Source: FOOTYMAD
Honours Even At St Mirren Park
Six goals shared which both managers accepted as a fair result. A six-goal thriller at St Mirren Park saw Inverness travel home home with just a point for their endeavours. Manager Terry Butcher was full of praise for his injury-ravaged team's spirit following their thrilling 3-3 draw with St Mirren. The away bench was light by two as Butcher could only name five substitutes, including teenager Liam Polwarth and goalkeeper Jonny Tuffey, after Graeme Shinnie joined his ranks of unavailable players thanks to illness. With Grant Munro and Ross Tokely suspended, Butcher had to name Stuart Duff and David Proctor at full-back with the latter making his first start since suffering a hamstring injury at the same ground in September. Butcher said: "We could have won it and could have lost it, so a draw was probably the fair result, although Ryan has had to make a fantastic save towards the end and we scored against the run of play in the second half. I thought we were going to hold on and it was a case of holding on because they were putting balls in the box and buzzing around. To come away with a point with the resources we had is highly creditable to the players. We had a freak injury to Dani Sanchex with his arm, he might be out for the rest of the season. Graeme Shinnie had a stomach upset so he had to pull out. We have horrendous injuries. I looked round at the bench, I had put one striker on, I had two more strikers, Jonny Tuffey and a 16-year-old kid. So I was thinking 'come on lads, keep going'. The message was 'if you come off this pitch you'll get battered by me and Maurice (Malpas)', so they had to stay on." Danny Lennon was disappointed with his side's slack start - Inverness had two good chances before Rooney's sixth-minute opener - and with the way centre-backs McGregor and John Potter dealt with Rooney and Richie Foran. However, he was delighted with his team's attacking display as they stretched their lead over bottom club Hamilton to five points. Lennon said: "It's disappointing to score three good goals and not win, we started the game badly. I felt from five minutes before we went 2-1 ahead that we got into it and started controlling the game. The disappointing thing is the manner we lost the goals, it was just the presence of Rooney and Foran that gave us problems. Potter and McGregor have handled those situations well all season, that was why we changed to a back four, to try to get more creativity going forward. We made that tactical change to go to three at the back at half-time and I thought the character that we showed offensively was absolutely terrific. I felt that was the best we have played in an offensive manner for a long, long time." Editor Ger Harley (ger@scottishfitba net)Admin Team (admin@scottishfitba net)This is ScottishFitba Net
