Inverness CT 2 - 1 St Mirren: Home comforts give Caley hope in their bid to climb the table

Saints who headed into this weekend looking to make it three SPL games in a row unbeaten, went in front against the run of play through a Marc McAusland header in the 22nd minute. However Caley Thistle equalised nine minutes later with Andrew Shinnie scoring his first goal for the club before Gregory Tade bundled home the winner 12 minutes from time.

Having gone into the match four points adrift of Aberdeen, Hibernian and Dunfermline, the importance of reducing that gap was not lost on Butcher.

Saturday’s win made it three SPL games unbeaten at home for Caley Thistle and, with two of their next three league fixtures at home, he is hopeful it can be a good October for his team.

He said: “We’re delighted to have taken the three points because a little bit of a gap had opened up between ourselves and the teams in front.

“Out of our last three SPL games before St Mirren, we had only taken one point from nine, although we did have two difficult away games at Tannadice and then Parkhead.

“It was good that we could bounce back against St Mirren and with another couple of home games in October it’s a month we’re looking forward to.”

Despite taking the lead and then having Paul McGowan’s stoppage-time goal ruled out, boss Danny Lennon accepted his side were second best and apologised to their supporters who had made the journey to Inverness.

He said: “Take nothing away from Inverness. They were quicker to every second ball and that surprised me because that’s something we practise in training.

“I felt more sorry for the supporters than anything else. They’ve travelled a long way and they deserved more.

“It certainly wasn’t Danny Lennon’s St Mirren team that played against Inverness, they looked like a completely different side from the one I started the season with.”