Managers Post Inverness

22/10/11: JM - "They deserved their point today but in my mind they deserved more."

MATCH PICTURES
Jim McIntyre was disappointed to take just one point from a match in which his team dominated for long spells and certainly created the better chances:-

"I think we deserved the three points on the balance of goal scoring opportunities but we never took them and found ourselves going in at the break a goal down. That was extremely disappointing but the character that the players showed was immense because when you have been on a run of results like we have it would be so easy just to get the heads down and feel sorry for yourselves.

"We have a really honest bunch of players here who grafted for everything, they deserved their point today but in my mind they deserved more."

After watching great first half chances - a John Potter header, a Paul Burns shot that hit the upright and ran along the line and a good opportunity sent wide by Andy Kirk - Dunfermline picked themselves up after the break but were running out of time when they eventually found the net from a 86th minute Liam Buchanan penalty. Jim McIntyre acknowledged that the point that stopped Caley Thistle leapfrogging the Pars was extremely significant.

"No team wants to wake up in the morning to see yourselves at the bottom of the table in the newspapers. It was just important to get a result. There's a long, long way to go so we will not read too much into the result here today. We are only a quarter of the way into the campaign but it was more important from our point of view to stem our recent bad results.

"I am really pleased for the players because the work that they put in was superb."

The battling spirit that saw Dunfermline win games in the final ten minutes last season returned at Inverness but the Manager said that he sees that every day from them in training:-

"We have had two performances this season that I have already pointed out that were unacceptable - we weren't at the races at all. In all the other games they have given everything that they have got. That's all we can ask as a management team. Yes, we want better quality at times, want better decision making at times.

"The back three defended far better albeit the goal was disappointing but in general terms they have been doing far better."

Macca's three second half substitutes all contributed well to the cause:

"Ryan Thomson did well when he came on and Liam Buchanan obviously did very well, Steven McDougall came on and started to get into space The game was quite stretched with both teams going for the winner but unfortunately we couldn't get it."

Caley Thistle Manager Terry Butcher was angry that his side conceded a late penalty and lost the opportunity to win the game:-.

"I've got to question my players temperament and ask do they want to be off the bottom of the league?  How much do they want to win a game? How much do they want to keep a clean sheet?  Today. Not enough. We did 75% of the work to try and get a win but the other 25% we didn't put in.

"We just didn't get going for some reason,  We had control of the game when we scored and at the beginning of the second half I thought lets go on and get the second goal.  But the more the game went on the more Dunfermline grew in belief. I think a neutral would say a draw was the fair result but when you go 1-0 up and you concede in the manner that we did it's extremely disappointing."

Terry Butcher agreed that the penalty decision had been inevitable:-

"It was a bad challenge," he admitted. "David Proctor has put his hand up straight away and apologised.

"It gives me an option now because I played the same team three times now and I've got the good, the bad and the ugly. We're conceding almost two goals a game and that's not good enough."

MATCH PICTURES