Dunfermline pay the penalty as Welsh goal gives Caley Thistle three points
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Dunfermline 0
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 1 (Welsh)
Defences were on top for most of the 90 minutes at East End Park, but Caley Thistle will be celebrating winning all three points as they head back up the A9.
Sean Welsh was the man who made the difference, coming off the substitutes bench to score the winner from the penalty spot after Danny Devine handballed.
It was a quiet first half with neither side really able to get a stranglehold on the ball.
If either team had the best of play it would probably have been Dunfermline, but there were very few sights of goal to get the fans on the edge of their seats.
Instead most of the action took place in the middle of the park, where some nice passing exchanges took place from both sides, only for moves to largely peter out when they advanced to the final third.
For Caley Thistle, the idea seemed to be to use quick, short passing to open up space for Miles Storey to run on to, using his pace to break clear of the defence.
The hosts tended to rely on set-pieces as their most likely way of finding a goal, but their few corners did not amount to much.
Around 10 minutes before half time Pars captain Paul Paton had the only real opportunity of note, as the ball dropped to him free in the ICT box.
He hit it on the volley, but Inverness stopper Mark Ridgers confidently saw it wide of the post.
The visitors were quickly on the back foot in the second half.
Josh Edwards's ball in hit Jamie McCart and trickled towards goal, only for Ridgers to dive low to his right to keep the ball out.
Then in the 51st minute, some nice play between Greg Kiltie and Kevin Nisbet released the latter towards goal, only for him to slice his effort wide.
Not long after that it took some fine last-ditch defending from McCart and Shaun Rooney to ensure the score remaines goalless, as Dunfermline peppered their visitors' goal with shots.
Storey did have sight of goal just after the hour mark, but the shot with his weaker foot went high and wide.
Inverness started to see more of the ball again towards the latter stages, and with just over five minutes to go Aaron Doran had an effort from range that was just about stopped by Cammy Gill.
Caley Thistle then got a penalty with just a couple of minutes left on the clock when Danny Devine handballed inside his own area.
Sean Welsh, who had earlier come off the bench, lasted the spot kick straight down the middle to find the net.
There was very little time for Dunfermline to respond, and ICT saw out the rest of the match to hold on to all three points.
