Manager on Monday

29/10/18: Allan Johnston discusses form ahead of trip to play Inverness Caledonian Thistle

“We have a really poor home record, it needs to be better. It was a tough game at the weekend and there weren’t really many chances for both teams.

“We are shooting ourselves in the foot with some of the goals we are losing, we need to get back to clean sheets and start giving ourselves a chance by scoring some goals again.”

The manager said that he expects Inverness to be tough opponents and was mindful of their impressive 21 league match unbeaten run.

“It is incredible to go that many unbeaten but it has to end some time so hopefully tomorrow night is the night. We have been saying to the players when you get beat there has to be a reaction. You have got to show that bit of fight and that bit of character. We will need that tomorrow because it is a hard place to go.

“It is not good enough, we are well aware of that. At the end of the day it comes down to my responsibility because I am the guy that signs the players. You have to make sure that your recruitment is right but I still think that we have good players. You cannot keep on saying that it is bad luck. It has to be better, we have got to do more collectively.”

What can be done to make it right?

“Everybody has to add ten per cent to their game, that is all it is. Obviously as staff we must make sure that we select the right players to start games and maybe the right system to try and get us goals.

“Once the players are on the park they must give a bit more, show a bit of character - especially at home. Away from home they have shown that, shown that they can go places, get results and score goals but at home they need to stand up and be counted.

You create your own pressure with not taking your chances. The longer it goes without scoring goals and winning games you are putting the defence under pressure so you have to take your chances because if you don’t score goals obviously the defence is going to be continually under pressure.

“We need to address that, we need to start scoring goals again and we are just looking for a reaction tomorrow. There has got to be a really positive performance and go and try and get the three points.”

The manager is confident that the home form can improve and acknowledged that it can’t really get any worse.

“The form is terrible at home, we are miles better than that and to be fair the majority of the performances at home have been alright but we have not taken our chances. We need to be clinical and this should be a hard place for teams to come. There is no reason why we should not be winning games that we have not picked up points in.

“If I wasn’t confident then I would not be in this game in the first place. I am confident and you are used to pressure like that when you are a manager. You are used to dealing with pressure when situations are not always rosie.

“Hopefully that transmits to the players and we can get the results to kick start our season again because, believe it or not we are still in contention. It is unbelievable the amount of draws in this league. If we can manage to put a couple of results together then you can quite quickly work your way up the table.

“It is difficult and never good when you don’t get the results you want. Obviously results like Queen of the South don’t help when you dominate games, create loads of chances, don’t take them and they go up the park and score that adds to the frustration.

Dundee United was always going to be a hard game but there was nothing in it again, Robbo never had a save yet we lost 2-0. It could have been worse if they had scored from the penalty that we gave away.

“We have to stop shooting ourselves in the foot and we need to make sure we show that bit of character to grind out a result to get back on track.

The frustrations shown by fans is totally understandable Allan felt as he commented:-

“I think the crowd were good again. They stayed with the team for the majority of the game. When we lost that second goal there was a bit of frustration but they hung in with the players and that is all that you can ask. They try and give them the support that we need to help us get the win.”

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