Caley Thistle will hope their hard-fought triumph over East Fife can breed the winning feeling when they return to Championship action next weekend.
Inverness drew the curtain on their Betfred Cup campaign, with their first Group A win over the League One Fifers resulting in a third-place finish which was not enough to qualify for the last 16.
Shane Sutherland netted for the second game in succession, with Cammy Mackay’s late penalty save to deny Jack Hamilton ensuring the goal secured all three points.
Having already been eliminated from the qualification reckoning prior to the game, Inverness manager John Robertson was intent on building momentum ahead of the next league game at home to Raith Rovers on Saturday.
Although Robertson felt fatigue showed in his stretched squad, the Caley Jags boss was pleased to secure what he felt was a merited victory against his former club.
Robertson said: “We felt we did just about enough to win, while East Fife probably felt they did just enough to get something out of the game.
“That’s how tight the whole group has been. It has been a tough shift for the players, because nine or 10 have played virtually every game for us, and I thought it just caught up a wee bit with them.
“We tried to freshen it up a wee bit, but we looked a wee bit leggy. We did some nice stuff, but I don’t think we worked the goalkeeper enough.
“We got a great goal and then had a really good spell where we could have killed the match.
“We just looked tired in the last 10 minutes – and once more Cammy Mackay showed his worth with a tremendous save.”
With no prospect of qualifying, Robertson took the chance to ring the changes for the visit of East Fife.
Teenager Harry Nicolson was handed a debut at right back, while Cammy Mackay made his second appearance of the season in goal.
There were also recalls for Robbie Deas, Roddy MacGregor and Nikolay Todorov from the side which had drawn with Raith on Tuesday before losing out on the bonus point in the subsequent penalty shoot-out.
It was a far from vintage first half, but on-loan Rangers winger Kai Kennedy was the shining light for the home side as he continued his recent string of impressive performances.
Kennedy tested East Fife goalkeeper Jordan Hart for the first time on six minutes with a low drive which was well saved, before striking another effort wide moments later.
The best chance of the first half fell the way of Fifers defender Chris Higgins just after the hour mark after being set up by Stewart Murdoch’s knock-down from a Scott Agnew free-kick, however, Mackay showed impressive reflexes to claw away his point-blank header.
Hamilton had two fine chances to open the scoring just after the break, heading over an Agnew cross before seeing a low drive well saved by Mackay.
Inverness’s breakthrough came from a set piece on 64 minutes, with Harper’s in-swinging corner picking out Sutherland to nod past Hart and add to his goal against Raith on Tuesday which opened his account in his second Caley Jags spell.
Miles Storey made his return from the bench following a hamstring injury, and made an instant impact with a shot saved by Hart and another effort hitting the side-netting.
Storey spurned an even better chance on 83 minutes after being played in by James Keatings, but his heavy touch in trying to round Hart allowed the goalkeeper to recover to save his eventual shot.
Darren Young’s men were handed a great chance to send the match to penalties when Hamilton was tripped by Robbie Deas inside the box, however, Mackay got down to his left to deny the striker from the spot.
