Inverness manager Terry Butcher believes his side have paid the price for an "average" second half to the Clydesdale Bank Premier League season.
Saturday's 1-1 draw at Kilmarnock meant Butcher's men can no longer secure a top-six place when the league splits, leaving a bitter aftertaste to the Englishman's 100th game at the helm. Butcher instead saw former club Motherwell deny the Highlanders a place in the upper half of the table in their first season back in the top flight.
"We probably should have been there already considering we've only picked up 10 points since December when we had a magnificent 27 before that," he said. "As much as we were tremendous in the first part of the season, we've been pretty average in the next, but I'm probably being very hard on my players as they've been terrific."
Butcher added: "We wanted to make an impact this season, and we've thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Congratulations to Motherwell - they've had a fantastic run and have a semi-final to look forward to, so if any team's going to pip us, I'm glad it's them.
"We have seven matches left but I can sit here and say we have 37 points, which is what we went down on, so the progress we've made in two years is quite remarkable.
"I'm in the best position I've been in at the club, where we can start to make plans earlier - we deliberately put out a very young team as we wanted to look at young players under pressure; the foundations are there and the future's good for the club."
Jonny Hayes' opener for Inverness was cancelled out by Liam Kelly within three first-half minutes, but despite that open start to the game, neither side could find a winner.
Kilmarnock interim manager Kenny Shiels, taking charge of his second game in charge following Mixu Paatelainen's departure, admitted that his side had opportunities to claim full points as they pursue a fourth-placed finish.
He said: "I thought it was a good performance but we didn't get the result, and it's two points dropped at home in a part of the season when we're going for fourth position. That was borne out in the evidence in our performance, as we attacked and it was an open game.
"We missed a few chances and were a bit blunt up front - we haven't really replaced Conor Sammon if we're honest about it. However, the boys worked hard and we couldn't get much more out of the players than we got ."
Source: PA
