Dodds: How on dearth will we stay sharp
Bil ly Dodds admits he faces huge decisions in planning for the Scottish Cup Final – with a fourweek wait for action.
The Inverness Caley Thistle boss, devastated at fal l i ng at the f ina l hurdle in the chase for a Premiership play-off spot, wou ld hav e muc h preferred to face four crunch games before the showpiece against Celtic.
Ayr’s last- gasp winner sank that dream, leaving Caley Jags idle before one of the biggest games in their history.
Dodds said: “We will maybe go away with the lads. And we will definitely give the players time off. We have to rest – we can’t keep training for a month.
“We will come back and try to get a couple of games. The play- of fs would have been ideal preparation for the final.
“It’s disappointing not to reach the play-offs but I hope the Caley Thistle fans realise it has been a good season.
“I can be critical of our f irst- half performance against Ayr but the boys have given us so much.
“We’re going to enjoy the Cup Final and we need to make sure we don’t just turn up for the occasion.
“We must start better than against Ayr and try to get in Celtic’s faces.”
Meanwhile, Josh Mullin reckons Lee Bullen’s subs gave Ayr players the jolt they needed with the club facing promotion heartache in the dying minutes in Inverness.
A draw might have been enough for the Honest Men to seal a play-off spot.
But Mu ll in, by then subbed off, saw his strike wiped out by Nathan Shaw’s 82nd-minute reply – and realised they were in trouble.
That plunged Ayr down from second to fifth and had Mullin worried the urgency hadn’t got through to the players.
Throwing on attackers Daire O’Connor and Fraser Bryden for two full-backs re- energised the visitors before sub Mark McKenzie sealed a famous night.
Mullin said: “It was only when they equalised that we paid attention to events elsewhere and realised we were out of the top four.
“The gaffer chucked on Fraser and Daire and took off defenders. We actually set up for all of these scenarios in training and it paid off.”