Foran seeks a favour from rivals County

RICHIE FORAN was last night forced to leave the Ladbrokes Premiership future of Inverness in the hands of Highland rivals Ross County as the fight against relegation rolled into the final week of the top-flight season.

Foran’s team lost 2-1 at Kilmarnock, putting them four points adrift of Hamilton Accies, who also remain in peril after going down 1-0 at home to Motherwell.

If Accies beat County on Tuesday, then Inverness will be relegated before they travel to Dundee 24 hours later. But Foran believes that a favour from Jim McIntyre’s team would give his side ‘a small chance’ to save themselves via Dens Park then — depending on Hamilton’s result against Dundee at the Superseal Stadium on Saturday — with a home game against Motherwell.

‘If Ross County do us that favour, I believe we can get out of this,’ said Foran. ‘That would put huge pressure on Hamilton going into the last game of the season. So we

need that result to go our way and if we can get three points against Dundee, then you never know.

‘It doesn’t stick in the throat that it’s Ross County. I’m sure they will go out and do everything they can to win that game.

‘So we need a bit of luck, a couple of results to go our way — but then we need to take care of our business.

‘We still have a small chance. We’ll still keep believing and tell the lads to get their heads up and be proud of their performance.

‘Hopefully, County will do us a favour on Tuesday night and then we’ll need to have a big game on Wednesday. We could be relegated on Tuesday, so I’ll be watching.

‘There’s no point in being frustrated now — it’s too late. We must concentrate on keeping the lads upbeat, have a look at them in training and see who still fancies the fight.

‘There are one or two who don’t — I’ve seen that and they’ll be pushed aside for brave boys. There is no place for the weak.’

Sean Longstaff took advantage of a Ryan Esson blunder to fire Kilmarnock into a 17th-minute lead.

Jordan Jones struck early in the second half to double that advantage and an Alex Fisher reply was all too late for Inverness.

‘It’s disappointing that individual mistakes seem to have cost us all season and I don’t know why that has happened,’ conceded Foran.

‘But we’ll keep fighting as long as there is a glimmer of hope. I’m proud of the players’ performance, their attitude and desire.

‘There was a lot of quality in the second half (against Kilmarnock) but big moments in games didn’t go for us.

‘Alex Fisher was through on goal inside the first five minutes, a big chance, and unfortunately another individual mistake gave Kilmarnock their goal. The confidence was affected in a couple of players, so we made changes.

‘In the second half, we created chances but ultimately came up short. The players didn’t let us down — that’s for sure.’

Kilmarnock’s future is in the top flight for a 25th successive season and whether Lee McCulloch will be there to manage them through 2017-18 will be determined by talks that the interim boss hopes occur ‘sooner rather than later’.

McCulloch steered Killie well clear of danger after taking over from Lee Clark in February but opted to remain non-committal over his interest in the post on a permanent basis until he has heard from the board.

He said: ‘We’ve not spoken about it for a few months. It’s about waiting and having a chat.

‘Yes, I have surprised myself a bit in the job. I’m enjoying it but it is really one day at a time.’