St Mirren 1 - 2 Inverness: Tokely winner characterises toughened up Caley Thistle

Published on Sunday 3 May 2009 22:51

ROSS Tokely has hailed manager Terry Butcher for making Inverness winners and helping them shed their image as the nice guys of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.

Butcher recently spoke of the Highlanders being too nice for their own good and was determined to stop them being pushovers – and some players have even revealed tales of falling out with each other at training this week.

The new, hungrier approach paid dividends when Caley Thistle claimed what could be a crucial win over St Mirren in their quest to remain in the SPL, the victory allowing Inverness to move ahead of both Saints and Kilmarnock.

Tokely – who netted a late winner in Paisley to secure all three points – said: "The gaffer has installed that sort of nastiness. He's a winner. There is good character in the team but we have maybe been a bit nice in certain goals and lost by the odd goal, so it was nice to win by the odd goal here."

A controversial opener from Grant Munro was allowed to stand before Saints hauled themselves back into the game through Jim Hamilton. But it was Tokely who had the final say with the winner seven minutes from time, which saw him engulfed by his delighted team-mates.

"I'm a bit claustrophobic so I felt a wee bit sick after the goal," he said. "But it was an important goal, especially with Falkirk winning. It keeps us four points ahead of them.

"We also moved up a couple of places as well, which is pleasing. I've been here for a while now so it means a lot to me. Everyone is delighted in the dressing room but we still have four games to go."

Butcher admitted his side enjoyed some luck surrounding the debated goal – and in the match in general. He said: "Perhaps we were fortunate at the end of the day but we scored two goals from set-pieces and we have worked on them this week.

"I can feel for Gus (MacPherson] because we had an offside goal at Falkirk allowed to stand in our 4-0 defeat.

Bottom side Falkirk suggested they could take the relegation issue to the wire with a win over Motherwell – the only bottom-six side not embroiled in the dogfight.

But Tokely said: "Falkirk are a good side so I'm not too surprised they won. They've also played well against us as well when we've played them."

Hamilton was withdrawn within seconds of his equaliser, but Saints manager Gus MacPherson never contemplated keeping him on the park after the big striker threw the home side a lifeline.

MacPherson said: "We had already made our decision and we felt we had to get in behind Inverness at that point.

"We got a lift from the goal and then it went flat again. We are at our best when we are dictating the tempo and we didn't do that. We just allowed the game to be played at a slower tempo and that suited Inverness."