Richie Foran 'drained' after Inverness snatch dramatic win

Published 28th Aug 2016

Richie Foran felt drained after his first league win as Inverness manager - but heaped all the credit on to his players.

Josh Meekings' stoppage-time winner earned a 2-1 win over St Johnstone and sparked jubilant celebrations at the Caledonian Stadium and Foran expressed relief at ending their barren start to the season.

The Caley Jags dominated large parts of the game and had more than enough chances to win, but a late Richard Foster strike looked to have snatched a draw for Tommy Wright's men.

However, with penalty-box pinball taking precedence in the final minutes, the ball broke to Meekings just yards from the goal-line and he stabbed the ball home.

A delighted Foran was effusive in his praise for his players, who kept going right until the final whistle.

''I'm drained!'' he said. ''We got our break, our ricochet. I can't remember a lot about the goal but we deserved it. It was pure team spirit that won that today. The supporters were great - they could have easily got a bit negative and there's been a bit of doom and gloom in the last few weeks, so we dedicate this to them. They're brave boys and always want the ball. It's all down to them. The whole 20 players, I'm delighted for them because we really needed those three points. It sets us up nicely for Aberdeen in two weeks' time. We were excellent from start to finish - we just couldn't score. We created that many chances and should have been two or three up by half-time. But we were excellent defensively too. They put a lot of balls in the box and we won all our headers. All over the park we were excellent.''

St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright conceded his side did not deserve to win the game, even if the eventual defeat was harsh on his side.

''It is a cruel ending but over the piece I'd say they probably deserved it,'' he said. ''But when you're away from home you expect the opposition to come at you. In the first half we didn't do enough for ourselves but in saying that, we had a couple of good opportunities and didn't put the ball in the box.''