I’ve blundered, says Foran as Caley crash
enough from me because I pick the team.
‘But the players do need to stand up and be counted. The majority of the fans’ anger should be (directed) at me. I apologise to them as it’s the first time I feel we’ve let them down.
‘Do we believe we can score or keep a clean sheet? I can see a confidence problem.’
He added: ‘You’re looking for real men at this stage of the season and I need to pick a team next week where I know getting off the bottom means a lot to them.
‘I’ve kept it positive for months, so maybe I’ll go the other way now, tell them how bad they’ve been and see if I get a reaction.
‘I feel like a broken record but one win still changes everything. It hasn’t been good enough all season and relegation has been spoken about.
‘I’ve been part of a team that was relegated here and seen office staff crying in the corridor at losing their jobs.
‘Maybe some of the younger players don’t know what it means to the city of Inverness, but we spoke about it yesterday and obviously didn’t get the reaction we wanted.’
Inverness will almost certainly be drinking at the last-chance saloon when they travel to Fir Park on Saturday to face fellow strugglers Motherwell.
But already, Foran’s men appear to be looking at the play-offs at best after only one victory in their last 21 Premiership matches.
Although St Johnstone boast the joint second-best away record in the Premiership, that impressive statistic was not reflected in their first-half performance.
Inverness might have built a sizeable lead by the interval after Alex Fisher, Tremarco, Billy Mckay and Cole all threatened to score.
But, as so often happens in the face of adversity, fate conspired against them in the 40th minute.
Owain Fon Williams succeeded in palming away a shot from Michael Coulson but was unable to reach MacLean’s follow-up effort.
The goal did untold damage to the Inverness players’ already fragile psychological state and being reduced to ten men was one kick in the teeth too many.
Saints boss Tommy Wright said: ‘With the way results went elsewhere, this is a massive win.
‘I was pleased with our performance. After the red card, we were ruthless.’