St Mirren 0-1 Inverness CT: Foran happy to put smile on Butcher’s face

Inverness Caledonian Thistle captain Richie Foran netted the only goal of the game against St Mirren and then dedicated it to manager Terry Butcher.

Foran rose to head home Greg Tansey’s free-kick to ensure the visitors left Paisley with all three points.

Chances were limited throughout the match but Saints had gone closest during the first half – Ryan Esson producing wonderful stops from Jeroen Tesselaar and Steven Thompson.

Victory over Saints was Inverness’s first win in their last eight Clydesdale Bank Premier League encounters.

“The boss has had it hard this season and he takes football so personally,” said Foran. “I have seen him been too upset all season and our aim was to put a smile back on his face.

“He treats everyone so well and has everybody’s back here – it’s really nice to have made him happy.”

Foran is now looking to end the season with back-to-back victories to help the Highland side begin the new campaign in a positive mood.

Inverness host Hibernian on the final day of the season, a side that they have already lost to twice at home this season. “We have worked hard on the mental side of our game. It’s been a difficult season and winning against St Mirren is a huge boost,” said Foran. “Our aim is to end the season on a high. It would be nice to go away on our summer break and people mention that we had a strong end to the season rather than talking about the difficulties we had before that.”

Butcher himself was delighted with the three points. “We have huffed and puffed and finally got the win,” he said. “We told the guys to go make a name for themselves.

“We have been so inconsistent and up and down this year and we had to make changes again to the back four.

“I told the guys to go out and play with a bit of freedom and I think they did that to a degree.”

St Mirren manager Danny Lennon was disappointed at an under-par showing by his side. Lennon insists his side have been treating their final five fixtures with great importance, but confessed that the performance against Inverness was one to forget.

“When you go into the bottom six fixtures, a lot of people believe you are playing in five meaningless games,” said Lennon.

“We certainly have a different outlook than that, given the bonus money up for grabs and improving our final league position.

“In saying that, the way we played against Inverness you would have thought it was a meaningless game.

“It was a disappointing performance and the way in which we lost the goal was disappointing too.

“I can’t take too much away from the players, though. They have given so much over the course of the season and have played three games in six days.”