Hughes keen on a Miles longer deal
JOHN HUGHES, the Inverness Caley Thistle manager, is keen to tempt young loan sensation Miles Storey to stay a whole season in Inverness — after comparing the derby stand-out to a young Anthony Stokes.
The Swindon Town striker and former England youth international netted the opener in a sparkling display to continue Caley Thistle’s derby dominance.
The Storey strike three minutes before the break was followed up by a header soon after from James Vincent.
Liam Boyce hit back late on for County but victory made it six league matches without defeat for Hughes’ side — missing the talents of Ryan Christie — and four straight wins in a row in Dingwall.
A delighted Hughes, who so far has the 21-year-old scorer until January only, said: ‘Miles is so quick — and only going to get better.
‘He is everything that a loan deal should be in that he comes here to play, stay injury-free and score goals — and long may that go on.
‘He and Christie are building up a good relationship and I’m hoping to keep him beyond January.
‘I had Anthony Stokes popping in goals at Falkirk and I think Miles has a wee bit of that about him.’
There was a suspicion the loss of Celtic-bound Christie to suspension would prove more costly to Caley than County’s loss of skipper Andrew Davies to a ban. In fact, the reverse seemed true.
Approaching half-time, there was no hint of just how much the complexion of the game was about to shift in Caley’s favour.
David Raven won the ball on the right and fed Liam Polworth to the right of the box. An excellent low ball to the far post left Storey with a simple finish on the six-yard line.
Matters deteriorated further for the Dingwall side with another defensive lapse on half-time.
Storey, again, was at the heart of the initial move, producing a great burst of pace to accelerate away from Scott Boyd into the box.
Keeper Scott Fox blocked the striker’s low drive and defender Chris Robertson got his body behind James Vincent’s follow-up.
But there was no respite and from a Greg Tansey corner, Danny Devine flicked on and Vincent nodded home a second.
County were ready to retaliate as the second half opened and forced a series of chances.
Boyce saw an attempt saved by Owain Fon Williams, the Wales international, while Brian Graham skied another County effort.
There was a short break in the frantic football on the hour, but not a welcome one for the Staggies. Fox went down after twisting his ankle and had to be stretchered off.
Just as five minutes’ stoppage time was announced, County were back in contention.
Raffaele de Vita’s corner was headed back across the box by Chris Robertson and Boyce was there to head his 11th goal of the season in off the inside post.
But it was never likely to be enough to salvage anything for County.
County boss Jim McIntyre said: ‘We conceded two poor goals before half-time which gave us a mountain to climb.
‘Credit to Inverness, but we took ourselves out of position and they punished us.’