John Hughes admits he was struggling to break the Scottish Cup party mood at Caley Thistle – until the SFA did it for him.
The victorious semi-finalists were celebrating before the decision to haul defender Josh Meekings before a disciplinary panel for the controversial handball missed by match officials.
That brought the dressing-room back down to earth with a sobering jolt but Hughes feels the focus is back again for a huge test against Aberdeen.
The two north rivals sit second and third, with Dons still in pursuit of Celtic while Caley Thistle seek to take another huge step towards securing European football for the first time.
Hughes said: “What went on this week was a dampener and cast a shadow over us reaching the Scottish Cup final. It has taken the focus away from what was a wonderful performance and achievement.
“But there’s a solidarity here. We’ve not got much and it brings us closer together.
“The players partied into the wee small hours of Monday morning after the elation of winning on Sunday. They came back on Tuesday and the coaching staff felt their heads were still a bit all over the place as they exchanged stories of their escapades on the night out.
“We realised we needed to get down to work and on Thursday they trained really well. The focus was back. We have told them to park what happened on Sunday and get into the business end of the season.
“We owe it to each other to do that.”
Hughes’ side is yet to beat the Dons this season and he has great admiration for the work of counterpart Derek McInnes in making his team league title challengers this season.
The Caley Thistle manager said: “We’re coming up against an Aberdeen side going for a record number of points and we haven’t beaten them yet. I have huge respect for the job Derek McInnes has done.”
Hughes said there was never any question of Meekings dropping out of the side this weekend, despite the emotional turmoil he faced in midweek.
The Inverness manager added: “Josh Meekings will play. You need to get back on the bike, no matter what happens, and that would have been the case even if his suspension for the final had stood.
“I could see the apprehension and uncertainty in his body language when he left for Glasgow yesterday morning. We’re all forgetting he was the most important person in all of this. I felt for all concerned – the officials, the compliance officer, Celtic, Josh and Caley Thistle. It was one of these incidents you could really do without.”