Barry Wilson reckons the lack of killer touch opened the door for Dunfermline Athletic to strike back for a 2-1 victory at Caley Thistle today.
The Inverness CT first-team coach was reeling after seeing the players let a 1-0 half-time lead, earned by a Billy Mckay strike, slip to a first win of the season for the Championship’s rock-bottom Fifers.
Former Caley Jags manager John Hughes was appointed as the Pars new gaffer on Friday and he watched on as a side led by Greg Shields and Steven Whittaker earned a comeback win thanks to a Danny Devine own goal and a superb Dom Thomas clincher.
For a second week running, ICT failed to cash in on a one-goal interval lead. Last week, they were pegged back for a 2-2 draw at Ayr. This time, it was more costly.
Head coach Billy Dodds missed the game due to illness and the team was taken by assistant boss Scott Kellacher and Wilson.
Second goal was badly needed
Wilson said: “We said at half-time we needed a second goal to knock the stuffing out of them.
“We knew, with the new manager bounce, they would come at us. They would be giving that wee bit extra which players tend to do for a new manager.
“I felt we dictated most of the first half until the last five to 10 minutes of the first half when they had a couple of corners and one off the bar as well as another half chance.
“Overall, we controlled the first half without looking like we were going to create enough in the final third. From the back right up to the final third, I thought we were good.
“We lack the killer touch right now. We got the goal at a good time, but we sometimes look like ‘that will do us’ because we’ve been keeping so many clean sheets. You can’t do that.
“We didn’t start the second half the way we wanted to and were punished for it. We really felt as if we needed that second goal when it was 1-0.
“Their goal came from us being up the park, they then put a cross in, we didn’t deal with it properly and it’s unfortunate. Danny (Devine) has tried to defend the front post and deflected it in.
“We looked shell-shocked from that point and it took for us to go 2-1 down before we recovered in a way. We sat off Dom Thomas for the second goal, let him get inside the box and we can’t touch him. He produced a bit of magic.
“From our point of view, we need to be doing more in the final third to create chances. We had two or three decent balls across the face of goal but there were not enough bodies in the box to make those chances count.”
Dodds watched action from home
Wilson confirmed Dodds was ill this week and he was gutted the team failed to deliver the tonic of a victory.
He added: “Billy has been feeling under the weather that’s why Scott and I have been in charge this week. We were disappointed we didn’t get a result for him. He was sitting at home watching it.”
The defeat for Caley Thistle saw them nudged down to third place, replaced in second by Raith Rovers and they are four points now behind leaders Kilmarnock.