Foran’s legion have deserted relegation fight
The story goes that it was Terry Butcher’s wife Rita who first scouted Richie Foran.
Big Tel’s better-half took in a League Two game between Foran’s Carlisle and Mansfield and a free transfer later he was on his way to Motherwell.
There are many other bizarre tales along the way of a journey that somehow landed him inside Hamilton’s media room on Tuesday night as manager of Inverness.
Too many other twists of fate to mention for a guy who once confided he didn’t really like football – he preferred the gaelic variety.
But there he was, with what appeared to be his breakfast still in his beard, wild eyed and blazing about his players’ lack of bottle.
I ronies of ironies for a career that had officially moved full circle. His old Shelbourne boss Dermot Keely said when word came through about Foran’s step into management: “I fell off my couch when I heard.”
The 3- 0 loss to Accies was the last straw in a 13-game run which has brought only one win – to Elgin.
Foran’s rage at his Inverness players was fair enough but on closer inspection it was a form of damnation.
His predecessors Butcher and John Hughes may not admit it but this has long been a dressing- room ful l of seasoned pros that ran itself. Sadly no longer.
Too many have given up the ghost. Gary Warren, Ross Draper and Greg Tansey all look like they can’t wait to end their Highland fling.
Draper’s lack of desire was so glaring he got hooked on the hour mark and the fire and intensity for which Tansey’s famed was barely at a flicker.
There’s a bottom line in any dressing-room – when the go-to guys chuck it, it’s over.
On Tuesday night the engine was off and a 3-0 defeat could have been a lot worse.
Bil ly McKay and Henri Anier have been brought in to save the club from the drop. Foran must have seen something he liked about a strike pair that f ired Dundee United to relegation last season but the smart money’s on a repeat result.
Maybe Foran felt he’d nothing to lose. As a player he was both the go-to guy and the AWOL guy.
While at Well, he returned home to Dublin to play in a junior football championship final for his local GAA club St Joseph’s O’Connell Boys without telling Big Tel.
His excuse said everything about his current road to perdition: “It’s my passion, it’s in my blood and I miss it.”
Inverness must feel like a form of football purgatory but it could well be over soon.