Duncan Ferguson wants to stay Inverness Caley Thistle boss but awaits potential administration outcome

DUNCAN Ferguson says he hopes he will still be the manager of Inverness Caledonian Thistle next weekend.

The manager says he wants to stay in charge of the League One outfit, which could be plunged into administration on Wednesday, if it can’t raise £200,000 to pay for running costs this month.

He was speaking after his team put in a brave performance in their penalty shoot-out defeat at Livingston in the Trust Trophy Third Round on Saturday afternoon.

The club have set a deadline of Wednesday, October 16 to raise the required finance to keep them solvent this month.

Inverness also remain hopeful that interested investors it has been in discussions with may offer them a deal to keep them solvent.

Ferguson admitted in the post-match press conference that it doesn’t look good to avoid administration. But he hopes that he will still be in charge for their League One clash against Annan Athletic on Saturday, regardless of Wednesday’s outcome.

“I will come up on Monday and wait to see what happens on Wednesday,” said Ferguson.

“I would like to be there for Saturday if I can. I would like to take the Annan game if that is possible as it is a winnable game.”

Ferguson said he has heard that administration is looking likely on Wednesday unless a deal can be agreed with new investors.

If Inverness go into administration, they will be deducted 15 points which would put them on -6 and 12 points behind Dumbarton in ninth.

Ferguson says Inverness’ chances of avoiding relegation would be dependent on who would remain in his squad during any administration process.

He said: “Maybe I am looking at the worst case scenario, but this is what we are hearing.

“Administration is not good for any of us, it is -15 points.

“I believe this team is good enough to be promoted out of this division, but if we go into administration, most of them will go and we will be left with a young squad.

“The staff will probably go, I will probably go, it is what it is and you have to get on with it. You have to keep fighting until somebody tells you something else.”

He added: “If we keep our team, we can stay up no problem, if the administrator comes in and lets players go, it is up to somebody else to keep them up or run with them next season.”

Speaking about the performance in the Trust Trophy, Ferguson said: “I was delighted with how we played, we are just a bit unfortunate with the penalties. I actually fancied us when we went to penalties.

“We created a lot of chances in the left side, we had two or three chances but could not get that third goal. I thought in the first half we were outstanding and then in the second half they came in strong and I thought we defended well enough.”

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