Three takeaways from Inverness Caley Thistle's second Championship defeat in-a-row to Greenock Morton including post-match reaction from head coach Billy Dodds and midfielder Scott Allardice
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Inverness Caledonian Thistle suffered a second consecutive defeat in the Scottish Championship, this time at home against Morton, in a performance that left plenty to be desired in the Highland capital.
With clear cut chances to score few and far between for either side, the match was eventually decided by Grant Gillespie's penalty, awarded after a handball by Wallace Duffy.
There is very little time to wallow in the disappointment, or to make changes on the training ground, with a Premier Sports Cup second round tie away at Motherwell coming up on Wednesday evening, but here are three things to take note of from ICT's most recent setback.
Lack of intensity
There are a lot of different ways to win a game of football. Personally I like to see a team keep control of possession, use speedy and tricky wingers who can keep defenders guessing by cutting inside or charging towards the byline and send a cross into the box, and most importantly of all play with intensity.
This Inverness squad has the tools to do that, but yesterday they didn't show enough of it.
You can say it was a lack of quality, a lack of cutting edge in the final third, but the most striking thing to me was that it still felt like a pre-season game at times.
Yes, there was a sweltering heat in the Highland capital, but now that we're a couple of months into the season it sets off alarm bells in my head that the tempo of Caley Thistle's play was not good enough.
It's not like it's a squad packed with new signings, and we know Inverness are capable of cutting through teams – they did it just a couple of weeks ago against Cove Rangers. If they don't up their work rate, though, more disappointing results will surely follow.
Scott Allardice's thoughts: "We need to work hard and graft all over the park.
"We need to press as a team – at the minute maybe the defence is working on its own, the midfield is by itself and the forwards are too.
"We need to work as a unit and grind it out sometimes rather than play free-flowing football like we did against Cove a few weeks ago."
Refereeing decisions
I don't like to write about referees too often. Personally I think they are easy targets for frustration, but they have been a hot topic in Scottish football over the last week or two.
The game was decided by a penalty call that in real time I thought Caley Thistle had every right to be aggrieved by. Watching it back, Nick Walsh got that one right, but there were plenty of other incidents that incited the wrath of players, coaches and fans alike.
Even without the dubious decisions, Inverness did not do enough to take anything from the game, but they certainly were not helped by the officiating, who by the end seemed to remember he had a yellow card in his pocket and was desperate to show everyone how nice it looked.
Billy Dodds' thoughts: "I can't disagree with Nick Walsh giving the handball because their player headed it against his hand, but he was going to give us a free-kick and turned because he thought it was a push on Wallace Duffy.
"He turned one way then reversed and given the penalty. I don't have a grievance with Nick for that as it hit Wallace's hand.
"I think he is a good referee, but I don't think he was at his best. If he is honest with himself, he was not near the levels he is capable of performing at – like some of my players."
Crisis levels on the treatment table?
I don't think the word "crisis" has been thrown about by anyone in relation to the number of players Caley Thistle have missed in recent weeks, but it is a significant part of their squad.
Tom Walsh and Shane Sutherland are long term injuries from the end of last season, with Max Ram joining their ranks early on in pre-season.
Against Morton, though, Sean Welsh, Aaron Doran, Lewis Hyde and Zak Delaney were all also missing from the matchday squad, while Danny Devine was an unused substitute and Austin Samuels was forced off in the first half.
Already working with a smaller squad than last season, Dodds knows he has a good squad when everyone is available – he has said multiple times he has no intention of dipping back into the transfer market before the upcoming deadline for that exact reason.
Any team with an injury list closing in on double digits would be affected, so maybe expectations at this still very early stage of the season should be tempered slightly. After all, Caley Thistle are a team who traditionally ends the season well, so there is no need to panic just yet and cast too big of a cloud over the Caledonian Stadium.
Billy Dodds' thoughts: “I think we’re missing plenty of players who can give you that fight, and then they bring it out of the one who aren’t as vocal. Results help with that too.
“With some big characters back, players with a strong mentality, that helps dig out results and then you grow in confidence. It can be a big slow-build.
“I’ve been there but I was always a guy who would never give up and I want some of the players in my team to be like that.”
