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Player reveals Inverness Caley Thistle manager Duncan Ferguson’s fury over poor attacking performance





Wallace Duffy. Picture: Callum Mackay.
Wallace Duffy. Picture: Callum Mackay.

WALLACE Duffy revealed the fury of manager Duncan Ferguson in the dressing room after he felt Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s attacking performance was not good enough despite their 1-0 Championship play-off semi final win over Montrose yesterday.

The defender spoke about the manager’s response to how the team performed going forward in the narrow victory against Montrose at the Caledonian Stadium on Saturday.

But he agreed with his manager, saying finding goals has been a problem for Inverness all season and has resulted in them ending up in the play-offs.

In the regular season, Inverness only scored 41 goals from their 36 matches, the second least amount in the Championship, with only relegated Arbroath scoring fewer with 35.

But Inverness ended the regular season with the second best defensive record, conceding just 40 goals, with only champions Dundee United conceding fewer with 23.

Duffy admits that failing to find the net has landed Inverness in the play-offs and told of Ferguson’s fury over their attacking performance against Montrose not being good enough, despite Billy Mckay finding the winner.

He said: “In the first half, we were a bit nervous, it looked like we were nervous and we were giving away a few counter attacks that Montrose should have done better with.

“In the second half we looked more threatening and got the goal. Then we had a few chances and breaks. The gaffer had a pop at us and went mental saying it was not good enough attacking wise.

“For the whole season we have not scored enough goals and it probably showed today.

“We are where we are because we have not created as much as a team.

“We have a decent defensive record which defenders reiterate, but its a team game at the end of the day.

“There are boys trying to defend for you and there are boys trying to score a goal.

“There are more than four or five that need to do it.

“There are creative players and attack minded players, but we all need to try to help everyone to try and score a goal and we need to get a finger out in front of goal. I am sure we will be working on that.”

Duffy got the header on Cameron Harper’s corner kick which set up Mckay to score the winner which proved to be enough to send them to the final.

Duffy says they made tougher work out of Montrose than they thought they would need to, but was happy to get the job done.

He said: “It is something we have been working on as a set piece and I’m happy to contribute anyway I can. It was tougher than we thought it would be.

“As much as we had with the ball, we didn’t make that many opportunities. Apart from a couple of opportunities, it was really disappointing to be honest.

“We work on set pieces as that is the main way you will get a goal, thankfully for us we did. But that was much tougher than we expected to be honest.”

Inverness now face Hamilton Academical in the play-off final with the first leg at New Douglas Park on Wednesday night and the second leg at the Caledonian Stadium on Saturday.

Hamilton Academical were relegated from the Championship last season after losing to Airdrieonians in the play-off final on penalties.

However, Hamilton had a good record against Inverness last season, winning three of their four league matches.

They finished second in League One on 74 points, 16 points behind champions Falkirk, but 18 points clear of Alloa Athletic in third.

But they only edged Alloa Athletic 5-4 on aggregate in their play-off semi final.

Duffy is confident Inverness, being the Championship team, can overcome Hamilton and maintain their place in the Championship next season.

“We expect something similar to what we faced against Montrose,” said Duffy.

“We know what they are like as we played them a few times since I’ve been here.

“Their aim is to get straight back up straight away.

“We do have a terrible record against Hamilton since i’ve been here.

“We have to deal with it, but we are confident. We are the Championship team at the end of the day.

“I don’t feel we should have been at the bottom like we were. We just need to rectify what happened in the league.”


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