Inverness CT 1-4 Rangers

RANGERS completed a clean sweep of wins over Inverness for only the second time in seven SPL campaigns with an excellent win over Caley Jags in the Highlands.

And although Steve Williams pulled one before the break, Lee McCulloch restored the three-goal cushion in the second period to make it 4-1.

Gers were in command for a lot of the game and it was a much-improved performance from the early part of last week’s 1-0 loss to Kilmarnock at Ibrox.

Next up are Hearts at Ibrox and with a six-point lead over third-top Motherwell, this success will have done a lot to improve confidence ahead of the meeting with the Jambos.

Manager Ally McCoist made three changes to the team which lost to Kilmarnock last week, with two of them enforced.

Sasa Papac was out through suspension and with Lee Wallace injured too, Salim Kerkar made his first league start and Ross Perry came in.

Little also replaced his countryman David Healy up front alongside McCulloch and play began in windy conditions.

That meant the onus was on both sides to keep the ball down and doing so after just five minutes led to Gers getting the opener.

It came after a fine flowing move in midfield and when the ball was fed by Maurice Edu to Kerkar on the left, he centred for captain Davis to tap in from close range.

Inverness responded immediately and Billy McKay burst clear of Perry but nobody was there to convert a decent cross into the mix.

Back came Gers again with a fine move involving Kerkar, Davis and Kirk Broadfoot and they should really have scored when the skipper teed up Aluko but he headed wide.

Seconds later, however, the Nigerian star made up for that miss when he rifled in to make it 2-0 on the quarter hour with a really smart finish from the edge of the area.

Once more, the hosts tried to muster some sort of response and Greg Tansey pulled an effort wide but that aside, their disjointed passing did them more harm than good.

The Light Blues certainly had the best of the first period and Edu wasn’t too far off target with a long-range effort before Little made it three with an excellent finish.

He combined well with Kerkar down the left before being sent clear and he slotted beyond Ryan Esson from a tight angle.

This time Inverness did react positively with Steve Williams heading in from close range when a corner came in, albeit he pushed Dorin Goian first.

With a 3-1 lead at the start of the second half, Gers continued to press and had four corners in a row before an Edu header was cleared off the line before Davis was denied by Esson.

Aluko also screwed over while McCulloch set himself up with a great touch before volleying a couple of yards over from the edge of the box.

But the big utility man was in the right place at the right time with 19 minutes to go to seal a good win.

The impressive Kerkar did ever so well to create space for himself and finally released a decent shot which Esson could only get one hand to.

And while his save was decent, the rebound fell to McCulloch and with an open goal to hit from three yards, there was no way he’d miss.

That rounded off an excellent afternoon’s work and the 54-times title winners will hope to build on this result with another positive 90 minutes six days from now.

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