CALEY JAGS FAIL WITH LAST-DITCH PROMOTION PUSH
NOT many teams go to Cappielow and win as handsomely as this, so Inverness can certainly take pride in their efforts to secure a play-off place.
This comprehensive defeat of Morton made it eight wins from their last ten games, with 26 points being garnered from the last available 30.
It all amounted to an admirable late charge from John Robertson’s side, but they ultimately fell short thanks to Dunfermline’s victory over Dumbarton.
‘All we could do was keep Dunfermline honest and keep our end of the bargain. I think the players can rightly be proud the way they went about things,’ said Robertson.
‘We have put a magnificent run together over the past few weeks but, unfortunately, we’ve just come up a wee bit short.’
Iain Vigurs just about broke the crossbar with a thumping free-kick on 18 minutes, and they took the lead two minutes later.
From a Liam Polworth corner, George Oakley came charging in at the near post and bundled home.
The Highlanders doubled their advantage on 37 minutes. Charlie Trafford’s ball into the right channel looked harmless enough and so, too, did the shot from Oakley which followed.
But Ton keeper Conor Brennan made a pig’s ear of it, diving down to his near post and succeeding only in palming the ball into the roof of the net.
On the day Douglas Rae announced he was stepping down after 17 years as Morton chairman, some of the players also looked like they had chucked it.
The visitors applied a little more gloss to the scoreline on 55 minutes when Nathan Austin sprung the offside trap to dink the ball over Brennan and then roll it into the empty net.
Ton boss Jim Duffy said: ‘We wanted to give the chairman a good sign-off because he has been magnificent for this club and we all owe him so much, but we weren’t good enough on the day.’