Butcher’s patience wearing thin
Time for EXCUSES IS LONG GONE, SAYS INVERNESS MANAGER AFTER SIDE SUFFERS FIRST-HALF COLLAPSE
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Terry Butcher vented anger on his Caley Thistle players after a first-half collapse against Partick Thistle and told them the time for excuses was long gone.
The Inverness manager ordered his flops back in for training yesterday morning after Saturday’s 3-2 home defeat, forcing several players to cancel flights home.
Caley Thistle, without a home victory in the league football since early April, buckled in the space of seven minutes before half-time with Partick Thistle’s Liam Buchanan netting twice and creating a third for Alan Archibald.
The Highlanders rallied with an Adam Rooney penalty and Richie Foran header but only after several fine saves from Ryan Esson had spared them potential deep embarrassment.
Butcher's players had been expecting two days' rest before this Sunday's Challenge Cup semi-final against Ross County but were hauled in for training yesterday.
Much has been made of the squad's period of transition since relegation from the SPL, with 16 players leaving the club and seven new faces recruited. But Butcher, seething after the lame display, was in no mood to entertain any plea in mitigation.
He said: “Talk of the team taking time to gel is an excuse that's long since worn thin. I'd never use that one now because they've had plenty of time.
“As far as I'm concerned, Eric Odhiambo and Dougie Imrie can't come back from injury soon enough.
“We've got to make sure they're right before they are brought back in but at least there's that silver lining on the cloud.
“The fact is, though, we can't wait for them. On Sunday, there's a lot at stake. Ross County have beaten us 3-1 here already and, if we play anything like the way we did against Partick, they'll beat us again.
“If it takes being in every single day to work with the players and getting them to understand and react, we will do that.
“If we have to work every hour between now and Sunday we will do that."
Butcher is baffled by the inconsistency of his players, who had performed well in Tuesday's narrow cup defeat at Motherwell.
He said: “I wouldn't even dare to use the excuse that most of them played two hours of football on Tuesday.
“The only place you’re tired is in your mind and they have had plenty of rest and recovery.
“I’m just so disappointed for our fans because they’ve turned out in numbers and bought more season tickets than last year, yet we’ve one point from nine at home.
“It’s nowhere near good enough. If the players are not aware of that now, after the roasting we gave them, they never will be.
“I cannot give them time off after that performance and I won't have time off.
“It was just unbelievable that some could play like that.
“I find it hard to take. Some of them have flights back down south but I couldn’t give a monkeys. If they give a performance like that, they’re in for training.”
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