Billy Dodds admitted his Caley Thistle side let their work levels drop too much and it proved costly with a shoot-out Premier Sports Cup defeat to Stirling Albion.
Goals from Dylan Mackin and Keiran Moore had the League Two side strolling after 20 minutes before goals from Roddy MacGregor and Shane Sutherland earned ICT a 2-2 draw.
The Binos kept their cool to win 3-2 on penalties and move into second spot, leaving Inverness two points behind leaders Hearts, who they meet on Sunday in their final game.
Victory is a must away to Cove Rangers
Before that, Caley Thistle will have to win at League One Cove Rangers on Tuesday to give themselves a chance of getting out of the group stages for the first time.
Head coach Dodds, whose side beat Peterhead in their opener, was less than impressed with the early graft in the tie, which led to them chasing the game.
He stressed: “We shouldn’t need a great fightback. Compliments to Stirling Albion. They were very much like Peterhead on Tuesday, playing 4-1-4-1 and solid and they put in a great performance.
“They got themselves 2-0 up by doing the right things, but I’ve got to look at my team and ask ‘did we do the right things?’ I don’t think so and I told the players that.
“I can’t be too harsh on them because since I have come to this club they have been brilliant. I always say they work hard, but I don’t think it was there against Stirling. Not compared to what I’ve seen from them previously.
“I don’t know if they thought it was just going to happen. I’m extremely disappointed. The only positives were that we showed a reaction and we scored two really good goals.
“We lost the bonus point, which would have been a big point.”
More required to earn victories
Dodds, in only his second competitive game in charge, insists his players cannot expect to be successful if they allow complacency to set in on any given day.
He stressed: “This was a warning for us. If we think we can just turn up and we’re going to beat teams, it ain’t going to happen.
“Listen, we still drew the game and showed a reaction, but we fell behind by being sloppy and not working hard enough.
“We had a great chance to win it and I’d have taken that and moved on, but for some reason we were not at it.
“They worked hard, but not as hard as we’ve seen. When you are 2-0 down, it’s hard to come back, but we did that and could have won it but we got ourselves into trouble. We didn’t do what we did so well against Peterhead.
“The dirty side of the game is so important at this level and Stirling Albion did that.”
ICT head coach targets six points this week
Dodds knows only by winning at Cove can they give themselves a chance of progressing as one of the best four runners-up.
He added: “We need to beat Cove and Hearts to ensure we go through. It’s as simple as that.
“Hearts might well have won the group by the time we play them. We might get away with a draw against Hearts if we then get a bonus point (by winning on penalties), but that still might not be enough. Two wins are what we need to take us to 10 points.”
