INVERNESS fans are well accustomed to Ian Black's shoot-on-sight policy. As soon as the young midfielder finds himself anywhere near the opposition box, he only has one thing on his mind and that is to have a strike at goal.
Occasionally, the 23-year-old will produce a thunderous finish, and sometimes he has the spectators behind the goal ducking for cover. One thing the 5ft 8in midfielder is not renowned for is his heading prowess, so he surprised everyone when he vent
ured into the box to seal this win over Kilmarnock by nodding home an Iain Vigurs corner.
Black said: "That's the first header I have scored for Inverness and my first goal of the season so it was extra special for me. I think I was one of the smallest players on the park at the time so to go and win the ball amongst all those big boys was absolutely brilliant."
The Highlanders climbed into the top half of the table after coming back from Conor Sammon's early opener for the visitors. Phil McGuire equalised, before a controversial Andy Barrowman penalty put Caley in front, with the furious Killie players claiming the former Rugby Park striker had conned the referee into awarding the spot-kick.
And Black was delighted to net his team's third of the afternoon to secure Caley's first home win of the season.
He said: "It's great to finally break that duck. Kilmarnock always play well against us so to beat them, especially when you consider the good start to the season that they have made, is a great achievement for the lads. We haven't been thinking too much about the home record. We just try to go out and perform well and if we do that then we know we can win. I thought the team performance was phenomenal."
Kilmarnock manager Jim Jefferies expressed his disappointment at his defence's failure to deal with the presence of Barrowman. Simon Ford in particular felt the wrath of his manager and was replaced at half-time. "Simon never started the game and just wasn't up for it," said Jefferies. "He was letting Andy Barrowman boss him about.
"We knew Andy would be up for it as we let him go. You could see by his reaction when he scored exactly what it meant for him to score against us."
The full article contains 409 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
