Caley Thistle's Owain Fon Williams refusing to panic after Highland derby defeat
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NOW is not the time to panic in the Caley Thistle ranks – despite three losses in a week and a Highland derby defeat.
That is the view of Owain Fon Williams, who could only look on as Liam Boyce’s hat-trick condemned his side to their first league derby defeat in two-and-a-half years.
An emphatic emergence from the group stages of the Betfred Cup have given way to three disappointing performances –including reverses against Partick and Alloa – which has Inverness at the bottom of the Premiership table as they only side yet to record a point.
But the panic button will not be pressed just yet, particularly among the players, who were keen to get back to work yesterday and attempt to put the wrongs of Saturday right.
Fon Williams, who penned a new three-year deal with Caley Thistle at the end of last season, was understandably disappointed with the result against County, but refused to be overly downcast with the start to the league campaign.
“It’s just a tough one to take. It’s only two league games and there’s plenty more ahead of us. The league table hasn’t been decided – it’s not a sprint but it’s a marathon. We’ll get there,” he said.
“We got two goals but that wasn’t enough to get anything out of the game. After any defeat it’s a tough pill to swallow. But it’s even tougher when it’s against Ross County. But all credit to them – they were positive from the word go and right up for it.
“It’s always tough to lose here, especially against our rivals. They came here full of life and were on the front foot. Liam Boyce played very well – he put himself about and he was the difference in a lot of ways.“There were signs of good stuff from us in the second half but we need to put this behind us. We need to go again because we’ve got Hearts on Saturday, which is a tough task.”
The scale of the task facing Inverness over the next month will have nobody under illusions.
Starting with Hearts away from home this Saturday, they face St Johnstone at home, Aberdeen away and then Celtic at home – four of the Premiership’s top six from last season.After a slow start last season a win against Robbie Neilson’s side got them up and running; there will be similar hopes this time around as the Jambos are also looking to pick up their first three points.
The status of Kevin McNaughton will be crucial ahead of the game, as he limped off against County with an achilles injury. Josh Meekings has been battling a knee problem since pre-season and could make his return to the centre of defence.
Another talking point from the derby was the performance of referee Andrew Dallas. He controversially disallowed Scott Boden’s goal, before changing his mind after realising he had incorrectly believed his assistant had called for offside.
However, Fon Williams had some praise for the official, for the way he handled the goalkeeper appearing to handle the ball outside the box in the first half.
“I thought I was in the box to start with, but it’s either my momentum or someone going into me that’s carried me outside the box. By this point I’ve realised I was going out so I’ve had to drop the ball. I knew while I was in the air,” he said.
“I never heard a whistle so I thought ‘I was right then’. Their boy has hit it over the bar but the referee has then come over and booked me.
“I asked him ‘was I really out of the box’ and he said ‘yeah, your momentum took you out or you were pushed out’. But at the time I thought I could get it.
“The pace I was travelling, then either Gary Warren or their player taking my legs, forced me to drop the ball because I knew was coming out of the box.
“It was an honest decision. I genuinely thought I was in the box and I think the referee knew that. It was just unfortunate I got buffered out of the box. I genuinely thought I dropped the ball – I did it because I realised I was travelling.“Fair play to the referee. He understood where I was coming from and that it was an honest misjudgement.”
Ross Draper bagged the other goal for the Caley Jags, reducing the deficit to 3-2 on 65 minutes.
