Inverness Caledonian Thistle's League Cup hopes were killed in Peterhead, says boss
JOHN Robertson says Inverness Caledonian Thistle's hopes of League Cup qualification were ended by Peterhead, not Dundee.
Caley Thistle's 1-0 defeat at Dens Park meant they failed to qualify from the group stages for the third year in-a-row.
However Robertson said the club's shock 11-10 penalty shoot-out defeat at Peterhead in the first match was ultimately their undoing.
Seven points from two wins over Raith Rovers and Cove Rangers along with a point from the penalty shoot-out defeat at Balmoor wasn't good enough for Inverness to progress to the last 16.
Speaking about his team's performance at Dundee, Robertson said: "They should be frustrated but our qualification wasn’t lost out there it was lost at Peterhead.
"If we went to Peterhead and won we were already through coming here.
"We had an opportunity to rectify that result, but we didn’t. We wish Dundee all the best in the next round.
"We are not in it and now we have to prepare for Tannadice."
Robertson says he had no complaints about the 1-0 defeat saying Dundee were the better team on the day.
But he believes there isn't much between the teams in terms of quality.
"I think it could be summed up Dundee were slightly better in each aspect of the game.
"They had slicker passing, more aggressive at the back and slightly more threatening in attack. There wasn’t a great deal between the teams, but Dundee deserved to go through.
"I though apart from the goalkeeper mistake there was nothing in it first half.
"Second half did we do enough to get the equaliser? No. I didn’t think we did.
"We had plenty of the ball but our choices in the last third weren’t quite right, our crosses weren’t quite right."
Inverness face a nervous wait on midfielder Mitch Curry who was forced off 10 minutes before the end with an ankle injury and had to be helped off the pitch.
