Skipper Sean Welsh is warning Caley Thistle to stop gifting goals to Championship rivals to keep their title hopes on track.
The midfielder set up Billy Mckay for a cracking opener away to Queen’s Park on Saturday, but second-half replies from Charlie Fox with a header and Simon Murray with a close-in shot led to a 2-1 defeat.
It means injury-hit Inverness, with eight men out, are now sixth in the table and six points away from leaders Ayr United, who visit the Caledonian Stadium on Saturday.
Cheap goals cost Inverness in the recent 4-0 loss at Morton and the 1-1 draw against Arbroath and they are now five matches without a win.
Losing soft goals ‘frustrating’ – Welsh
Welsh was bitterly disappointed that, following Mckay’s searing early strike, they allowed now fourth-placed Queen’s to turn the game around.
He said: “We’ve gone in 1-0 up at half-time and done well to get ourselves into that position.
“It was frustrating to come out in the second half and lose two goals, which was probably down to our own sloppiness.
“We made poor judgements and gifted them the ball for their goals. That was very disappointing. We have to do better.
“In the last couple of weeks, I think we’ve actually played well and not got the results we’ve deserved from the games.
“But, at the end of the day, when you gift goals every week, you will be up against it. You’re fighting a losing battle.
“It was our own sloppiness for their goals, but I don’t know if we deserved anything from the game, given how we played in the second half.”
‘We can beat anyone on our day’
The 32-year-old play-maker, who has only played four games this season since returning from knee surgery, reckons there’s no reason why Inverness cannot rise to the challenge of beating Ayr this weekend, as they did 1-0 at Somerset Park on October 1.
He said: “We’ve got to regroup quickly now, with Ayr coming up on Saturday. They’re in a good position in the league and in good form. We need to regroup and really get going because we don’t want to fall too far behind.
“We know, on our day, we can beat anyone in this league.
“It is up to us to put a performance in that merits a victory.
“In this league, everyone is beating everyone. We’re as good as anyone in the Championship.
“Right now though, we’re gifting goals and when you do that, you’re up against it.”
Injuries are testing squad to limit
Welsh admits it’s challenging for the same small squad of players to try and dig out results, while team-mates battle back from injury like he did.
He added: “It’s very difficult, because we’ve then only got 10-12 players.
“I’ve been first back, probably ahead of schedule, just because we are so short in numbers.
“We’re doing all we can, but we’ve got to do better, in terms of decision-making from everyone.
“We’ve still got a good team on the pitch, but when you don’t have reinforcements every week and it’s the same faces every week having to go and give everything it’s tough, but it is what it is and we have to get on with it.”
Quality opener counted for nothing
Welsh praised Mckay for netting his sixth goal of the campaign from his killer pass against Queen’s Park, but admits the defeat takes away much of the pleasure from a quality goal.
He said: “You always know if you give Billy chances, he’ll score goals – that’s what he’s good at.
“He was frustrated after missing chances against Arbroath, so he will be delighted to have scored that one. He took it well.
“It was nice for me to get an assist, but it didn’t matter when we left without the points.”
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