Terry Butcher not ready to dream of glory just yet

Inverness Caledonian Thistle manager Terry Butcher insists his players will keep their feet firmly on the ground in the wake of their impressive start to the new Scottish Premiership campaign.
Terry Butcher celebrates with Nick Ross at full time. Picture: GettyTerry Butcher celebrates with Nick Ross at full time. Picture: Getty
Terry Butcher celebrates with Nick Ross at full time. Picture: Getty

Dundee United 0-1 Inverness CT

Scorer: Inverness CT - McKay 20

The Highlanders have started the ­season in fine fashion, with Saturday’s well-deserved win away to Dundee United coming hard on the heels of their 3-0 victory over St Mirren.

Caley Thistle recorded their highest-ever finish in the top flight last season by claiming fourth and have wasted no time in sending out a warning to rivals with these back-to-back wins.

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But Butcher maintains they will not be even contemplating the prospect of getting ahead of themselves.

He said: “It’s only two games, although both have brought us good results. It’s always nice to start the new season on a positive note and the lads are all in good spirits because of that.

“We’re very happy to win at a tough place like Tannadice and it will hopefully give us momentum which we can take into the weeks ahead.

“But we won’t be thinking too far ahead. That’s never a good thing and it’s not our style. We’re just happy to have six points on the board, but we’ll ­continue to take one game at a time and see where it takes us.”

Butcher felt his side were worth more than just Billy McKay’s first-half winner, which saw the striker carry on from where he left off last season in claiming 27 goals. Prior to his strike, James Vincent’s left-foot drive and Graeme Shinnie’s angled strike had made the visitors look far likelier to open the scoring. The winner came after Foran had ­rifled the ball into United’s penalty box before it bounced up in the air, after which McKay was too clever for Sean Dillon and used his toe to lift the ball over the stranded Cierzniak.

Foran had been positive for Caley Thistle’s goal, but his next major ­contribution almost ended his paticipation in the game when he took out Gary Mackay-Steven with a knee-high ­challenge, for which he was awarded a yellow card by referee Steven McLean.

Defender Graeme Shinnie missed a golden opportunity to increase their lead with minutes remaining but ­Butcher could not fault his side.

He said: “Graeme should have scored but that’s football for you. All over the pitch, we were solid, organised and disciplined. It was good to see and when we play like that we are hard to beat.

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“Billy is in a rich vein of form just now and hopefully, for our sake, he can continue that because he’s a real threat in the opposition penalty area.’’

United manager Jackie McNamara knows his side must sharpen up, especially at home where they enjoyed so few wins last season. He said: “It was a frustrating afternoon. A lot of it was down to our own sloppiness which was disappointing. Some of the the ­players went into a shell but they need to be braver on the ball. We can do ­better than that and it’s up to us to go out there and show that.”