Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Caley Thistle head coach Billy Dodds warns side against half measures for Kilmarnock Championship showdown

Caley Thistle head coach Billy Dodds.
Caley Thistle head coach Billy Dodds.

Billy Dodds reckons Caley Thistle can give Championship leaders Kilmarnock a run for their money in Friday’s showdown – if they play like they did in the first half against Ayr.

However, the Inverness head coach is warning his players they cannot afford to repeat their second half slump, which allowed the Honest Men to hit back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2. 

The positives are third-placed Caley Thistle are now four games unbeaten after three wins prior to their weekend seaside trip, and they are just three points away from securing a play-off spot. 

Victory against leaders Killie on Friday night at the Caledonian Stadium will ensure fifth-placed Raith Rovers cannot catch them.

It would also provide a dramatic twist at the top, with second-placed Arbroath then able to slice Killie’s summit cushion down to one point on Saturday, should they defeat rock-bottom Queen of the South.

ICT in control at Ayr after early double

Early strikes by Shane Sutherland and Logan Chalmers had Caley Thistle coasting at Somerset Park on Saturday as they closed in on securing a top-four finish – as Raith lost 1-0 to Morton.

However, all that was good about their first half play was missing in the second half.

Caley Thistle’s on-loan Dundee United forward Logan Chalmers swerves home the goal of the game at Ayr.

Eighth-placed Ayr stormed right back with goals from teenager Fraser Bryden and attacking midfielder Markus Fjortoft.

Four unbeaten ahead of Killie clash

The spotlight will be fully on the Highland capital on Friday as the BBC Scotland cameras roll in.

Dodds’ men have twice defeated Killie this term when Tommy Wright bossed the Rugby Parkers.

Inverness lost 1-0 to Derek McInnes’ re-energised Kilmarnock in January and Killie’s 2-0 win against Dunfermline at the weekend has them four points ahead of Arbroath with three games to go.

Dodds insists his players will dust themselves down after Saturday and will come out all guns blazing to try to secure that play-off shot, which will almost certainly be against Partick Thistle.

Inverness head coach Billy Dodds.

He said: “I’m looking forward to Friday. I wish we’d won on Saturday, because we’d be going into it with four straight wins. But we’re still four unbeaten after three wins and a draw.

“We won’t let Saturday affect us. We know what we’ve got to do. We’ve beaten Kilmarnock twice this season, they’ve beaten us once.

“We’re at our best by causing teams problems, but we will have to be at our best. I hope we play the way we did in the first half, but not the second.”

Strong start had Caley Jags flying

And the former Scotland, Aberdeen and Rangers striker felt Inverness were on course to go for goals after taking control with two goals inside 15 minutes.

He said: “The first 45 minutes in Ayr was up there with the best we’ve played this season.

“It was a type of performance where we thought we would go out and do really well after those first two goals. It felt like it could have been two, three or four.

“I told the boys it was important we never lost the next goal and it was poor defending, a turn and hit through a ruck of players and it ended in the net.”

Arbroath remain in title contention

With the top two teams winning, Dodds’ side are nine points away from second-placed Arbroath with just four fixtures to bank from.

He accepts his players fell short, having blown a big opportunity to turn the heat up on their rivals.

Dodds added: “It was good wins at the weekend for Kilmarnock and Arbroath (against Hamilton). We thought if we could win at Ayr, we’d see what happens.

“Fair play to Ayr United in the second half, but we didn’t do our bit and I’m really disappointed with the second half. Even in our bad run, I wasn’t saying that about the boys.

“Although Ayr were in the game, I felt we helped them along. I trusted the boys on Saturday to see it out.”