Foran must strengthen to alleviate Caley Thistle’s defensive frailties
INVERNESS Caley Thistle manager Richie Foran insists he will target new signings in the January transfer window after his players failed to ‘walk the walk’ in their defeat at St Johnstone.
The Highlanders now lie at the bottom of the Premiership after goals from Liam Craig, Murray Davidson and Danny Swanson earned Saints the win that brought their poor recent home form to an end.
Captain Gary Warren was sent off for the visitors in the second half after he picked up two bookings in as many minutes.
Foran’s side have conceded more goals than any other team in the league and he believes he must strengthen his squad because too many players are not following up their words with action.
‘We’ve gone from our best performance of the season last week to our worst performance — talk about being inconsistent,’ he said. ‘It sums us up.
‘I said after the defeat to Hearts I know exactly what I need — and I’ll go and get it. I can see where we are going wrong.
‘We have some wonderful characters but we probably have too many attacking players. We need more defensive-minded ones.
‘You get paid to perform and they didn’t. Before the game in the dressing room, you’re trying to motivate them and they are talking the talk — but none of us
are walking the walk at the moment.’
Saints were boosted by the return of midfielder Davidson after he recovered from an ankle injury, while Michael Coulson also returned.
Paul Paton and Blair Alston dropped out.
The visitors made one change from last week’s defeat at Dundee, with Larnell Cole replacing suspended defender Lewis Horner.
Saints took the lead after 14 minutes when Craig finished off a fine move.
His pass found Steven MacLean, who returned the favour by setting up the midfielder.
Craig cleverly finished from 15 yards beyond Caley Thistle keeper Owain Fon Williams.
Tommy Wright’s men almost quickly doubled their lead.
Swanson has a handy knack of finding a pass from nowhere.
His clever through ball set up David Wotherspoon in the box, but he could not make clean contact with the ball to cause problems for Fon Williams.
Craig troubled the Welsh goalkeeper again just short of the half-hour mark when his 25-yard shot was fumbled.
Carl Tremarco came close with a header which looped just wide, but Caley Thistle continued to be frustrated.
St Johnstone were furious not to be awarded a penalty eight minutes after the break. Wotherspoon’s pass put Richard Foster through on goal before he was apparently barged to the ground by Inverness defender Josh Meekings. However, referee Euan Anderson waved play on.
Things got worse for Caley Thistle in a calamitous couple of minutes around the hour mark as they were reduced to ten men and fell further behind.
Warren received a yellow card before picking up his second just a minute later for barging into Swanson.
From Wotherspoon’s 30-yard free-kick, the ball fell into Davidson’s path, who slotted into the far corner from ten yards.
The points were sealed when Swanson added a third nine minutes from time.
Brian Easton’s cross from the left evaded the Inverness defence and Swanson’s first-time finish from 15 yards flew into the bottom-left corner.
Wright was delighted to see his fifth-placed side bounce back from two home defeats in a row
‘I’m pleased we kept a clean sheet,’ he said.
‘It was a solid performance. If I’m being critical, I thought we dropped off after we scored our first two goals.
‘But it’s good to bounce back after our last defeat at home.’