Australian defender Nikola Ujdur opened his Caley Thistle scoring account at rain-soaked Hampden – then set his sights on sinking more Championship rivals this week.
The 24-year-old centre-half, who was signed by former ICT manager Billy Dodds, loved playing at Scotland’s national stadium on Saturday.
He put his team 2-1 ahead with a deadly header in a 4-1 comeback victory against toiling Queen’s Park.
The win lifted the visitors above Ayr United into sixth place and left Queen’s just two points above basement side Morton, who host the Caley Jags on Tuesday.
It was a result which led to the end for Spiders’ head coach Robin Veldman, who parted company with the Glasgow club hours later.
Three second half goals for Inverness
But for Inverness manager Duncan Ferguson, it was an ideal response to his first defeat seven days previously when two late goals earned title-chasing Raith Rovers a win in the Highlands.
Jack Turner fired Queen’s ahead, but first club goals for on-loan Dundee midfielder Max Anderson in the first half and Ujdur after the break turned the match on its head.
A cracking goal from David Wotherspoon and a Billy Mckay spot-kick took the Caley Jags to Ferguson’s biggest winning margin since he took the helm in late September.
First Ujdur goal – more to come?
With fourth-placed Dunfermline Athletic now just five points ahead of them, Ujdur targets six further points from matches at Morton on Tuesday then at home to Arbroath on Saturday.
He said: “We got the result we deserved in the end, so it was a positive day.
“It was my first goal in Scotland, which was very exciting and hopefully there will be many more to come.
“We had a massive week ahead of us with three games, which started on Saturday.
“We’re looking to get as many points as we can from all three games, so this was a good start.”
System allows for attacking surges
Udjur, who had never played for a club outside Australia before making the move to Inverness, was solid at the back, with some telling interventions, but he enjoyed surging forward at the other end too.
He said: “The way the game was going, spaces opened up in front of us.
“We saw Morgan (Boyes) attacking towards the end as well.
“One of the reasons we play three at the back is so we can exploit those spaces, which was good.”
‘Awesome’ Hampden thrilled Ujdur
The time of year and the poor weather would have contributed to the 1203 attendance, but Ujdur thoroughly enjoyed his first goal coming at Hampden.
He added: “The conditions were not bad for football, to be fair.
“It was unreal – it’s an awesome stadium. It would have been good had there been a few more people here, but the pitch was unreal, it’s very big and easy to play on with good grass, so it was nice.”
60' | 1-2
GOALLLLLLLLLL! NIKO UJDUR PUTS US AHEAD! pic.twitter.com/sIvmOqDxQk
— Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC (@ICTFC) December 9, 2023
Got knocked down and got up again
Ujdur was also satisfied with how ICT kept their cool and responded ideally to losing the first goal against a team they had failed to beat in five attempts.
He said: “It’s always massive to see how you’re going to respond. Before the game, we spoke about getting knocked down and getting back up, and that’s exactly what we did after conceding the early goal.
“We reacted well straight away and got our equaliser quickly. We kept knocking on the door all game to get more goals.”
