UTTER DISGRACE
I wouldn’t put vermin in dressing room blasts angry ICT boss Dodds
BILLY DODDS savaged the dressing-room conditions at Cappielow as ‘disgusting’, insisting they weren’t fit for vermin as Caley Thistle crashed out of the Cup on penalties.
The Inverness boss said he had never seen such atrocious facilities in all of his time in Scottish football and the league leaders are back at Greenock on Saturday.
Dodds said: “One of the portakabins has no lighting, which is a health hazard and I couldn’t put the players up there as you can’t see the stairs.
“The toilets are a disgrace, the generator went off at half-time and I have had my team talk in darkness.
“I wouldn’t put vermin in there, it was that bad. It’s not sour grapes but Scottish football should be better than this.
“It’s a shambles. It’s not acceptable and my boys are sitting there freezing.For health and safety it is a disgrace.
“It’s not so bad in the summer but on a winter’s night it is a disgrace to be treated like that. I have never in 36 years seen anything like that.
“The Morton staff are good people and they apologised but it is disgraceful and disgusting. I don’t think any team should be treated like that.”
Gary Oliver eased the gloom at Cappielow as he scored the clinching penalty in a fantastic shootout victory.
Just four days after sacking Gus MacPherson they got the perfect pick-up as they won through to face Motherwell.
But Caley Thistle will be kicking themselves after dominating the second half for long spells.
And the fall-guy was Danny Devine who had got them back into the game after Robbie Muirhead had scored as he was the only player to miss from the spot.
Morton struck in 42 minutes when Reece Lyon worked the ball forward and Muirhead slammed a terrific left-foot shot into the corner.
Muirhead celebrated but gestured to the Morton fans to stop chirping at him after getting abuse at various times this season.
Within 80 seconds of the second half, Devine got Inverness level when he stole away from marker Gozie Ugwu to get a vital touch on Aaron Doran’s free-kick.
Despite more Caley pressure they couldn’t find a winner and suffered heartache on penalties.
Stand-in Ton boss Derek Anderson said: “We were expecting extra-time, we didn’t realise we went straight to penalties!
“We’re delighted. It’s just what the club needed as there has been a lot of negativity around the place.
“We had prepared for penalties though and Jack Hamilton was well prepped too, apart from the last one that he saved.
“We play Inverness again on Saturday and given the choice we would rather win that one but the players were different class.”