Jim McIntyre admits dreadful defending cost Cove Rangers dearly as they crashed to a 6-1 Championship defeat ay Caley Thistle.
However, the Cove manager aims to bolster his squad numbers in the transfer market, on the back of departures and injuries.
Jack Sanders headed the visitors in front at Inverness but a Billy Mckay double, including a spot-kick, and a goal from Danny Devine put ICT in control at the break.
Early own goals in the second half from substitute Kyle McClelland and Scott Ross made it 5-1 to Inverness before Billy Mckay’s hat-trick further added pain for the Aberdeen side.
McIntyre was less than impressed by the nature of the goals conceded as his men stayed eighth in the table, one spot below ICT.
However, he is backing his team to respond to this set-back, as they have throughout the season.
He said: “It was such an open game. Caley Thistle could have scored a couple and we should have scored a couple.
“You just can’t defend the way we defended and expect to win the game. We gave away silly free-kicks and didn’t match our man, it’s as basic as that, and you find yourself 3-1 down.
“There were good moments for us in the first period, especially. In the second half, we shot ourselves in the foot with some calamitous defending. It was really poor from our point of view.
“In the first half of the season, the players have been excellent and adapted to life in the Championship really well. Today is a sore one, but it’s about how we bounce back.
“Any time we have had a really poor result, we’ve bounced back, so that’s the challenge.”
Boss looks at transfer market moves
Players playing out of position is a headache for McIntyre, who is on the hunt for reinforcements.
He said: “It didn’t help we lost a couple of players, so we will have to be active in the transfer market after losing Charlie (Gilmour) and Max (Johnston).
“It’s a bad one for Charlie. He will need an operation on his ankle and will be out for the season. Max has gone back to Motherwell, so it didn’t help us having to play a centre-back at right-back.
“Connor Scully has had to operate at left-back, which isn’t ideal either, now we’ve lost Shay Logan (to injury).
“There are things you can get away with in the odd week, but when you have to rely on two or three players playing out of position, generally that catches up with you.
“We have to get players in for those positions and it will allow those boys who have been covering to move back to their strongest positions.”
Cove are home to Queen’s Park on Saturday, which will be the first of four successive matches in league and Scottish Cup at the Balmoral Stadium.
Owen Coyle’s Spiders are now top of the Championship after their 2-1 win against Partick Thistle at Ochilview on Monday.
Conversation