Alan Cochrane @ Rugby Park

If ever proof were needed that football is a game of confidence, then proof was here in abundance this afternoon. Killie started well, and for the first 10 minutes looked the part. Inverness got a soft penalty, Ian Black tucked it away, and Kilmarnock went into their shell for half an hour. Frazer Wright practically fell over the ball to equalise just before half time - more of that later - and for the second half they were much more like the hare than the tortoise. It's a funny old game - or at least it made the Killie faithful smile today.

And that start was good. Tim Clancy playing at right back had a couple of raids down his wing, exchanging 1-2's with firstly Danny Invincibile then Mehdi Taouil, which set alarm bells ringing for the men from the north, and Taouil hit a shot just wide after Flannigan had made Michael Fraser dive to punch clear. But following a Thistle corner Alan Combe failed to hold the ball in three attempts, and as Frazer Wright tried to block and clear, Mr Finnie, who perhaps had a less than perfect game, decided he had upended Ross Tokely. Black sent Combe the wrong way, and Caley were a goal up, probably somewhat to their surprise.

Killie looked a bit shell-shocked, and took some time to up their game, but gradually started to apply some pressure. One of the first signs of the resurgence was Hay and Taouil combining down the left, before Danny Invincibile's header from the resultant cross went narrowly over. When Killie got a free kick some 25 yards out, Iain Flannigan had the chutzpah to persuade Hooky that he should take it, and not the skipper, and rattled a great shot off the corner of bar and post. The keeper may have got a glove on it, but the rebound fell in front of Frazer Wright inside the six yard box, and his granny could have scored. Fortunately, so could he.

The second half was a complete change. Kilmarnock were brim full of confidence, knocked the ball around, and were ahead inside four minutes. It should have been sooner. David Fernandez beat the defence and shot, the diving Fraser got a hand to it, and Flannigan hit the rebound for goal. A Caley defender saved the ball on the line with his hand, and the only people this side of the Caledonian Canal who didn't see it were the referee and his assistant. Justice was done inside a couple of minutes however when Craig Bryson hit a wicked shot from 35 yards which bounced just in front of the keeper, and ripped into the net.

Killie were now in complete command, and Danny Invincibile had a ball whipped off his toe after Hay, Fernandez and Taouil had sliced through the Caley defence with a display of one-touch football. Bryson got his second and Kilmarnock's third after a similar move down the right ended with Clancy cutting the ball back from the bye-line for him to side-foot in from 12 yards. The final goal was probably the best of all. In a move of over 20 passes, with Caley unable to get a touch, the final ball was a cut back from Fernandez for Iain Flannigan to almost rip the net from its roots as he bludgeoned a shot past Michael Fraser.

If the first half was flat, the second sparkled, with bubbling displays throughout a rampant Kilmarnock side. Clancy was a willing foil down the right for Hay doing the same on the left, Fowler and Bryson were tireless in the engine room, Flannigan and Fernandez teased and tormented, but the skills shown by Mehdi Taouil were at times outrageous, with even Jim Jefferies shaking his head and turning away in disbelief at the magic on show from the little Moroccan. When he was substituted with 10 minutes left, he got a well deserved standing ovation.

Kilmarnock: Combe, Hay, Fowler, Wright, Lilley, Invincibile, Bryson, Fernandez, Clancy (Morgan), Flannigan (Hamill), Taouil (Johnston

Inverness: Fraser, Tokely, McGuire, McBain (Imrie), Black, Bayne, Duncan, Munro, Niculae (McAllister, Vigurs (Hart), Proctor

Referee: Stephen Finnie