Inverness Caledonian Thistle head coach says certain players don't believe they can win the Championship in defeat at Kilmarnock
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Head coach Billy Dodds said he felt certain players don't believe Caley Thistle can go and win the Championship after their 1–0 defeat at Kilmarnock.
Inverness have now failed to win their last six league games after Kyle Lafferty scored to give Kilmarnock victory at Rugby Park and move them into second place above Inverness.
Dodds gave an honest critique of his players' performances on Saturday and said, particularly in the first half, certain players showed a lack of belief in the team having the potential to win the title.
“I thought, to be honest, in the first half two or three of our players didn’t believe we are going to be the personnel to go on and win the Championship.
“I wanted them to believe and I said to them we must match Killie’s energy because I know they brought that to the Dundee United match last week. That’s how they started against us.
“Then we make basic errors, like when we gave the ball away from a throw-in higher up the pitch. Daniel Mackay just whips it around Cammy Harper and we can’t adjust.
“So, from us having a throw-in from halfway to further up the pitch, we end up picking the ball out of the net and I have shown them that on three or four occasions this season.
“As far as the second half goes, and I’ve said to them, there are two or three letting us down. They need to stand up and be a man.
“In the second half, we pushed and had a couple of wee half chances. They hit us on the counter and they had half chances but I felt we pushed them to try and get the equaliser but it just wasn’t to be.
“It is fine margins because Killie took their chance and we didn’t take ours, although we were unlucky on a couple of occasions.
“I have told the players we need to get hurt scoring goals – there is nothing better than scoring goals. We need to push forward to get on the end of things. We can get better at it and that’s why I have brought in a lot of forwards."
He added: “I knew Derek McInnes would have brought an energy to Kilmarnock and I said to the players we needed to match that.
"We have beaten them twice this season by doing that. I thought three-quarters of my team did that in the first half. "
New signings Joe Hardy and Austin Samuels made their debut in the second half with Sam Pearson and Logan Chalmers starting against Kilmarnock.
He said some of the players brought energy to the team.
“A couple of them did and I was quite pleased with them, but it was their first game and I’m not going to look too much at individuals.
"I just thought we have got ability now, a good choice in the forward line and Billy Mckay to come back.
“But we have to believe, in whatever position we play in, we need to get forward and into the final third.
"We have to push our bodies harder to get on the end of crosses as I don’t think we’ve done it enough this season.
“We should have scored more goals for the amount of possession we’ve had. Killie are a top team, yet in the second half we had the bulk of possession.
"They decided to see it out, which Derek (McInnes’) teams are good at.
"They will feel they did it well and they did because they got the result."
