Caley Thistle boss Duncan Ferguson was frustrated after being red-carded at the end of his side’s 2-0 Championship defeat at Airdrie.
Inverness slid to defeat at the Excelsior Stadium thanks to second half headed goals from their former forward, Nikolay Todorov, and defender Callum Fordyce.
ICT, who travel to Ayr United on Saturday, remain eighth in the table, and are only one point in front of Arbroath and four points in front of Queen’s Park – and they’ve played one more fixture than both.
‘One-sided’ decisions annoyed boss
Ferguson, who lost only one of his opening nine games in charge after replacing Billy Dodds in late September, was gutted to have seen red, which means a second ban of the season after being sent to the stand in the 4-1 win at Queen’s Park last month.
He said: “I said (to the referee) all the decisions were going against us. It was never a free-kick (which led to Airdrie’s winner). The linesman gave it, to be fair, not the referee.
“It was very one-sided and we never got a lot of decisions and that’s all I said to him.
“A straight red was harsh. A yellow card would have been enough, but those are the rules towards the referee. He was obliged to give the red.
“I wasn’t here at the start of the season, so never read the script. I won’t be appealing it.”
Although the free-kick which led to the second was hotly disputed, leaking two similar goals irked Ferguson, who pointed to the absence of two key men through injury.
He said: “In the first half, we were poor. Airdrie dominated the ball without creating too many chances.
“We struggled with the fast pitch here and we struggled to get our passing game going.
“We had David Wotherspoon and Danny Devine out – two of our most technical players.
“Until we went 1-0 down, we never turned up. We pushed up the pitch a bit more and pressed a bit harder.
“If you’re not playing well, try not to lose it but Airdrie never peppered our box until the set-plays. We conceded from two set-plays.
“What can you do when your centre backs don’t head the ball? Two crosses into our box and it was free headers.”
Ferguson on hunt for new signings
And the former Everton caretaker coach is confident he can add to his player pool now the transfer window has opened.
He added: “There are prospects of bringing players in – we have got to strengthen.
“Like all clubs, we are trying to strengthen our squad.
“I have got a good group of players, who have done really well for me, bit today we were weak in the aerial duels in the middle of our box.”
