UNDER SIEGE!
Honest Foran won’t let Inverness flops off hook after their Fir Park injustice
GIVEN the stage of the season and the severity of his side’s plight, Caley Thistle manager Richie Foran has some rather surprising, faintly old-school, motivational techniques.
A pat on the back tends to be followed by a kick up the backside. No sitting around in circles, channelling energy into the chakra, for him. Maybe the Irishman is just too honest.
Look at Saturday. Team robbed by a goal that never was, an appalling call by linesman David McGeachie, and a perfect chance to develop a bit of a siege mentality. He did say that everyone would stick together, but then claimed his players’ inability to defend crossballs was nothing to do with him because they had been set up properly.
He made reference to them playing Motherwell off the pitch after getting back into the game at 2-1. They did perform fairly well in stages. Other managers, whether they think their dressing room is full of haddies or not, might focus on trying to coax out the ‘Inner Messi’ within the players for a slightly longer period of games.
‘There is no magic man that can come in and help us,’ stated Foran shortly afterwards. ‘There is not another five, six or seven players that can come in and change things or help us out. It is us in there and a few more up the road that are suspended and injured.’
Perhaps it is just the choice of phraseology, but it hardly sounds like a ringing endorsement of the squad, the words of a man possessing unshakeable belief in his men for the challenge ahead.
Caley Thistle have only won one of their last 22 league games, to be fair. Maybe Foran has tried everything else to provoke a reaction.
The thing is, this game did provide a weapon. They must use the sense of injustice and anger from Motherwell’s third goal and make it bond them rather than break them. There were positive things to hang onto from a riproaring 90 minutes and the Dundee side that is five points clear of them in second bottom, and in absolute freefall.
Caley Thistle did lose two dreadful goals to Chris Cadden and Louis Moult in the first nine minutes, but they got back into it through two splendid goals from Alex Fisher and created a lot of chances.
What happened in the 65th minute has to be used in the right way.
Scott McDonald got his head to an Elliott Frear cross at the back post, it came off the upright and was batted away by goalkeeper Owain Fon Williams. It was never a goal. Lord knows what got into McGeachie’s head. The visitors pushed forward for an equaliser and were caught five minutes later when 18-year-old Allan Campbell headed home a McDonald cross.
Fisher insists the sense of injustice that burned within the players on the long trip back to Inverness on Saturday evening will be used as fuel for the battle ahead when they return to action in a Highland derby at Dingwall a week on Friday.
‘It will be used as motivation,’ said the 26-year-old Englishman. ‘Regardless of how we started the game, we were right in it at one stage before a decision was made that was hard to come back from. It is very hard to take.
‘It will sound stupid because we lost 4-2, but there were periods in the game where we played really well. We need to hold on to those moments and make them count.
‘The atmosphere after was deflated, but we have a strong-willed and positive changing room. This is not over.’ If this game was anything to go by, the battleground of the bottom six will be breathless and bruising. Fisher is clear when he is asked if the team is ready for war every week from now on.
‘One hundred per cent,’ he stated. ‘We are mentally ready. We will go into every game fighting tooth and nail. Dundee will be nervous going into the next few games but we can only focus on what we are in control of.’
For Motherwell, there was tangible relief over securing their first home win since a 2-0 victory over Partick on November 19. They finally got the rub of the green with a decision, too, having had clear ‘goals’ against Dundee and Hamilton not given earlier in the season thanks to officials failing to realise the ball had crossed the line.
‘I wasn’t sure about this one,’ said McDonald, the man responsible for the goal that never was at Dens Park in November. ‘Not that it will be any consolation to Inverness, but we’ve had two clear ones not given.
‘We take it, especially as it was at a pivotal time in the game. Who said it wasn’t a goal? It is nice just to be out of that play-off position.’
Motherwell are back in action a week on Saturday with the visit of Dundee and hope to make up for a 5-1 loss at Fir Park in February that saw former boss Mark McGhee sacked.
‘We’d like to put the Dundee result right from the last time,’ said McDonald.