First-team coach Barry Wilson felt Caley Thistle were unlucky not to take a Championship point away from Ayr United on Saturday.
Inverness slid to their second successive defeat of the league campaign as they were beaten 1-0 by the Honest Men at Somerset Park.
An early strike from Francis Amartey made all the difference, with ICT controlling much of the rest of the contest. Nathan Shaw’s strike off the post was as close as they came, however.
Last week, ICT kicked off their Championship campaign with a lacklustre 2-1 home loss against Queen’s Park.
The Viaplay Cup second round takes centre stage next Saturday and, with ICT out of that competition, they will return to action on August 26 when they go to Airdrie.
Final balls not good enough – Wilson
Wilson admits overall it wasn’t the best spectacle, but believes ICT showed enough within the 90 minutes to merit a result.
He said: “It was a poor game of football. We didn’t start well and Ayr got on the front foot and we lost a slack goal.
“It took us a while to get going, but once we did get going, we got into good areas and began dominating territory rather than having real possession – there was a lot of back to front stuff. We had a couple of chances.
“The first 20 minutes, we were slightly better side, but not by any great stretch. We upped our work-rate and willingness to get up on the game.
“We were on the front foot, we were pushing with the high press.
“There was a lack of quality in the final third. When we got out into wide areas our final cross wasn’t great or our final pass.
“We had a great chance when Nathan Shaw, with the keeper to beat, hits the post.
“We had a couple of other chances, but not as many as we’d have liked. Maybe we just deserved to come away with something based on the balance of play.”
Injured players have time to recover
With no game for two weeks, Wilson hopes this will help some of Inverness’ injured players get back in the running.
He added: “You just want another game to come.
“Two weeks off is fine if you have had a good start and you have six points. We have no points, so I would rather have another game next week.
“Beggars can’t be choosers, but what it does is allow the injured lads more time. We are two games into the season and we have six players out already.
“It gives them two weeks to come in and bolster the squad for the Airdrie game. ”
Wilson said the two yellow cards which saw boss Billy Dodds sent to the stand were borne of frustration after an Ayr player went unpunished for a foul on Luis Longstaff, despite Longstaff himself being booked for a similar challenge earlier in the game.
Bullen looks for more – despite points
Ayr manager Lee Bullen, whose side lost to Morton last week, was delighted to win, but admits there is room for improvement in terms of his team’s performance.
He said: “This is a smile of relief. I thought we were great for the first half-hour, but after that it was a really poor game of football.
“Neither team showed the composure to move the ball properly, which we had been doing really well pre-season.
“Don’t get me wrong, the hardest points of the season are the first three so there was massive nervousness there and that played a part.
“But we need to be better and braver than that if we want to continue our good work from last season.
“I’m pleased, though, that we can grind out results like this. One of my coaches just said that we can’t be embarrassed about winning football matches and we would’ve lost this game last season.
“We played four or five times better against Inverness here last season and lost 1-0 so I’ll take a clean sheet and win against a good performance and losing all day long.
“It also gives us something to build on after taking a slap in the face last week. We bounced back and it was a brilliant result against a team we’ve struggled to get results against here.
“The overall display left a lot to be desired, but we still have Jamie Murphy and Andy Murdoch to come back from injury and Aiden McGeady will be a big player for us.”
