Terry Butcher was delighted to mark his 100th SPL match in charge of Inverness with a 3-1 win over rivals Ross County in the Highland Capital.
Inverness secured the honour of the first-ever Highland derby win in Scotland's top flight with first-half goals by Ross Draper and Andrew Shinnie added to late on by Aaron Doran's spectacular volley.
A wonderful free-kick by County's Iain Vigurs gave the visitors brief hope at 2-1 but Caley Thistle held firm to make it four games unbeaten in the SPL - much to the delight of boss Butcher, who spent the game in the stand as he served a one-match touchline ban.
He said: "It was my 100th SPL game in charge here and an absolute cracker.
"Ross Tokely's early header against his own crossbar seemed to wake everybody up and all of a sudden the game opened up.
"We got our two goals but it is becoming a strange scoreline for us as Ross County came back into it very well in the second half.
"They made a right fight of it and are a real danger from set pieces with their great deliveries into the box and a lot of people who can attack the ball, but Antonio Reguero made some good saves and we had other men throwing themselves into blocks and we fought and scrapped and needed the third goal - and what a goal it was."
County manager Derek Adams was left to rue a lacklustre start to the game by his side as they succumbed to a third successive SPL defeat.
He said: "It was very disappointing. We didn't start the game particularly well.
"We lost the first goal to a set-piece while the other two were down to mistakes.
"In the second half, we were a lot better and perhaps deserved to get it back to 2-2, but we didn't do enough to win the game."
