Charlie Christie - Defeats to Hamilton blow to play-off aspirations for Caley Thistle
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It’s been a hugely disappointing week for ICT’s push for the play-off places in the Scottish Championship.
After our terrific Scottish Cup result at Premiership Livingston, I had high hopes for our two league games home and away to bottom club Hamilton where two wins would have seen us climb into the top four and set us up nicely for a really testing run of matches against clubs challenging for the title.
Instead, we find ourselves sitting in seventh and desperately needing to find a change in fortune as our next three league matches sees us travel to Dundee followed by trips to high flying Ayr United and Queens Park.
I said recently that a title challenge was probably now beyond us, but the cementing of a play-off spot was an absolute must given the quality in the squad.
Unfortunately, those two consecutive Hamilton defeats have been a real blow to our aspirations. It’s hard to pinpoint the reasons for the highs and lows in our performances this season. I attended the home match against Hamilton which displayed our frailties in all too obvious fashion.
Having started the game on the front foot and creating two excellent chances we concede a soft goal and then really struggled to create very much thereafter.
Hamilton, as you would fully expect from a team desperate for points, were getting players behind the ball and attempting to play on the counter attack, but we need to be cleverer in possession and certainly produce more creativity and guile in the final third.
Our reliance on talisman Billy Mckay is far too great and the team needs others to contribute more regularly on the goal scoring front.
In the Scottish Premiership it could prove to be a very significant weekend in the fight for survival with Ross County hosting Dundee United and Kilmarnock entertaining Motherwell.
United are on a horrendous run of form and four consecutive league defeats has seen them slip to the foot of the table and they look like a side totally devoid of confidence. County manager Malky Mackay will know the importance of tomorrow’s encounter.
Motherwell, under Stuart Kettlewell, have produced much needed back-to-back wins against St Mirren and Hearts and I would expect them to secure their Premier League status.
Kilmarnock are a club struggling with form as only one league win so far in 2023 demonstrates and tomorrow’s match is a real six pointer for Derek McInnes’s side.
He knows the importance of the matches against those around about him in the table and he cannot afford their dreadful run to continue.
