what the managers said
“I am very disappointed and so is everyone in the dressing room.
“I’m sorry for the fans who came. Always away from home we’ve worked far better than that, we’ve got a better result in most of the games- at even more difficult places than Inverness so I’m apologising to the 1200 supporters who came. And we’ve got to make it up to them. It wasn’t a three-nothing game I didn’t think but I am biased.
“I think that Jamie Langfield had one save and the other three attempts they had on goal they scored with. We had equally good chances. Johnny Hayes could have had a hat trick without being lucky today but unfortunately he just didn’t manage to get the ball in the net. He was in great position three times.
“So the credit undoubtedly goes to Inverness- we have to fault ourselves in the way we defended and fault ourselves in the way that we didn’t take the several chances we had.
“We should have scored the first goal of the game at the start of the second half and in fact Jonny should have scored in the first half as well and we should have gone in ahead. When we failed to score at the start of the second half and they got a goal the whole game changed- there was a transformation.
“And that’s what happens in these games but we are normally a very good fight back team- we tried to get back into it but that left gaps at the back. They had only another two chances and scored from both of them. I lost count of the number of chances we could have scored with. But the credit must go to Inverness who took their chances, capitalised on our defensive errors and made it a very pleasing result for them.
“Rob Milsom and Isaac Osbourne got game time and match practice which will be needed in the forthcoming weeks because we’ve got a heavy schedule coming up before the cup game. We have to do better than we did in terms of defending and in terms of finishing, and I’m sure we will, but it is a major disappointment for the fans who came from Aberdeen- I feel for them. It’s not happened too often this season, we’ve had a very good away record but to lose here was a major disappointment I can assure you.
The manager was also asked about any movement in the transfer market during the window.
“The most likely move -and I would have to discuss it with the player- is Peter Pawlett coming back and that will give us another dimension so hopefully we’ll get Peter back into the Aberdeen colours. I don’t want to say that without having spoken to Peter, his Dad, his agent and Steve Lomas – I’ll be doing that early next week.”
Terry Butcher was delighted with Inverness Caley Thistle’s second-half showing after they eventually overpowered Aberdeen 3-0.
Following a goalless and fairly even opening 45 minutes, Inverness ran away with it in the second half, Andrew Shinnie opening the scoring with a sublime effort, before Billy McKay struck twice to take his tally for the season to 20 goals.
The result moves Caley Thistle three points clear of third-placed Motherwell and naturally manager Butcher was full of praise for his side, who have now lost just one of their last 21 fixtures in all competitions.
He said: “We played well in the second half. When the game opened up we had players able to exploit the space.
“The front four worked well together, but up until we got the goals the game was pretty even.
“Aberdeen put us under pressure at times and you thought there was going to be goals for both sides.
“It took us 45 minutes to get going having just come back from the winter break, but once we did we came right back into it in the second half.”
“It took us 45 minutes to get going having just come back from the winter break, but once we did we came right back into it in the second half.”
“It took us 45 minutes to get going having just come back from the winter break, but once we did we came right back into it in the second half.”
