Billy Dodds didn’t care how Tom Walsh scored for Caley Thistle – but predicted he’d be the player to make something happen against Ayr at the weekend.
The winger, who rejoined the Inverness club in the summer after a season with the Honest Men, got the winner after a Sean McGinty clearance came off him and flew into the net.
It made it a hat-trick of 1-0 victories in the Championship this season for Inverness and lines everything up perfectly for Saturday’s trip to fellow table-toppers Kilmarnock, who beat Hamilton 2-0 to remain in front on goal difference.
Dodds felt Walsh might sink Ayr
ICT head coach Dodds smiled when asked about the manner of the goal and said: “I don’t care if he knew too much about it.
“I just fancied him to do something against his old team. I said to him he could make his mark against his old team and I think he did that.
“Tom works his socks off and gives us a shift, as Michael Gardyne did on the other side and Aaron Doran, who came on.
“Even the boys who didn’t get on, I want them to be desperate to get in the side. There are a few disappointed, but I felt the boys who came on put so much into it. I thought the subs played a big part in seeing out the game.”
All-round effort paying off for Dodds
Dodds reckons that a united willingness to work hard for one another is central to their early season success.
He added: “We showed a real togetherness and had a couple of chances to kill it off, which would have been nice.
“My players are giving me everything. They are a real unit, starting from the front to the midfielders and the back line and goalkeeper have been solid in the three games.
“I know we will create chances and score goals. I would like us to score a few more, but that’s asking for perfection.
“As a team on Saturday, we grew and you could see we were together. The boys are delighted with the start to their season.
“Togetherness is a must and, if you don’t have it, I don’t think we’d have seen out those three league games. You would lose a goal somewhere or someone would switch off, but the boys are desperate to keep a clean sheet, like I am, when we scored to see out the game.”
And three clean sheets on the spin after bowing out of the Premier Sports Cup in the group stages is another big plus for Dodds, who said: “After our League Cup exploits, we had to tighten up. We were losing goals. The boys have done that.”
