through the second half as he produced a terrific save to deny a long range effort from Bobby McLuckie.
He then had another chance to pull one back for Stenhousemuir in injury time when he saw his shot clatter off the post from long range.
But Stenhousemuir were awarded a penalty in injury time when Remi Savage fouled Blair Alston in the box.
But Dibaga guessed right as he dived to his left to stop Alston’s spot-kick finding the bottom right corner for a 4-1 win.
The victory means Inverness are now five points clear of Annan Athletic in ninth place in the relegation zone with the two teams set to meet at the Caledonian Stadium on Saturday.
Inverness: Dibaga, Nolan, Savage, Devine, Gilmour, MacKinnon (Thompson 84), Bavidge (Mckay 12), MacLeod, Brannan, Bray, Allan (Stewart 69).
Substitutes (Unused) Rebilas, Strachan, Walker, Keogh, Cairns, Ewan.
Stenhousemuir: Jamieson, Meechan, Buchanan, O’Reilly (Alston 72), Aitken (O’Donnell 60), Yates, Bilham (Ewen 60), Anderson (Jacobs 77), McGill (Wedderburn 77) Fisher, McLuckie.
Substitutes (Unused) Morrison, Tomlinson, Taylor, Banner, Jacobs.
Referee: George Calder.
