No more festive gifts is wish for Warren
IT can be taken as read that John Hughes’ Inverness players did not procrastinate for too long over their New Year resolutions.
In conceding three goals at Hamilton in the final match of last year, the Highlanders continued an unfortunate trend that is threatening to negate so many of the positives in this season of transition.
Once renowned as a defensively resolute side, Caley are routinely gifting opponents two and three goals per game.
It is to their eternal credit that their prowess at the other end of the field has nullified much of the damage, as witnessed on Wednesday when they emerged as 4-3 winners thanks to Liam Polworth’s stoppage-time strike.
You have to go back to September 11, against Hearts, for the last time Hughes’ men kept a clean sheet in a league match.
Thirteen games have now come and gone. The 30 goals they have lost to date is seven more than Partick Thistle and five more than Motherwell — the sides directly beneath them in the Premiership table. They seem intent on climbing the mountain with one hand tied behind their back.
While Hughes was hardly overjoyed to see keeper Owain Fon Williams and defender David Raven squaring up after the loss of a third goal at Hamilton last time out, he could readily understand why the flashpoint happened. And defender Gary Warren agrees.
‘It was just frustration at conceding goals,’ said Warren.
‘As defenders and goalkeepers, we don’t like it. It’s just boiled over on the pitch but those guys are fine now — they sorted it out in the dressing room. It’s just part and parcel of football.
‘Frustration can lead to a lot of things. It’s not marking, not picking up and not clearing your lines. That’s why the boys got frustrated. But it has been put to bed now. That just shows the standards we’re setting ourselves.
‘We have extremely high standards. We’re always striving to be a top-six club and we’ve done that in the past few seasons.
‘That’s what we’re aiming to do again this season but we need to be bit more ruthless in the defensive third.’
Given the exodus of key players after their Scottish Cup triumph, Hughes always had a tough task on his hands to prevent the club from free-falling this term.
To his credit — and despite a poor defensive record — that hasn’t yet materialised.
Indeed, ahead of today’s Highland derby clash with visitors Ross County, Caley remain well placed to finish comfortably in the top half of the table and perhaps give themselves a long shot at a return to Europe.
As thrilling as the seven-goal affair at Hamilton was, it’s rather more prosaic victories that are likely to take them there.
‘Fortunately two of the boys — Greg Tansey and Liam Polworth — got us out of trouble,’ reflected Warren. ‘Three points were what we came for but there’s still a lot to work on.
‘We’re conceding far too many goals. Part and parcel of being a defender is you want to keep clean sheets and we haven’t had as many as we wanted this season.
‘As a team and a unit, we need to get back to the drawing board and work on eradicating the things that are costing us.’
Having been pegged back from two goals up against Aberdeen on Boxing Day, Warren admited to a sinking feeling of deja vu when Hamilton did likewise on Wednesday.
‘When they got the second goal, you’re thinking: “This is Aberdeen all over again”,’ he said.
‘So we said: “We can’t let it happen again”. You don’t want that to happen two weeks on the bounce, so full credit to the boys for sticking with it and scoring with the last kick of the game.
‘Make no mistake, we’ve come away from Hamilton, which is a difficult place, with three points, so fair play to the lads because they’ve gone right to the end. The boys always dig in and don’t know when they’re beaten.’
The prospect of Jim McIntyre’s side traversing the Kessock Bridge for the first encounter of the New Year is always one to get Inverness’ blood pumping.
In each of the three seasons in which County have been a top-flight team, Inverness have finished above them but there’s now more than a hint of a shift in the powerbase in the north. Already five points ahead of Caley, the Dingwall side will take an enormous step towards a significant historical milestone if they come out on top this afternoon.
‘They made a number of new signings at the start of the season and, to be fair to them, they hit the ground running,’ said Warren.
‘They are on a good run at the moment but we feel we are, too. It will be a good derby but we need to be better defensively and more resolute — not just for 45 minutes but for 90.
‘They’ve started off better than us but, in terms of the gap, they aren’t that far in front. It’s a big one for both teams. I don’t think it will define the season, though. We’re just past Christmas, so there are a lot of games to play and a lot of ups and downs to come.’
County surrendered a sevenmatch unbeaten run when they fell 2-1 to Inverness in early October, and it’s a memory which still fires up Dingwall skipper Andrew Davies, even though his team have since gained some revenge by knocking Caley Thistle out of the League Cup.
‘They came up here and took the points off us, so we want to go there and get revenge,’ he said. ‘We are up for it and ready to give it a go.’