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St. Johnstone
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Inverness CT
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Appearances & Goals To Date
Starting Lineup
| Youngest Player: | Ross Tokely (24 years 174 days) |
| Oldest Player: | Stuart Golabek (2005 years 22 days) |
| Average Player Age: | 30 years 347 days |
| Domestic Players: | 11 (100.00 % of starting eleven) |
Matchday Squad
| Youngest Player: | David Proctor (19 years 175 days) |
| Oldest Player: | Darran Thomson (2005 years 22 days) |
| Average Player Age: | 27 years 46 days |
| Domestic Players: | 16 (100.00 % of matchday squad) |
First Team Debuts
Milestones
A tremendous performance and a well deserved victory against the pre-season title favourites.
A lively Saints side always looked capable of coming back into the game but the visitors created most of the chances and secured their first victory at McDiarmid Park. Not surprisingly a home player was named *Man of the Match* but it was David Bingham who really deserved the award - he scored the first goal and set up the winner.
Saints started strongly but Caley Thistle soon settled and in 16 minutes Bobby Mann forced a fine save from Kevin Cuthbert with a header. A minute later a Steve Hislop angled shot was deflected for a corner. Bingham chipped past in 20 minutes then a dipping Mann free kick from 25 yards was pushed away by Cuthbert.
Mixu Paatelainen had a golden chance in 27 minutes with a free header from 10 yards but his weak effort was held by Mark Brown.
Charlie Christie took an early knock and was replaced by Paul Ritchie on the half hour mark. Ritchie combined with Richie Hart in 36 minutes but Hart's long range shot was well over. The frantic pace continued into the second half but both defences held out for a long time.
Simon Donnelly created space for himself in the visitors box in 50 minutes but a timely tackle prevented a shot.
Three minutes later the deadlock was broken. A long Mann through ball set Bingham on a run goalwards and he held off a defender before scoring neatly from 12 yards despite being forced off balance.
A poor Cuthbert clearance in 56 minutes gave Ritchie a chance but his goal-bound shot was blocked by Darren Dods.
Bingham intercepted a poor cross field ball from Paul Lovering in 66 minutes and had a clear sight of goal and he chipped early but it was too high.
Saints equalised a minute later when a long throw from John Robertson into the box fell for Keigan Parker and he swept home from eight yards. Saints had a good spell after this but they conceded the eventual winner in 74 minutes.
Bingham took a long ball from Stuart Golabek and neatly flicked it over a defender into the path of Hislop. He ran on and hammered an angled shot past Cuthbert.
Chris Hay could have scored in 77 minutes but he headed over from a good position. Caley Thistle finished strongly - a dangerous cross-goal ball from Ross Tokely effort was cleared by Dods just ahead of Bingham then a Stuart McCaffrey shot following a corner was tipped over.
A very welcome first three points of the season.
Match report written by Ian Broadfoot
