Chief executive officer Scot Gardiner: Inverness Caley Thistle board have to face supporters' criticism and 'suck it up'
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Inverness Caledonian Thistle chief executive Scot Gardiner insists he understands fans' frustration – and admits he and the board will have to "suck it up" until fortunes turn around.
A run of nine matches without a win across all competition spelled the end of Billy Dodds' time at Caley Thistle last Sunday, but he was not the only target of supporters' angst.
Those in higher positions at the club have also come in for their share of criticism, and there will be a fans' meeting at the Innes Bar ahead of this weekend's match against Dundee United.
Gardiner says he can understand where their anger is stemming from, and can even relate to frustrated fans from personal experience of following teams he supports.
With that in mind, he knows work needs to be done to entice supporters back to matches, but believes the biggest thing that can turn the mood around is success on the pitch.
"If you're losing, an element of the fan base will be more noisy about being unhappy, and you have to just accept that," he said.
"We've got ourselves in this position, and everyone is responsible, so until you start winning games everyone is going to get it. That's totally understandable, and you just have to suck it up and take it.
"There are good times and there are bad times – you hope more good than bad – but you hope that fans realise that everyone is working towards the same goal and you can only hope they stick by you.
"I have found at Inverness that the silent majority are more representative than noisy people. The silent majority will still be deeply unhappy with our results and very disappointed with what's going on, and it's our job to fix that.
"When it happens, it's about what you do to address the situation. Everyone is entitled to be unhappy, whether it's six people, 60 or 600. If you support this team, your view is as valid as anyone else's.
"They're meeting in the Innes Bar, and hopefully everyone vents their spleen if they want to do that. Hopefully it's constructive, and then I would hope they're all coming to the game afterwards.
"That's what we need, but we know that doesn't happen when you're losing. Last weekend was probably the smallest crowd we've had at Raith Rovers for a long time, which means there are fans who would normally get in the car and come down to support the club who decided not to do that.
"Our job is to get them back, and get a team that they believe in again and will come and support."
One talking point amongst supporters stemming from the dismissal of Billy Dodds was that Barry Wilson, who also departed the club, was listed as ICT's assistant manager.
That caused confusion, as many had believed that Scott Kellacher – who is remaining at the club alongside goalkeeping coach and under-18s manager Ryan Esson – had the title of assistant manager.
Gardiner took personal responsibility for not making a public statement on that matter, but says he was trying to avoid creating further issues for Kellacher with public perception during an already tricky time with illness.
"When Billy joined the club with Neil (McCann), Scott was very ill," Gardiner explained.
"Barry was then next in line, and Ryan is our goalkeeping coach and an outstanding under-18s coach.
"Scott didn't join back up with us properly until after Billy had come back as head coach, so one of the things we took for granted was that Barry had become the assistant manager.
"There wasn't any public announcement because it had all blended into that. I put down that Barry was assistant manager in the statement so that potential applicants could see that they can bring someone in.
"Nobody else is affected – Ross Hughes as sports scientist, Ryan's dual position remains the same, and Scott has not only been a coach but he has taken on additional duties in regards to transitioning our young players into the first team.
"It was a semantic thing – if you look at some clubs they have four assistant managers. I suppose there are different approaches.
"Barry was the assistant manager. He was acting as that and fulfilling that role, we just didn't make a press statement about it. When you do things like that people always try and read into it, looking to see whether it's a slight on someone, and it wasn't that.
"We were managing a very difficult process, where two of our colleagues were in a very bad place, and we didn't want to create any other issues for them."
