The championship team lost 3 – 1 to Celtic at Hampden Park
Inverness manager Billy Dodds says he’s proud of his players after their Scottish Cup Final performance against treble-winning Celtic at Hampden Park.
Championship side Caley Thistle restricted Celtic to few chances before Kyogo Furuhashi broke the deadlock after 38 minutes.
Half-time sub Liel Abada doubled Celtic’s lead but Inverness fought back through Dan MacKay before Jota sealed a 3-1 win in stoppage-time.
“Everything a losing manager feels, you are disappointed, but proud at the same time.
“There’ s a massive gulf between the teams but I thought we asked them questions at certain times, I really did.
“We lost goals at bad times, because i was trying to get to half-time, had a plan in my head, then we lost a goal when I was going to make an attacking substitution.
‘A hell of a performance’
“I love working with this group and after being idle for five weeks or so, I thought they put on a hell of a performance.
“I am absolutely thrilled by the way they dug in and what they gave me in terms of effort and determination.”
Dodds added: “Every manager talks about character and all that we have and we certainly did to come back into the game.
“Wallace Duffy whips in a great ball and it’s a brilliant finish from Dan MacKay.”
Proud dad watches on
Zak Delaney came on as a substitute for Danny Devine after 75 minutes.
His dad, Aidan, gave MFR News his reaction after the match: “The tactics were probably spot on.
“We kept Celtic to 1 – nil with not a lot of chances. We unleashed some pace in the second half and got a goal and we gave then a scare for maybe five minutes.”
“Zak got 20 minutes at the end. He came on at right side of centre-half, which is not really his position because he is left-footed, but he did a great job for the team.”
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