FOUR SUBS RULE TO BE EXTENDED
Inverness fight back for a point
FATE played one or two cruel tricks on Inverness but the Caley Thistle players ultimately proved that they are not prepared to relinquish their Premiership status without a fight after all.
Richie Foran slaughtered his men in the wake of their threegoal midweek defeat at Hamilton for lacking the ‘bottle’ for a battle when the chips are down.
If that was a deliberate attempt by the Inverness manager to elicit a positive response, the psychology worked a treat, for his team merged with great credit for refusing to throw in the towel when they found themselves trailing by two first-half goals.
Their heads may have dropped momentarily when Marcus Haber and Darren O’Dea struck in a devastating six-minute spell shortly before half-time, but their hearts stayed strong.
And they came close to ending a 13-match Premiership winless run stretching back to October.
But at least the manner of this draw will have instilled much needed confidence in the camp as the bottom side seek to make up a three-point deficit.
Foran was not available to comment after dashing off immediately following the final whistle to attend a family wedding in Dublin.
But one suspects that he allowed himself a guarded smile of satisfaction on the flight across the Irish Sea — even though his renewed optimism will have been tempered by caution after Billy Mckay’s failure to convert a second penalty kick proved costly.
First-team coach Scott Kellacher — holding court in Foran’s absence — reflected: ‘It was a great recovery. You could not have asked for much more than that.
‘At half-time, we had a chat with the players individually and collectively — and they went out and did their jobs.
‘The boys showed great character and in the end we might have won the game, as we had plenty of chances. If we keep getting performances like that, hopefully we’ll be okay.
‘When the second penalty was saved, it would have been easy for the heads to go down, just like the other night at Hamilton, but that was a far better performance.
‘Richie expected a good bit more and I think he got that. They did everything asked of them.’
Celtic are next up in the Scottish Cup at Parkhead on Saturday and while the odds are stacked against Inverness causing an upset, they will travel to Glasgow in good heart.
Mckay was unable to hallmark his return to the Highland capital on loan from Wigan with a second goal after converting his first penalty after being brought down by Julen Etxabeguren in the 53rd minute.
But it also has to be said that Scott Bain produced a save of genuine quality when he threw himself to his left to thwart the striker after Etxabeguren had also impeded Henri Anier 20 minutes later.
Bain made several other crucial stops to earn his side what may ultimately turn out to be a precious point.
But the keeper was unable to deny Greg Tansey an equaliser with 11 minutes remaining when the midfielder struck from just outside the box after Bain had blocked Mckay’s initial effort.
Inverness might easily have scored three times in the first 19 minutes, but they were cursed to an extent when Carl Tremarco struck a post, O’Dea deflected the ball into his own net only for Mckay to be deemed offside and Anier had a shot blocked by the goalkeeper.
But Inverness’ failure to defend crosses from Cammy Kerr and Tom Hateley allowed Haber and O’Dea to give the visitors a twogoal cushion with headers in the 37th and 43rd minutes.
Dundee manager Paul Hartley said: ‘We gave them an opportunity to get back into the game but still had chances after that to put the result to bed. I was pleased with how we played offensively.’