Billy Dodds praised his battle-weary Caley Thistle team – despite their Saturday night slip-up against energetic Championship rivals Queen’s Park.
Owen Coyle’s Spiders bit back twice in the second half to score a 2-1 victory against Inverness at Ochilview after Billy Mckay had fired ICT in front after 17 minutes.
Queen’s, who also showed plenty of intent in the first 45 minutes, roared out after the interval and goals from Charlie Fox and Simon Murray took them fourth in the table, four points away from leaders Ayr United.
Caley Thistle, with eight regular players out injured, have slipped to sixth and are two points behind Queen’s Park and six adrift of Ayr, who they host on Saturday.
The casualty list includes key men such as Danny Devine, Robbie Deas, Shane Sutherland, Roddy MacGregor and Scott Allardice.
ICT will be ‘force to be reckoned with’
It is now five fixtures without a win for the Highlanders, with no signs of the injury list reducing any time soon.
ICT head coach Dodds, who felt his side “just fell short”, emphasised the effort was far from lacking, but numbers of first-team players certainly is right now.
He said: “We are trying our best, we are competitive but we’re just not there.
“If we get even three-quarters of those who are out back, we will be a team to be reckoned with.
“Right now, we are just missing that wee edge to make sure we see it out when we take the lead.”
Mckay scores his sixth of the season
The match at Stenhousemuir kicked off at 5.30pm due to East of Scotland Second Division promotion pushers Syngenta’s 3-1 win against Edinburgh United taking place at 1pm as the next in line after the hosts to use it.
Queen’s Park are moving into Lesser Hampden next year and will even play two matches back inside the National Stadium within this season, while using Stenny as their temporary base.
Queen’s and Inverness agreed last month that a later Saturday start was acceptable.
ICT were looking to get their first win since mid-October, following last week’s 1-1 draw with Arbroath, while Queen’s sought a response to their 2-0 defeat by Cove Rangers.
The Glasgow team were quickest out of the traps appealed for a spot-kick inside 20 seconds when Dom Thomas seemed to have been felled in the box by Aaron Doran.
A fine save from Caley Jags goalkeeper Cammy MacKay ensured Murray’s shot didn’t hit the net before Patrick Jarrett and Murray and Josh McPake went close.
Inverness survived and hit the opening goal on 18 minutes and it oozed class.
Captain Sean Welsh, who is not long back from his knee injury, collected possession and superbly hooked the ball on to Mckay’s boot and the striker rifled the ball beyond Calum Ferrie into the net.
The experienced forward blew a few chances against Arbroath and the relief and seeing his sixth goal of the season fly in was clear in front of the vocal away fans.
Spiders responded with Fox header
David Carson cleared a Murray header off the line before Jake Davidson went close with a shot as Queen’s responded.
Ferrie pulled off a good save from Billy Mckay when the striker met a teasing cross from Nathan Shaw.
Queen’s finished the stronger side at the end of the first half and, clearly, the interval didn’t hamper them as they came at ICT all guns blazing at the start of the second.
Lee Kilday thought he’d equalised on 48 minutes, but the offside flag cut short his celebrations.
That was only a slight delay though and man-of-the-match Fox arrived in the box to bury a Thomas corner past MacKay just two minutes later.
Corner after corner was being piled into the visitors’ box and ICT were blocking and clearing time and again.
There was almost a sucker-punch from the Caley Jags as they hit back, but Doran shot just over the top from decent range inside the box.
Savoury’s sweet delivery for winner
However, the clincher came on 73 minutes when ex-Peterhead midfielder Grant Savoury, who had come on as a substitute, crossed for Murray to slide in and convert his ninth goal of a fine season.
Savoury almost added another late on, but shot wide then Jack Thomson struck the post.
So, a narrow defeat for Dodds’ team piles the pressure on as they welcome Ayr – and 13-goal Championship top scorer Dipo Akinyemi – to the Highlands next week.
It’s not a must-win in terms of the title, but losing it to fall nine points adrift, given the injury list, would be a tough situation ahead of their Scottish Cup tie with Stirling Albion one week later.
QUEEN’S PARK (4-2-3-1) – Ferrie 6, Robson 6, Kilday 6, Fox 6, Thomson 6, McPake 6 (Savoury 70), Thomas 6, Davidson 7, Murray 7 (Williamson 83), Jarrett 7, Malachi Boateng 6. Subs not used – Heraghty (GK), Naismith, Longridge, Kenny, Bruce, Connolly, David Akrobor-Boateng.
CALEY THISTLE (4-4-1-1) – Cammy MacKay 6, Duffy 6, Harper 6, Welsh 7, Carson 6, Billy Mckay 7, Doran 6 (Nicolson 81), Oakley 6 (Boyd 65), Ram 6, Shaw 6, Delaney 6 (Hyde 81). Subs not used: Ridgers (GK), Strachan, Calum MacKay.
Referee – Scott Lambie.
Attendance – 593.
Man of the match – Charlie Fox.
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