Source: FOOTYMAD
Miles Better
Inverness make the most of their travel time to build team spirit. Terry Butcher reckons Inverness players have bonded on their travels after his decision to give every long away trip the feel of a family outing. Heading down from the Highlands, Inverness put in more miles than any of their Premier League rivals, but, outside of the Old Firm, they have the best away record this term by a some way. Kilmarnock were the latest victims at Rugby Park as a disputed penalty by Adam Rooney and a clinching second goal from Jonny Hayes meant Rui Miguel's late header counted for nothing. The 2-1 victory means Inverness now have 10 points from their four away fixtures with Butcher pointing to fish suppers on the way home as the recipe for that success. Next up for Inverness is a potentially daunting visit to Ibrox to face Rangers, but Butcher will put in place the same routine before and after the game to relax his players. Butcher said: "We go to Rangers next Saturday and look forward to that. Our last visit there we won. We've got a proud away record now, so who knows. We said to the boys before the game, think of all the fish and chips you've had at Auchterarder on the way back from matches, don't just throw the hard work of the journey away by a poor performance. We don't want to do that next week either. We'll certainly enjoy it at Ibrox. The long trips do bring everyone together, I think. Maurice Malpas, my assistant, also does a quiz on Friday nights, 50 questions, and the winners are exempted contributing to the following week's biscuit run. You'd think they'd won the World Cup the way they react some weeks to winning, but the 20 quid or so it means to them is a lot for Inverness players, believe me. The lads think up names for the quiz teams and it's really good, it does bring us together, there's a real camaraderie there with young and old and everyone is inspiring each other to perform." Kilmarnock were angry at the penalty award for Momo Sissoko's challenge on Russell Duncan and felt they should have had one of their own for a Graeme Shinnie handball. Butcher went on: "I thought it was a penalty for us. Russell went to lay it back for a shot and I thought there was definite contact. I couldn't see their penalty appeal. I'm not doing an Arsene Wenger here, Maurice Malpas, my assistant, was right in my line of vision. Genuinely, he was in my way. I felt we were under the cosh in the second-half when Kilmarnock had some really good chances, but that just inspired us to be resolute." Kilmarnock have now lost three games in a row and each of them by the same 2-1 scoreline, but midfielder Manuel Pascali is refusing to panic at their lowly league position. The Ayrshire side also face Rangers next, hosting them in the Co-operative Insurance Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday with Pascali still positive despite Saturday's negative outcome. He said: "It's the third defeat in a row and really frustrating that we conceded silly goals. The second goal destroyed us really. We should have won this match with the chances we had, but we weren't the best team in the world when we did well in our first few games and we're not the worst team in the world now we're losing a few. We'll try to keep working hard, even harder if we can, we know we're creating chances, it would be more of a problem if we weren't creating anything, we maybe need to be more aggressive in defence, as well. If we solve these problems we can have positive results. We're playing good football, but that's not enough. Maybe we need to play badly and win. I'm not worried about the league position. It's still only nine games gone, we're still in the Cup and we have a chance in the League Cup on Wednesday to redeem ourselves. It will be a hard game against Rangers, but we need to be more alert in defence and try to take our chances. It's not time to worry, just be more careful and we'll be fine." Editor Ger Harley (ger@scottishfitba net)Admin Team (admin@scottishfitba net)This is Scottish-Fitba.Net
