Inverness CT 1-1 Kilmarnock: Shiels urges slack players to get act together for final

Kilmarnock manager Kenny Shiels knows his side will need to raise their game significantly if they are to have any chance of overcoming Celtic in Sunday’s Scottish Communities League Cup final.

The Rugby Park side, who have been struggling for form since beating Rangers at Ibrox last month, had to settle for a point in the Highland capital as Roman Golobart’s close-range effort seven minutes from time cancelled out his spectacular own goal in the first half.

It was a match where, for long spells, Inverness had Kilmarnock on the back foot and Shiels agreed that his team will have to improve to have a chance of causing an upset against rampant Celtic at Hampden. “Of course we’ll need to be better,” he said. “We’re playing the top team in the country and we’ll have to improve on what we showed against Inverness. We are going to have to show more composure and keep the ball better because at times it was like a hot potato for us on Saturday, although that was probably indicative of the way the game went for us overall.

“We certainly got a lot of practice in when it came to defending a lead against a Caley Thistle side that was throwing everything at us.”

For Inverness manager Terry Butcher, it was very much a case of fortune once again going against his side. The hosts, themselves struggling for form of late, created countless chances and but for a combination of poor finishing and Kilmarnock goalkeeper Cammy Bell, they would have recorded their first victory in seven games. Butcher said: “Our luck this season has been absolutely atrocious. I don’t know why it keeps happening, but it just seems that nothing is going for us. I always felt a goal would come because we were creating plenty of chances, but we only came out of the match with one goal and a point to show for our efforts.

“We’re toothless, not ruthless. I should just make up a DVD or CD of myself saying the same old things like we should have won the game, we had a lot of chances, but we got nothing out of the game, and then just play that because it feels like groundhog day all over again. Apart from a five minute spell at the end of the second half, we could have got a deckchair out for our goalkeeper Ryan Esson as he did not have much to do at all. I just cannot believe how we have not managed to win the game.”