Stirling Albion shoot-out defeat is a warning for Inverness Caledonian Thistle players, says manager Billy Dodds
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MANAGER Billy Dodds says Inverness Caledonian Thistle experienced a warning they can't expect to turn up and beat teams after suffering a penalty shoot-out defeat to Stirling Albion in the Premier Sports Cup.
The result means Inverness will need to pick up five points in their last two games against Cove Rangers and Hearts to realistically stand any chance of progressing to the last 16.
Dodds gave full respect to their League Two opponents for picking up an extra bonus point after the teams couldn't be separated after 90 minutes.
He admitted that his players let themselves down.
"Stirling was a warning, if we think we can turn up and beat teams it ain't going to happen," he said.
"I ain't going to be too hard, we still drew the game and showed a reaction.
"We went behind because of sloppy bad habits and didn’t work hard enough.
"We reacted but couldn’t force a winner.
"We weren’t at it the way we wanted it to be. We worked hard but we need to work harder.
"It was if we panicked. I always say you're going to make mistakes, react to them.
"I've seen teams go 2–0 down and the game is done, I don’t care who is front of you.
"If you're 2–0 down it is a hard scoreline to come back from.
"We could have won it. But we got ourselves into trouble because we didn’t work hard enough.
"The only bonuses was we showed a reaction to come back and scored two good goals.
"But the players know that they let themselves down."
