VIDEO: 'Not acceptable' - Elgin City manager Gavin Price reacts to his team's 7-3 friendly defeat to Caley Thistle at Borough Briggs
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
ELGIN City errors were punished by a clinical Caley Thistle in a 7-3 defeat at Borough Briggs.
City boss Gavin Price reflected on a poor defensive showing from his team, but praised the attacking play which the Black and Whites produced.
See Gavin Price interview below:
Caley Thistle manager John Robertson said: "To be fair we always get it tough at Elgin. When I first came back a couple of years ago we got beat 2-0 here, deservedly so.
"This was just a really good, entertaining, open game of football. I thought they were a threat going forward, we were a threat going forward.
"It’s very, very pleasing. I’m just pleased for the players, it’s nice for them to get back out there and do what they do naturally.
"I hadn’t a clue what we were going to get today so to get that kind of performance is fantastic."
Caley Jags took less than four minutes of their comeback match to score, a sublime finish from James Keatings who curled high into the net from almost 30 yards.
New signing Scott Allardice quickly settled into the Jags midfield and wasn't far off the mark with a swerving effort from the corner of the box.
Midway through the first half it was 2-0, as Keatings was halted by a late challenge but the ball fell to Nikolay Todorov on the edge of the box and he calmly swept it beyond keeper Tom McHale.
On 29 minutes the visiting defence allowed Kane Hester to weave into the box and beat Mark Ridgers with a low drive to reduce the deficit.
Elgin brought on Smart Osadolor for Josh Peters at the break and looked dangerous at the start of the second period.
Caley themselves made four changes including the introduction of keeper Cammy Mackay, who once had a loan spell at Elgin.
Mackay was quickly in action, saving superbly from Hester then denying City sub Smart Osadolor moments later.
At the other end a precision through ball by Allardice sent Shane Sutherland scampering clear, looking to send a dagger into the hearts of his former Elgin team-mates until he was unceremoniously dumped to the ground by one of them, captain Euan Spark.
Ref Graham Grainger had no choice but to point to the spot and Keatings clinically fired home the penalty.
Mackay twice saved from Osadolor but could do nothing when Hester seized upon a loose Lewis Toshney header and crashed home on 70 minutes - again cutting Jags' lead.
This sparked a flood of goals, with sub Miles Storey racing on to Mackay's kick from hand and producing a deadly finish to make it 4-2 on 75 minutes.
Three minutes later Sutherland worked his way into a great position in the box and should have scored, but his blocked shot fell nicely for Roddy MacGregor to tap in.
Back came Elgin from a Russell Dingwall corner nodded in by Stephen Bronsky, making the score 5-3 to the visitors.
Inverness still had plenty to say and on 83 minutes Sutherland worked in strike partner Storey for an almost identical finish to his first.
Before the League 2 hosts could recover, MacGregor cut in from the left and curled a delightful effort into the top corner to complete the scoring.
The teams do it all again next Saturday, a rematch at ICT's Caledonian Stadium.
Elgin: McHale; Cooper, Mailer, Bronsky, Spark (Wilson 76), MacBeath (Hay 85), Dingwall, Cameron, O'Keefe (Sopel 70); Peters (Osadolor 46), Hester.
ICT: Ridgers (C Mackay 46); H Nicolson, Devine (Toshney 46), Deas (Harkness 71), Harper (L Nicolson 82); MacGregor, Allardice (Davies 83); Sutherland, Keatings (Hyde 57), MacKay (Fyffe 71); Todorov (Storey 46).
Ref: G Grainger.
