INVERNESS CT 1 Walsh (19) DUNDEE UNITED 1 King (76)
John Robertson believes Caley Thistle need to splash out on up to four signings in January to stay in the promotion hunt.
The Inverness boss felt like he had his hands tied behind his back in the second half against dominant Dundee United, with mainly just kids to call on.
The Highlanders are without a home win in the league since midSeptember’s win over Partick Thistle and needed some stunning saves from Mark Ridgers to collect a point.
Billy King eventually struck a deserved leveller for United to wipe out Tom Walsh’s first-half opener.
Robertson said: “We have 13 fit first-team players and no real legs to bring on to change the momentum.
“What we have is a replacement striker and a replacement midfielder, and then we’re bringing on talented youngsters.
“We have to bring in two or three, possibly four, players to beef up the first-team squad.”
The home side went ahead on 19 minutes through a lovely passing move.
Joe Chalmers fed Liam Polworth storming forward and the Caley midfielder slipped through Tom Walsh for a calm finish.
United held sway through much of the rest of the half, but were thwarted by two brilliant Ridgers saves, the first from a towering header by Pavol Safranko from a corner on 28 minutes.
Ridgers clutched another Safranko header before the break, but his last act of the half was to superbly push away a Matty Smith volley.
There was precious little goalmouth action into the second half, though a Smith volley was blocked by Jamie McCart.
Into the final 20 minutes, however, the hosts started to tire and United took control.
Safranko held his head in frustration after sending another header just wide – but the pressure finally told.
The leveller came with 14 minutes left when King struck a fierce leftfoot strike from the edge of the box and it found the corner of the net.
Safranko had a lastgasp chance but, from close in, headed straight into Ridgers’ arms.
United boss Robbie Neilson said: “I was disappointed not to take three points, but I was really pleased with the performance. I thought we controlled a lot of the game and passed it really well.”