A wonder goal from Robbie Muirhead wasn’t enough to keep Dundee United’s hopes of a third-place finish alive in the Highlands last night.
Muirhead’s lob from 45 yards into an empty Inverness Caley Thistle net after just two minutes at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium gave the Tangerines a dream start.
However, the home team turned the game on its head before half-time thanks toa tap-in from Edward Ofere and another stunning strike, this time from Danny Williams.
The 2-1 scoreline opened up a seven-point gap between ICT and United in fourth spot with only three matches of the season remaining.
It would appear to be game over and now the Tannadice men will look to stay ahead of St Johnstone, whom they meet in Perth on Saturday.
United boss Jackie McNamara all but conceded that third spot is now beyond them.
“Realistically, it is difficult for us now,” he said.
“Going into the game tonight it was in our hands and now it’s not.
“We now have to win on Saturday and rely on others for results in the last three games.
“That’s all we can do now.
“Against an experienced team like St Johnstone we need to do a lot better than we did tonight.
“I think we started well and got a great goal from Robbie.
“We had a good spell after that and passed the ball well.
“Inverness came into it after that and I thought we stopped playing then and got sloppy in possession, hit the ball longer and got deeper.
“The lad (Williams) had a good strike for their second one but we were guilty of being naive in our play given the conditions.”
The pitch was absolutely drenched and at times, as the ball was held up, you wondered if the match should have gone ahead.
McNamara wasn’t blaming the water for his team’s defeat, though.
“The conditions were poor and after we scored the first goal you were conscious that the conditions played a part but I don’t think it got any worse as the game went on,” he said.