Inverness walking on Ayr with play off advantage
Ayr United 1
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 3
Scorers: Ayr – Rose (66) ICT - Trafford (33) White (53, 73 pen)
Inverness Caledonian Thistle are within 90 minutes of the Premiership playoff semi final with a priceless first leg victory at Somerset Park.
Charlie Trafford and Jordan White’s double gave their team a two goal advantage heading into the second leg on Saturday.
Inverness’ first chance of the game came in the 17th minute when Coll Donaldson’s long ball found Joe Chalmers down the right wing who beat his marker but shot wide of the right hand post.
Tom Walsh had a great chance on the half hour mark when his shot from close range was only prevented finding the net by being blocked by Declan McDaid who parried the ball out for a corner kick.
But Inverness broke the deadlock after 33 minutes when Chalmers’ corner kick found Trafford in the six-yard box who soared above the Ayr defence to nod the ball into the net.
They doubled their advantage seven minutes into the second half when Aaron Doran slid the ball through the heart of the defence to find White who kept his composure to clip the ball past goalkeeper Ross Doohan.
Ayr responded and almost pulled one back when Luke McCowan powered into the box but Brad McKay put in a last ditch challenge to divert the ball out for a corner.
Mark Ridgers pulled off a fantastic save from a thunderous strike by Lawrence Shankland from 25 yards.
But he could nothing seconds later after Michael Rose was unchallenged to nod home a corner in the six yard box.
Inverness restored their two goal lead from the penalty spot after Mark Kerr fouled Jamie McCart in the box and White kept his cool from 12 yards to make it 3-1.
The second leg takes place at the Caledonian Stadium on Saturday with the winners taking on Dundee United in the semi final.
Ayr: Doohan. Harvie, Rose, Moffat (McCowan 63). Crawford (Kerr 45), McDaid (Forrest 81), Shankland Murdoch, Dochety, Smith, Muirhead
Subs (Unused) Hare-Reid, Ecrepont, Cadden, Miller, Hewitt.
Inverness: Ridgers, Chalmers, Donaldson, McCart, Polworth (McDonald 88), Doran (Rooney 79), Walsh (McCauley 79), White, McKay, Trafford, McHattie.
Subs (Unused) Mackay, Austin, MacGregor,Harper.
Referee Alan Muir.
