Fon Williams happy to use his head or any other body part

IT WAS one of those close your eyes and hope for the best moments. And no, we don’t mean the actions of the suffering spectators who endured this fairly grotty affair and would’ve been forgiven for covering their een and praying for better things.

The moment in question was provided by Owain Fon Williams, the Inverness Caledonian Thistle goalkeeper, who somehow managed to keep out Ade Azeez’s close range prod from barely two yards and helped ensure that the struggling Highlanders at least plundered a point from a largely turgid tussle.

As the ball dropped invitingly for Azeez, it seemed a formality that the visiting Thistle would snatch the lead,but a spreadeagled Fon Williams managed to get something in the way to deflect the effort onto the bar. His shoulder? His ear? Perhaps even a bit of his considerable beard? When you’re the last line of defence, it doesn’t matter what repels the assaults.

“The ball has bounced in the six-yard box and as a goalkeeper you have nothing to lose as the player has beaten you due to the size of the goal,” reflected the Welshman. “All I could do was make myself as big as possible and try to put him off and thankfully it hit me on the head and bounced off the crossbar. If it means stopping it with my backside or my face, I don’t really care.”

Moments after that instinctive intervention, Fon Williams conjured a more conventional block as he hurled himself to his right to beat away Chris Erskine’s curling attempt.

Fon Williams certainly made a point as Inverness grabbed one for themselves. Now level with Hamilton at the foot of the Ladbrokes Premiership, the two teams propping up the division will go toe-to-toe tomorrow night in a proverbial six-pointer. Caledonian Thistle haven’t won in the league since last October, a barren sequence stretching to 11 games, but with illness and injury afflicting the ranks – Gary Warren and Greg Tansey both battled on despite being laid low with a vomiting bug the night before – this was viewed as a highly positive result.

“I have to praise our lads,” added Fon Williams. “We had a couple of illnesses which kept them up all night so credit to them for rolling their sleeves up and giving it a good go. We made it as difficult as possible for Partick to play through us.

“You can’t hide here. There is no room for players to feel sorry for themselves. We have to get on with it, we have to fight, and that’s what our lads did here. We have that fighting spirit here and we’re showing it. Every game is a huge one.

“Hamilton are with us but there won’t be one game bigger than the other.