Caley Thistle assistant manager Scott Kellacher has been impressed with how Tim Chow and Grant Nelson have fitted in during pre-season.
Nelson played in Friday night’s draw with Nairn County and Chow – who only had two days training with Caley Jags – featured in the 3-1 win against Clach at Grant Street Park on Saturday.
No decision has been made on either player but Kellacher is pleased with how the pair have acquitted themselves.
He said: “Tim showed up great. He’s kept himself in really good shape. He’s fitted in really nicely and we’ll see what happens. We’ve only just got him in training, so we don’t know where that’ll go. He’s worked hard and that’s a positive.
“Grant has done a full pre-season with us and he’s pushed himself – it’s his first pre-season at this level. It’s a case of fitting boys in and seeing where we can add to the squad.
“The first half wasn’t the standard we were looking for but it was much better in the second half. Fair play to Clach they gave us a good test and that’s what we were looking for.”
A brace from Nathan Austin and another from Daniel MacKay cancelled out James Beeston’s opener for Clach, with Caley Thistle playing a second Highland League team inside 24 hours.
Trialist Chow, recently released by Ross County, started in the centre of the park for the Caley Jags with Aaron Doran captaining the side. Clach included new signings Scott Dunn and Struan McArthur in their line-up and announced the arrival of Iain Foggo from Fort William prior to kick-off.
It took five minutes for the visitors to carve through the Clach defence and MacKay teed up Liam Polworth – playing against the team managed by his father Iain – with a free shot but Polworth junior shanked his opportunity high and wide.
The home side took a surprise lead after 13 minutes when Beeston punished Chow for a needless foul, whipping a low free kick round the wall from 30 yards that Mark Ridgers was unable to keep out.
Kellacher was handed the reins at Grant Street Park and will have been pleased with the build-up play for Inverness’s equaliser with Doran weighting a pass in behind for Austin to round Dougie Maclennan and slide home.
The competitive nature of the game threatened to spill over when Brad McKay flew in at Fraser Robertson, after the defender had come through a high challenge. An altercation between McKay and Paul Smith ensued before the players were separated.
Doran and Shaun Rooney were combining well down the right for the Caley Jags but it yielded no end product for the Scottish Championship side with Clach holding resolute until half-time.
Two of Caley Thistle’s promising youngsters joined forces to give the visiting side the lead five minutes into the second half with MacKay finishing from Cameron Harper’s cross before Austin quickly made it three by poking the ball under Maclennan.
Polworth and Ross Gunn had chances to increase the lead further but the away side had done more than enough to take the win.
