You would have thought heading off for Northern Ireland duty would have helped Alan Mannus to get over St Johnstone’s last-gasp defeat in the Highlands quicker than the rest of the Perth team.
But the keeper, who will join up with Michael O’Neill’s squad for a World Cup qualifier against the Czech Republic, doesn’t think it will be any easier.
“I’m sure my mind will be on it as well,” Mannus said.
“People will be asking how things went at the weekend no doubt, and bringing it back up.”
Had Ross Draper’s 59th minute headed goal settled the match the pain probably wouldn’t have been as acute.
But Saints looked to have salvaged a point with a stunning shot from the corner of the box by new boy Richard Foster, only to be rocked in stoppage time by a scruffy Josh Meekings finish at the end of a goalmouth scramble.
The late, late goals always hurt the most.
“It’s frustrating and disappointing,” Mannus said. “But over the course of the game we probably weren’t good enough.
“When you don’t play that well you hope to try and dig out a result and we thought we’d done that getting the goal back.
“We’ve done it plenty of times over the years. Those sort of results are good to get.
“But we should have done better over the course of the game and that’s what it comes down to.”
The defeat was rough justice on Mannus, who had produced three top class saves in the first half to keep Caley Thistle at bay.
There appeared little he could do to prevent the winner, though.
“I don’t know what happened at that goal,” he admitted. “I only saw the ball at one point when it was pin-balling around the six yard box.
“I was on the ground looking for it.
“On another day it might have ricocheted the other way.
“Any type of goal you lose in injury time is hard to take – even if it had been a 20-yarder into the top corner.
“They probably shouldn’t have got the corner in the first place. Their player came through on us one-on-one.
“Our goal was a good one and when you do that you hope it counts for more than just a good strike.”
Roy Carroll retired from international football after Euro 2016, so Mannus will probably be the main challenger to Michael McGovern for a starting place in Northern Ireland’s World Cup campaign.
“I’m happy with my own form,” he said.
“I’m obviously disappointed with this game and not getting anything from it but personally, I feel good.
“I feel good physically and mentally.
“I didn’t get any game time in France so I don’t know if you can say I’m a better player for the experience. But the training was good.
“I plan to keep the pressure on Michael. Roy’s dropped out and Trevor Corsan’s in. But I’m not expecting anything.
“I’ll try and train well and see how it goes.”
The goalkeeping situation at McDiarmid Park is a healthy one, with Mannus and Zander Clark fighting for the gloves and youngster Mark Hurst getting selected for Scotland’s under-21s last week.
“There’s real competition for places,” Mannus said.
“It was great for Mark to get recognised. He’s been progressing really well in the last few years and has just been loaned out to East Fife. He’ll go on to show that he can play at this level like Zander – the Premier league and maybe even beyond.”
Caley Thistle’s winner came at a time when Saints had appeared to have done enough to secure a satisfactory point but there was no getting away from the fact that they were well below their best.
Manager Tommy Wright reflected: “It is a cruel ending but over the piece I’d say they probably deserved it.
“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.
“We did ever so well to get back into the game and were then in the ascendancy, but somehow we managed to give it back to Inverness through giving away stupid free-kicks and allowing pressure to build on us.”
He added: “Our game management has to be better away from home as well. We were loose and allowed them back in the game.
“We’re getting everyone fit and we’re four games into the season. There’s not a lot to worry about.”
Caley’s Draper was certainly in no doubt about his own team being worthy of the result they secured.
He said: “It was a great strike from Foster out of the blue as I thought we were comfortable. We might have gone back a bit but fair play to the players we kept going and got the goal we deserved.”
Transfer deadline day is on Wednesday but Wright said there has been “no changes” and he still doesn’t expect to make any further signings.
