Gardyne unhappy with tempo of Inverness Caledonian Thistle's play in draw against Raith Rovers
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Michael Gardyne felt that more urgency in the final third could have made the difference for Inverness Caledonian Thistle against Raith Rovers.
On paper, a 1–1 draw away from home against their nearest challengers at the top of the Championship would not have looked like a bad result.
With Raith being down to 10 men for the entirety of the second half, though, there was a feeling that Caley Thistle should have taken all three points.
Gardyne played a crucial role in ICT’s equalising goal, driving into the box from the left flank before pulling the ball back to the edge of the area, where Sean Welsh would find the net.
The veteran admitted Inverness could have done better while on the ball after Ross Matthews was shown a red card, but was keen to move on quickly to tonight’s match against Arbroath.
“It’s a bit disappointing – we probably didn’t get going until they went 1–0 up, which is frustrating,” he said.
“A point away is not the worst, but considering they were down to 10 men we felt like we could have won.
“It just wasn’t to be. We needed to move the ball out wide quickly, get the ball in the box and move them about.
“At times I felt we didn’t get it wide enough or put enough crosses into the box.
“We’ll take the point, it’s another big game on Tuesday and another one on Saturday.
“It’s a big week, so we’ve got a point to kick it off and we’ll see what happens on Tuesday.”
Coming from behind to claim a point can sometimes feel more like a victory, but the circumstances meant that Caley Thistle still wanted more from their visit to Kirkcaldy.
The good news for them is that there is no time to dwell on that result with another tough test at the Caledonian Stadium tonight.
“It’s one of those that almost feels like a defeat because we didn’t win and they were down to 10 men, but fair play to them – they hit us on the counter and did well,” Gardyne added.
“They sat in well, defended narrow and they probably feel they deserved a point.
“I don’t feel like we were off it, we played well at times but we were slow at times too. We could have been a bit better in the final third, and we needed to get the ball into those players a wee bit better.
“We’ll go again on Tuesday, you always want more games. We’re up at the top end of the league with points on the board, and hopefully come Tuesday we can do it again.”
