Inverness Caley Thistle Women complete comeback from three goals down to leapfrog opponents Stirling University into second in the SWF Championship
Inverness Caledonian Thistle moved back up to second in the SWF Championship after claiming their first win of the season over Stirling University.
The students had claimed the upper hand over Caley Thistle in their two previous meetings, winning 5-0 in the league and 9-0 in the League Cup.
When Stirling raced into a 3-0 lead, then, ICT could have been forgiven for fearing the worst.
However, captain Kirsty Deans pulled one back, and then cut the deficit further before being forced off with an ankle injury.
Tina Kelly would then level the scores before half time, putting the outcome well and truly in the balance.
A battling second half in freezing conditions would eventually be decided late on when Connie Bell reacted quickest after Zoe Rankin hit the post at a corner kick to turn the ball into the net – a strike that would prove to be decisive as Inverness won 4-3.
Forward Julia Scott says that the Caley Jags went into the match with a gameplan given the previous results, and stuck to it even when it looked like momentum was going against them on Sunday.
“We knew we couldn’t press them high,” Scott insisted.
“They are very good at building, so we wanted them to play at the back and not cut through the middle of us. We left gaps the last two times and that’s what happened.
“Usually when we go 1-0 down or 2-0 down, our heads drop. At 3-0 down, that’s usually the game, but after we got that first goal back we grew in confidence, and we stuck to our gameplan, and it just worked.
“It was just one of those games where it worked, and some of our gameplay may have been a little bit sloppy but our gameplan was to sit in a block and not let them play. If we do that, we’re a good team.
“We’ve got a lot of young players, but the energy from the older ones and from the sides just kept building and building.
“I’m actually confident that if we had played for another 15 minutes, they wouldn’t have scored and we could have got another one or two.”
After what was a top of the table clash, Caley Thistle have leapfrogged Stirling to move back into second place in the Championship.
That would carry a promotion play-off spot at the end of the season, but ICT are also only four points behind leaders East Fife with around a third of the campaign left to play.
“This season, the title is always on, but we need to be consistent so next week’s game will be the telling one,” Scott added.
“Sometimes we get the result, then we don’t back it up, so we need to be consistent.
“Today we sat and had a longer team talk. If the younger players get told to do this or that, they will do it, so we’re starting to play with a proper tactic.
“It doesn’t matter how good you are individually, it’s about what you do as a team, and everyone did really well.”