Striker Billy Mckay believes Caley Thistle proved on Friday they can be brilliant or poor – and they’re determined to ensure their Firhill defeat was simply an off-night.
Slack play in a below-par performance was seized upon by slick Partick Thistle in a 4-1 defeat for the Highlanders as they blew the chance to top the table going into the weekend.
Mistakes led to ex-Ross County forward Brian Graham, and former Staggies team-mate of Mckay, netting two first half goals for the hosts.
Graham also won a penalty in the second half, which Kevin Holt slammed home, before Anton Dowds headed home a fourth.
In the final moments of a bitterly disappointing night for ICT, substitute George Oakley at least put the visitors on the scoresheet with a stoppage-time header.
Caley Thistle lacked composure
Mckay, who captained the side in the absence of Sean Welsh, admits the display was miles away from their brilliant 4-1 victory over Cove Rangers the previous week.
He said: “It wasn’t good enough. It was night and day from last week against Cove when we showed when we do things right, we can be a good team.
“We showed on Friday, when we don’t do the right things and work hard enough or show enough composure on the ball, we’re a poor team.
“It’s a big lesson and we need to learn from it. We will turn it into things we can work on during the week and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“It just shows you how tough this league is.
“It’s weird, because any team can beat any other if you’re not on it on any given day.
“That showed on Friday. Partick will be a team we’d expect to be up there with and we didn’t match them.”
Paid the price for mistakes
It was only the second game since head coach Billy Dodds took over in the summer of 2021 that ICT had lost by more than a single goal – and that was against St Johnstone in the Premiership play-off final in May.
Mckay, who has two goals so far this term, pointed to errors that more than gave Thistle help along the way.
He said: “It was disappointing – the first three goals came from our mistakes.
“We know we made individual mistakes, but overall, our all-round play on Friday wasn’t good enough.
“We didn’t create enough chances, show enough composure or pass the ball well enough or tackle enough.
“Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong.”
Young lads will learn from defeat
And former Northern Ireland international Mckay reckons the younger lads will learn from what was a tough night in Glasgow as they seek to swiftly recover.
He added: “It is 100 per cent about the reaction. There is nothing we can do about Friday now.
“We must make sure that doesn’t happen again and we go again next week and make sure we pick up three points.
“This is quite a young team, so this will be quite a big lesson for some of the lads, who have never experienced a result like that.
“There is a lot to learn and we can turn it into a positive, although it didn’t feel like that straight after the game.”
Getting set for home Morton match
Former Caley Jags midfielder Dougie Imrie brings Morton north on Saturday and Mckay knows ICT must replicate their performance from the Cove clash in order to have a chance.
He said: “Since Dougie has taken over at Morton, they’ve had a really good reaction.
“We know we cannot let our standards slip, like we did against Partick Thistle. We will make sure we’re at it like we showed against Cove Rangers, to get the win.”
Conversation