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Manager says goalless Inverness Caledonian Thistle yet to find killer touch


By Will Clark

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MANAGER John Robertson says Inverness Caledonian Thistle haven’t found their killer touch yet as they prepare to face Dunfermline Athletic in the Championship opener on Saturday.

Picture - Ken Macpherson, Inverness. Betfred Cup Matchday 3 Inverness CT(0) v Cowdenbeath(0). 13.10.20. ICT win 4-2 after penalty-kicks. ICT’s Nickolay Todorov shoots for goal past Cowdenbeath’s Harvey Swann.
Picture - Ken Macpherson, Inverness. Betfred Cup Matchday 3 Inverness CT(0) v Cowdenbeath(0). 13.10.20. ICT win 4-2 after penalty-kicks. ICT’s Nickolay Todorov shoots for goal past Cowdenbeath’s Harvey Swann.

Caley Thistle failed to find the net in normal time in their first two Betfred Cup matches against Hearts and Cowdenbeath.

While happy with the football his players are producing on the pitch, Robertson admitted there is still a lot of work needed to find their way to goal.

“Too many times you knock the ball about and don’t finish them off,” he said.

“We warned the players that Cowdenbeath worked extremely hard on Saturday against Hearts and they did the same against us.

“It was going to take quality and when we did show it, we couldn’t get past the goalkeeper.

“But there were times we missed the target when we should have scored.

“When we did make the right decisions, we were unlucky in terms of missed chances.

“But we also came up against an inspired goalkeeper in Ross Sinclair.

“Nikolay Todorov had chances he had to score.

“I said to the big man that’s three chances in two games.

“If he takes them, we are sitting at the top of the group. But that is where we are at the moment. We’re not quite there in front of goal.”

Despite not finding the net, Robertson says he is pleased with the attacking football his team are playing.

“All that is missing is scoring goals,” he said.

“I was very pleased with a lot of the stuff that we have produced.

“A lot of the box-to-box play such as passing the ball we did well.

“The important thing we have to improve on is the decision-making in the last third.

“A lot of the time we cut the ball back and we squared the ball across the face of goal.”

Robertson says he was using this season’s Betfred Cup as pre-season training for the Championship.

He was pleased that he was able to give more players the chance of game time as they prepare to head to Dunfermline on Saturday.

“The good news is we got 65 minutes into James Vincent and Kevin McHattie as that was their first competitive game of the season,” he said. “Scott Allardice and Cameron Harper also managed to come on and we got more minutes into Danny Devine as well as he gets full fitness.

“Cammy Mackay didn’t have much to do during the game, although he made two great saves in the penalty shootout and was unlucky not to get a third. It served its purpose, we are disappointed not to take the three points.

“Box to box, the majority of the game I enjoyed what I saw, we just didn’t quite have the guile or quality to finish it off.”

ICT’s next League Cup game is against Raith Rovers on Tuesday, November 10 at Stark’s Park.


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