Caley Thistle defender Coll Donaldson says his side’s hectic preparations made the Highlanders all the more determined to salvage something from Saturday’s trip to Queen of the South.
Inverness drew 0-0 against the Doonhamers at Palmerston, however Caley Jags’ journey to Dumfries was thrown into chaos following an accident on the A9 near Killiecrankie, which halted the team bus for seven hours and meant the team did not arrive at their hotel until after 3am on the morning of the game.
Caley Jags requested a postponement of the fixture, however SPFL secretary Ian Blair declined.
Donaldson felt the situation helped to galvanise the squad ahead of the Championship fixture, and he said: “It was hectic but once we knew we had to play, after sitting there for that long and travelling down, the players wanted to play. It was a case of ‘we’re here now, let’s get it played’ but it was a tough day.
“It was always going to be a tough trip playing against Queens and with the artificial pitch which we’re not used to.
“The pre-match message to us was no excuses. It would have been easy to come and get turned over and then say we were sat on the bus, and it was an artificial pitch.
“We never wanted to use any of them. We wanted to pick up three points, but we got one and another clean sheet which for me as a centre half is a positive.
“In the end a draw was probably a fair result, there were not many clear cut chances and it can’t have been a great game to watch.”
The travel chaos was something 22-year-old Donaldson had never encountered before, with the former Dundee United defender adding: “Everything was shaped up professionally, we knew we were coming down to stay the night which we were all happy with.
“We left bang on time but what happened was out of our control.
“We were on the bus for 13 hours – we were all trying to work out where we could get to in that time, Thailand and the likes.
“We’re all mates so we were just chatting and on our phones but we were starving as we had eaten all the food we’d planned for later on.
“Anyone in the McDonald’s in Perth on Friday night must not have known what was going on, they must have thought our game was off as we filled our boots. We got to Perth and the only option was that or petrol station food.”
