Caley soaker is such a choker

You had to admire them.

The family, a dad and mum and their daughter, who sat in the open-to-the-elements West Stand at Inverness Caledonian Thistle's stadium in the pouring rain.

The rain chucked down from the start of the match against Motherwell until the final whistle.

The family had come prepared, dressed in waterproofs, and even refused a steward's offer made to the handful of fans who could only find tickets in the West Stand of the chance to take up empty seats in the roofed North Stand.

The family decided to sit out in the downpour because their seats offered a good vantage point across the whole field of play.

Myself, wife and youngest daughter gladly took up the offer of shelter in the North Stand.

For my daughter, it was her first experience of a professional football match.

And what a first game. She saw five goals. Three for Inverness and two for Motherwell.

Raucous crowd

All of the goals came in the second half.

Inverness Caley Thistle were three goals up within a short spell of time - scoring in front of a raucous North Stand crowd.

But like many other parents in the Inverness support - there was a large number of kids in the ground because U16s of both home and away fans got in for free - my wife and I had to explain that an Inverness win was not going to stop the club slipping out of the Premiership into the league below.

There was an element of the Inverness support shouting "sack the board" when the team was not scoring goals. Members from this same group, mostly young teenagers, also mounted a mini pitch invasion after the final whistle.

But there were mixed emotions around the ground. Some fans in the main stand gave the Inverness players a standing ovation.

A touching moment was veteran Caley Thistle player David Raven going over to a small group of supporters next to the West Stand to shake their hands.

I really hope that family that had sat in the rain were still around to share in that moment.