Inverness boss Richie Foran laments ‘woeful’ defending after derby defeat

Inverness manager Richie Foran criticised his side's "woeful'' defending as they were sunk by a Liam Boyce hat-trick in the Highland derby.

All three of Boyce's goals in the visitors' 3-2 win came from crosses into the box, and Foran felt his defence was bullied by Boyce and Craig Curran.

Scott Boden and Ross Draper scored for Caley Thistle, but even a late aerial bombardment was not enough to get the hosts back on level terms.

It left Foran a disappointed man following his first derby as Inverness boss and, while accepting some of the blame, he apportioned some of it to the way his side defended.

"It was a really poor first-half performance,'' he said.

"We were woeful at defending crosses - give a player the calibre of Liam Boyce space like we did today and he'll score.

"If you want something more in life, you'll get it. They wanted it more than us in the first half, which is disappointing. But I've got the characters in there to put things right.

"I'll take some of the blame - I picked the team and organised them, I gave them team shape during the week. But we can't stand off players like that.''

The result leaves Inverness bottom of the Premiership table, and the only team without a point so far.

County, however, claimed their first league win of the season at their rivals' expense and, understandably, manager Jim McIntyre was pleased.

It has not been the ideal start to the campaign, with their defence of the League Cup lasting just four months, but they played like a side with a point to prove at the Caledonian Stadium.

"It was a strong performance and a great response to last week,'' McIntyre said.

"We put the chances away and we looked really threatening from the off.

"A lot of individual battles were won and we knew that would have to be the case. We had to defend a lot of high balls late on but handled it well.

"Liam's quality is never in doubt. The second goal is good enough to grace any league in the world."