Dodds demands more game-time for future lower-league finalists
INVERNESS boss Billy Dodds believes the SFA and SPFL have to do more to prevent lower-league teams heading into the Scottish Cup final stripped of match sharpness. Before Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Hampden, the Championship side didn’t have a competitive game since May 5 when they were beaten to a place in the play-offs by Ayr United. Unable to line up friendlies at a critical stage of the season, they had one bounce game against Northern Irish side Dungannon Swifts prior to the final. Treble winners Celtic, by contrast, played their final Premiership game last weekend. Now Dodds believes fixture schedulers have to make more provision for lower-league clubs in the event that they go all the way in the competition. The Caley Thistle manager, whose team handed Celtic a late scare when Daniel MacKay’s header reduced the deficit to 2-1, said: ‘I know it’s difficult for the authorities to get the right amount of fixtures and when and where. It’s not my job to get into the details of it. But what I would say is that we’ve got to plan better to cover the possibility of a Championship team getting to a Scottish Cup final. ‘It’s not just that. We’re a team that played one of the last games of the season last year (the Premiership playoff final) and we’re a team that played one of the last games of this season. We’re not getting much of a break. ‘I think that’s maybe why we got some of the injuries we got during the season. We need to do something about giving the players the right rest. ‘If it falls on deaf ears, then fine. But you can’t just not plan for a Championship side getting in a cup final. Even if it doesn’t happen. They have to find a better way. You can’t have teams not playing for a month. ‘Our game gets ridiculed enough. We’ve got a good product up here. You see that in the final. Celtic will go into the Champions League next year and do well. But we’ve got to protect players; whether it’s fatigue, injuries, do the right thing. I’ve said it before,
it comes from the heart, and I really mean it.’
Disciplined and organised, Caley Thistle managed to close down space and frustrate Celtic until seven minutes before half-time when Kyogo Furuhashi exploded into the game with his 34th goal of the season. ‘I just wish we’d got to half-time,’ admitted Dodds. ‘The timing of their first goal was a wee bit demoralising. ‘I’d urged the players to hang in there. I’d promised the boys that, if we kept it to one for a certain time, I was going to have a go. ‘We were just about to make the sub when we lost the goal. ‘Lo and behold we got back in the game and I was praying for a VAR
intervention. It never came. I had a funny feeling we would score, we score in most games. Then we lose a bad goal. ‘The last goal doesn’t really matter, we were having a go.’ Tipped to lose five or six goals and written off by all and sundry, Inverness used their pre-match status as no-hopers to foster a siege mentality. ‘I’d told the players everybody was writing us off. I asked them to take part in the game, make sure you take part,’ said Dodds. ‘I said to them I was already proud of them, the staff were already proud of them, but they were to go out and make their families proud of them. ‘I knew the effort and determination would be there. I just didn’t want them losing bad goals to demoralise them.’ Praising the qualities of Celtic, Dodds exchanged warm words with opposite number Ange Postecoglou at the end. ‘Ange had credit for us. He’s a gentleman and dignified,’ said Dodds. ‘He’s going to celebrate and I told him to enjoy his celebrations. ‘He said to me: “Your boys were magnificent, they gave you everything”. I think there’s a dignified approach from certain managers — and he was really good. ‘My boys were good. I knew we wouldn’t take a thumping. I wish we’d beaten Ayr United and made the play-offs, what a hell of a season it would’ve been for us.’