3 things to take away from Inverness Caley Thistle's Championship defeat to leaders Queen's Park
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Inverness Caledonian Thistle looked to take the momentum built by reaching the Scottish Cup semi final to Ochilview as they travelled to Championship leaders Queen's Park.
Unfortunately for them, it was not to be despite a bright first half, as goals from Grant Savoury and Stephen Eze sent them away from Stenhousemuir empty-handed.
It was not the follow up to that magical win over Kilmarnock they would have wanted, nor did it do them any favours in their bed to rescue a chance at promotion.
Still, there was good and bad in the display, so there are three things to take away from the performance with post-match reaction from Billy Dodds and Scott Allardice.
Scottish Cup hangover
It might have been easy for the hype of the last week and the prospect of a trip to Hampden to get the better of Caley Thistle.
Encouragingly, then, Inverness looked to be moving the ball about better than their opponents in the first half despite the occasional scrappy spell.
Energy also didn't seem to be an issue, as ICT were regularly pressing Queen's Park into their own half, making it difficult for their hosts to get close enough to challenge Mark Ridgers on a regular basis.
However, in the second half things changed, and perhaps a lack of focus from the Caley Jags led to sloppy play, allowing their opponents to find a way back into the match.
In the end it certainly wasn't the performance or the result that Billy Dodds would have wanted to build on the Scottish Cup triumph against Kilmarnock, but in many ways that high followed by such frustration has been the story of the season for Inverness so far.
Scott Allardice's thoughts: "I don't think we've lost the momentum completely. Obviously a loss takes the stuffing out of it a wee bit, but at the end of the day we're still in the mix.
"If we didn't have a mountain to climb already to get into the play-offs, it's a lot tougher after this result.
"We don't want to just focus on the cup now, we've got seven games before the end oft he season and we want to finish strong and squeeze into the play-offs. We've made that a lot tougher after today's result."
A central role? Shaw thing!
I think this was the first time I'd seen Nathan Shaw playing as a number 10, with most of his minutes coming out wide so far this season.
For the most part, I thought he did his job well. The work rate he is used to as a winger served him well when it came to ICT's high press, and he picked up some really good positions to find space inside Queen's Park's half.
Possibly most importantly though, his movement made Billy Mckay's role quite different too.
Mckay has never been shy of putting in the hard yards himself, and in recent years has been at his best with someone to play off of in attack.
Having Shaw closer to him out wide allowed Mckay to get himself more involved in the game, dropping deeper to link up with teammates – and showing that even at 34 years old, he is more than a poacher.
Looking at the line-up before kick off, I thought it was quite attacking from Dodds, but if this is how his attack-minded players will play off each other I wouldn't be at all surprised to see this team replicated going forward.
Head coach Billy Dodds' thoughts: "I thought we handed Queen's Park the game with the way we approached the second half.
"In the first half, we did what we were good at and we were frustrating the life out of them – and we were a threat. I felt comfortable, but for some reason we tried to do the hard pass in the second half.
"We let them out of jail. I'm actually more upset about how we approached the second half, that was what angered me. I couldn't believe what the players thought would win us the game. We've been there before and spoke about it at half time."
A glimmer of hope
Results yesterday afternoon have given Inverness an absolute mountain to climb if they are to make it into the play-offs.
The table has them nine points behind the top four, with a game in hand to play against Arbroath, with eight games left to play in the league campaign.
Although sides up and down the table seem to be faltering slightly going into this final stretch of matches, only Cove Rangers are in worse form than Caley Thistle right now.
A significant turnaround will be needed, but ICT have shown in the past that they are capable of going on the kind of run they need right now.
Five years ago they went from the threat of a relegation play-off to being seconds away from a play-off place. Four years ago 20 points from their last 10 games ensured they earned a post-season run at promotion. Two seasons ago things clicked into place at this time of the year as Inverness went on a six-match winning streak in all competitions, and last season they won eight out of 10 matches to make it into the play-off semi finals, where they would triumph on penalties against Arbroath.
Yes, it will be a big ask to make it that far again this season, but since relegation from the top flight in 2017 Caley Thistle are a side that tend to end the season well, and make a late push either for, or into, the play-offs.
Who's to say they can't do the same again this year? The club, at least, will have to believe it's possible again.
Scott Allardice's thoughts: "We've shown throughout the season, and last year too, even in my first season, that we've always gone on runs – good and bad.
"It's more than in us, but I think we need to start on Friday against Partick if we are to go on that run because we are running out of games.
"I think we've got a good squad. We've shown that in the cup and throughout the season in patches, but that has probably been the problem for us.
"As players it has been so frustrating. We have had injuries, but we have to be more consistent, and today was probably a fair reflection of how up and down we can be as a team."
