Lee Clark laments costly conrad balatoni error for Kilmarnock
Kilmarnock manager Lee Clark criticised defender Conrad Balatoni after his error led to Killie's 3-1 defeat to Inverness.
Balatoni underhit a pass back to Killie goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald, who brought down Ross Draper in his bid to get to the ball first and was sent off.
Greg Tansey scored from the spot and further goals from Draper and Danny Williams secured the points for Caley Thistle, cancelling out Kallum Higginbotham's opener.
The defeat leaves Killie facing an uphill battle to get out of the relegation play-off spot.
Clark said: 'We got ourselves into a great position and threw it away.'
Asked if Balatoni had said anything after the match, Clark replied: 'There's nothing he can say because it's something that's been talked about before. Hopefully he learns but if you keep making the same errors then you have to change the personnel. We talked about it at half-time, it was unnecessary to pass the ball back to the 'keeper because of where he was on the pitch. It wasn't as if he was facing the 'keeper, he should have clipped it up to the striker and turned the Inverness back four. It has a knock-on effect as well, Jamie has been the best goalkeeper in the league this season so it's a double blow that he'll be banned now. The red card and the penalty changed the game because there was nothing between the teams.'
The win for Inverness virtually ends their worries of being dragged into the relegation mix, putting 11 points between them and Killie. Dundee's win over Partick Thistle on Saturday means there is a battle on for seventh spot, which is a stated aim for the Caley Jags now their hopes of being a top-six side have been extinguished.
Manager John Hughes described the game a six-pointer and said it keeps them on track to finish the season on a high.
'This result takes us clear but we want to finish the season well and win all our remaining games,' he said.
'It wasn't a great game and there wasn't much between the teams in the first half. We looked strong at set-pieces and were threatening, so to go a goal down was really disappointing although it was a great finish. We said to the players at half-time to get the ball down and execute what we have been doing on the training pitch and if we did that we would get back into the game.'