Three takeaways from Inverness Caley Thistle's narrow defeat to Dundee in the Scottish Championship
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Inverness Caledonian Thistle hit seven matches without a win in the Scottish Championship as Paul McMullan's strike made the difference for Dundee in the Highland capital.
Dundee's greater sharpness in front of goal was largely the story of the match, with Cammy Mackay having several saves to make on top of the goal, while the Caley Jags barely tested visiting goalkeeper Adam Legzdins.
With Inverness slipping six points off the play-off places then, here are three things sports reporter Andrew Henderson took note of from the match, with reaction from head coach Billy Dodds and forward George Oakley.
No rest for the weary
It has been a little while since I last covered a match for Caley Thistle's men, but in the meantime their injury crisis has been well documented.
One thing that was clear – aside from the lack of senior options available to Billy Dodds from his bench – was that ICT's players looked tired.
It is to be expected. Yes, a footballer's job is to be ready to play 90 minutes every week, but in reality it's not often that so many players are being relied on for so many minutes in-a-row, especially since the introduction of five substitutes.
I wondered during the first half of yesterday's match whether teams should just try and outlast Inverness right now, knowing they either have to battle through 90 minutes or weaken themselves by making changes, and while Dundee's goal did not come in the latter stages there was certainly a difference in the level of fight the Caley Jags were able to put up in the closing stages.
It's one thing to say the starting 11s ICT are putting out every weekend are good enough to win matches. They are, but there are a lot of other factors coming into play right now too – confidence, fatigue, momentum and yes, maybe a little bit of quality too at times. I have a lot of sympathy with the plight Billy Dodds faces right now, but unfortunately for him it doesn't look like changing any time soon.
Billy Dodds' thoughts: "I'm not too disappointed. The signs are there that these boys want to turn this run around, and when we get the right people and the balance of the squad, we'll do it.
"We've got two or three coming on, and that's not enough when we need to change it.
"We need to have options in the right position as well, and it's hard on these guys because they're giving me plenty, but we maybe need to push a wee bit harder and find that from somewhere."
Being too goal-shy
A quick look at the league table tells you that what is preventing Caley Thistle from winning more matches this season is very simply not scoring enough goals.
They are the third lowest scorers in the league – ahead of only bottom two Arbroath and Hamilton – which means they sit in sixth despite having the third best defensive record in the Championship.
Against Dundee, there were signs as to why that was the case. On at least two separate occasions in the second half, balls were sent into dangerous areas only to go behind without an Inverness player getting on the end of them.
It is a conversation we see all the time when analysing games at the absolute highest level football has to offer, and the principles are no different – to score goals, you need bodies committing themselves forward and who are desperate to attack anything that comes their way.
Instead, what Inverness got yesterday was a bit of hesitancy. Dundee stopper Adam Legzdins, well, didn't really have anything to stop.
The silver lining for Caley Thistle fans is that they are at least creating those chances. With a touch more bravery and commitment, goals will surely follow.
Billy Dodds' thoughts: "I was a little bite exasperated that we weren't more willing to get on the end of things and score a goal.
"We want to score the perfect goal at times, but I'm just shouting at them to get in at the back post. They were all jogging in, and if they're bursting to get in there it's a tap in.
"That's the only bit I'm a wee bit critical of, in those situations you've got to push your body, take the knock and bundle it over the line."
ICT never take the easy route
In most of my years writing about Caley Thistle, there have been times during the season I have genuinely worried about where they will end up in the Championship, and also times I've been convinced this is their year to go up.
This season seems to be shaping up exactly the same way, albeit with perhaps more drastic swings earlier in the season this time around.
I started working for The Inverness Courier midway through the 2017/18 season, and straight away saw the Caley Jags lift the Challenge Cup and go from threats of a relegation battle to only barely missing out on the play-offs thanks to a 96th minute Dunfermline goal.
It has gone the other way too. Under Neil McCann a couple of years ago, Inverness went on a phenomenal run to salvage their apparently outside chance of a play-off push again, only to just miss out in the second last game of the campaign against champions Hearts.
In between, John Robertson led the club through a play-off quarter final to heartbreak at Tannadice – thanks in part to a dubious referring decision. Then, of course, there is the rollercoaster of last season, where despite 11 matches without a win in the middle of the campaign ICT came within 45 minutes of promotion in the play-off final after intensely dramatic earlier rounds against Arbroath and Partick Thistle.
My point is: don't panic Caley Thistle fans. Anything can happen in the Championship, which I believe to be the most exciting league in the country, and you have come back from worse than the current predicament to be right up there by the end of the season.
Right now, the Caley Jags sit six points off the play-offs, and nine points off the top of the table. That's only three results in theory, and there are still 19 games before anything is finalised. Things might not feel great now, but let's face it – it would be Inverness Caledonian Thistle if things were straightforward, would it?
George Oakley's thoughts: "I've played in the Premeiership, and I know that this team is big enough and good enough to be in that league.
"This is just a hard league to get out of, because it feels just like a dog fight – and we're up for it. We are willing it to happen and putting our bodies on the line, and honestly I think it will just take one time that luck goes our way for things to turn around.
"It will fall for us. This is football, it will turn, and then everyone will forget about this run. That's what I'm hoping anyway."
