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Josh Meekings forced the ball home in stoppage time to give Inverness Caledonian Thistle a dramatic first league win of the season.

Caley Thistle edged into a deserved lead when Ross Draper towered above the home defence to head in Greg Tansey's free-kick after a goalless first half.

Richard Foster's blistering finish looked to have given ineffectual St Johnstone a point out of the blue.

But Meekings stabbed the ball over the line in a late goalmouth scramble.

Irish grit in Inverness

Richie Foran's side remain at the foot of the Scottish Premiership table, if only on goal difference behind Partick Thistle.

Not that the rookie manager will be bothered about that after the sort of performance he was looking for following defeats in their first three league games.

Draper's fourth goal of the season, after 59 minutes, was no more than Caley Thistle deserved for the way they had gone about their work.

Then they had to show real grit and determination to dig out the win once Foster scored his first for the Perth club with a stunning strike with 11 minutes remaining.

Mannus mountain

Irishman Foran demanded the sort of character from his side that he showed as a player and they certainly responded positively.

They were unrecognisable from the shambles of a side that were hammered by Hearts last week and played with an aggression and determination that pinned the visitors back for long spells in the first half.

Unfortunately for the Highlanders, they came up against Alan Mannus at the top of his game as the Northern Ireland goalkeeper made a string of impressive saves.

He denied Draper, Alex Fisher and Billy King in the opening period, while Fisher and Liam Polworth failed to make the most of the clearer chances created during that time.

Stuffy but wasteful Saints

Of course, St Johnstone are masters of making a nuisance of themselves in such circumstances, but they squandered the best chance of the lot before the break.

Danny Swanson was untouchable down the left as he made it to the bye-line, but Chris Kane failed to take advantage of the cutback as he skied the ball over when he should have scored.

Substitute Murray Davidson headed just wide in the second half, but Saints finally found the equaliser when Steven MacLean laid the ball back to Foster to lash home.

Persistence paid off in the end for Caley Thistle, which is just as well as things don't get any easier for the Highlanders - it's Aberdeen away then Celtic at home in their next two matches.

Inverness Caley Thistle manager Richie Foran: "From start to finish I thought we were excellent. Man for man we were excellent and we should have been two or three up at half time so that was the only disappointing part.

"But I told the boys it wasn't quality that won the game, it was pure team spirit that they showed that got them the result. All over the park we were really good.

"This sets us up nicely for Aberdeen after the break. If you don't get points on the table then the players and the fans can get a bit nervy so that was massive for us today."

Foran gave newly signed French striker Lonsana Doubouya a few minutes' run-out as substitute and he hopes to make another two additions to the squad before the transfer window closes.

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright: "We did well to get back into the game but are disappointed that we contrived to let Inverness back into it after we got back to one each.

"Near the end they put us under a lot of pressure with long throws and we gave away silly free kicks. You think we would have learnt our lesson from the first goal we lost.

"They built up pressure and got a deserved winner in the end but it is only four games into the season and this is a difficult place to come.

"We knew that their run couldn't continue much longer and we contributed to it because in the first half we didn't get to the pace of the game and didn't get enough balls in the box."

Wright recently brought in Richard Foster to bolster his defence but the Perth club's manager doesn't think there will be any further signings done in this transfer window.