Young guns key as Inverness progress
INVERNESS boss John Robertson hailed young gun Daniel Mackay, who put the finishing touches to their Irn-Bru Cup third-round win against Peterhead.
Liam Polworth, Ricky Calder and 16-year-old Mackay got the goals as the Championship side got the better of their rivals.
Robertson said: ‘It is a good day’s work. We have said before we have been working very hard on our defensive aspects and that is our second clean sheet.
‘Apart from a long-range effort in the first half, Owain (Fon Williams) has not had too much to do.
‘We had good chances to kill the game off and get the third goal and it took a while to get it.
‘Daniel came on with a couple of minutes to go and had two fantastic chances and sometimes that is all you need. It was a really good story to finish the day on.’
Caley Thistle made two changes from the line-up which drew 0-0 with Queen of the South a week ago in the Championship.
Calder and Joe Chalmers came in for George Oakley and Charlie Trafford, who was sent off in the last round.
For the Blue Toon, skipper David McCracken came in for Mason Robertson and Russell McLean replaced Allan Smith.
The hosts got off to a dream start as Polworth’s deflected 20-yarder beat goalkeeper Greg Fleming finishing just 90 seconds into the match.
Peterhead aimed to respond moments later and ex-Inverness striker Rory McAllister’s attempt flew over the bar.
The visitors were growing into the game and Jamie Stevenson’s longranger after 20 minutes required a decent stop from Fon Williams then Willie Gibson’s effort came off McLean and dipped over the top.
Just before the break, Peterhead No1 Fleming had to be out smartly to deny Calder, who was rushing into the box.
The tie was effectively put to bed when Calder linked up with Polworth, before guiding the ball beyond Fleming.
And Mackay, on his debut from the bench, rounded off the scoring from close range.