Inverness Caledonian Thistle win first home league game this year to boost survival hope
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Scottish Championship
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 2
Arbroath 1
Scorers - Inverness: Duffy (45) Samuel 80. Arbroath: Mcintyre (61)
Inverness Caledonian Thistle boosted their chance of escaping the bottom two as they picked up victory against Arbroath at the Caledonian Stadium.
Wallace Duffy gave Inverness the lead on the stroke of half time before Leighton Mcintyre equalised on the hour mark.
But Alex Samuel scored with 10 minutes remaining to give Inverness victory.
The result reduces the gap with Queen’s Park, who were thrashed by Dundee United, to one point with the two teams set to clash next weekend.
Inverness Caledonian Thistle kept faith with the same team that lost 1-0 against Partick Thistle in Glasgow last week.
The match was delayed by six minutes after there was a problem with the communication device worn by the referee.
Once the match kicked off, Inverness were denied by the crossbar after four minutes when Alex Samuel’s shot from outside the box smashed against the crossbar.
He then came close again when Samuel fired a low drive which Boruc saved and diverted out for a corner.
Inverness continued to stamp their authority on the game when Samson Lawal broke with the ball in own half and his pass found Billy Mckay who fed through Max Anderson who could only shoot straight at Max Boruc.
However, Inverness did go into the break in front what they took the lead on the stroke of half time.
Samuel played a pass straight through the Arbroath defence and the ball found Duffy unchallenged who fired a low drive past Boruc from 12 yards out.
Inverness started the second half brightly when Mckay came close to doubling their advantage when managed to latch on to the ball at the end of the box but fired straight at Boruc.
However, Arbroath equalised just after the hour mark when the Inverness defence failed to clear the ball and it was pounced on by Leighton McIntosh who fired a rocket past Ridgers from 20 yards.
The visitors were reduced to 10 men with 15 minutes remaining when Ricky Little picked up his second yellow card for a foul on Billy Mckay.
But Inverness grabbed the winner with 10 minutes remaining when Alex Samuel latched on to a cross from the right wing and fired into the top right corner from 12 yards out.
Inverness: Ridgers, Duffy, Harper, Kerr, Mckay (Doran 88), Anderson, Boyes, Carragher, Savage (Devine 45), Samuel, Lawal (Longstaff 72).
Substitutions: Mackay, Devine, MacGregor, Pepple, Brooks, Ujdur.
Arbroath: Boruc, Little, Slater, Gold (McKenna 34), McIntosh, Stewart, Delaney, MacKinnon, Walker (Lyon 64), Murray (Stowe 72), Bird (Dow 72).
Substitutions: Gaston, Steele, Jacobs, Teale, Robinson.
Referee: Colin Steven
Attendance 2223
