ICT were lacking sparkle – Foran
RICHIE FORAN suspects a bout of Old Firm blues was behind Inverness Caley Thistle’s poor show against Kilmarnock – but insists it wasn’t good enough.
The Irishman lamented a lack of sparkle against the Ayrshire team as it took a late, scrambled Lonsana Doumbouya leveller to salvage a point after Souleyman Coulibaly’s early penalty kick strike.
Foran, whose side had lost narrowly to Rangers eight days previously, insisted he and all his players had to take a good, hard look at themselves after a dip in standards.
The Caley Thistle manager said: “Games you play after the Old Firm are always tough. We don’t seem to perform after we play them.
“You come from the exciting game, Friday night, full house, great atmosphere and today it’s a bit flat.
“Maybe mentally we weren’t right – and we did look a wee bit tired in the first half.”
Foran, though, was not shying from criticism of his side.
He said: “We didn’t start well. With a silly penalty we gave ourselves a mountain to climb.
“We didn’t look our usual selves. We didn’t have a spark about us but we finished the game stronger.
“I told the lads they need to look at themselves first. I’ll go and look at myself. Was there enough passion in my team- talk today? I’ll go through it all.”
The hosts had carved an impressive five- game unbeaten run before last Friday night’s slender defeat to Rangers.
Killie, in stark contrast, had broken a six-game run without victory last weekend with the backs- to- the- wall win over St Johnstone.
Momentum looked to be with the Highlanders but Killie have shown a knack of being able to soak up pressure and hit on the break. A burst of pressure after eight minutes led to the opener.
A Rory McKenzie cross from the right shouldn’t have presented too many problems for Inverness but, when home defender McKay clattered into Souleyman Coulibaly, referee Nick Walsh was left with no option but to point to the spot.
Coulibaly struck the kick low to
Owain Fon Williams’s right and although the unlucky Welsh international keeper got a strong glove to it, it spun into the corner of the net.
Greg Tansey’s rasping attempt from close to 30 yards was also parried by keeper Jamie McDonald with striker Lonsana Doumbouya just unable to meet the rebound.
Caley Thistle came tearing out of the traps after the break but Killie looked resolved to resist the surge. Jake Mulraney’s slack pass, just five minutes into the second- half, created danger for Caley Thistle.
Tyson surged away on the left of the box and crossed dangerously.
Luckily for the Inverness winger, though, Coulibaly headed high over the bar.
The hosts kept fighting for a route back but their efforts hit a brick wall. Substitute Doran did his best to inject something after 75 minutes with a fierce 25-yard dig saved down low by MacDonald.
Just when it seemed the match was running away from the hosts, they mustered the leveller with four minutes left. Tremarco’s delivery from the left was headed across goal by Doran and Doumbouya bundled the leveller over the line.