Butcher's side surrendered a lead to lose 2-1 against St Mirren

Inverness manager Terry Butcher was abject at his side's performance after they surrendered an early lead to lose 2-1 against St Mirren.

"I don't think you could state how disappointed I am," said Butcher. "I had my Christmas lunch and it seems a distant memory. I don't feel so good.

"I don't know where that performance came from - we haven't played like that for a number of weeks.

"We got the game on for nothing, to lose in front of our home fans."

A Steven Thomson double gave St Mirren victory after an early goal by Lee Cox gave the hosts the lead.

The way we played in the first half was probably the worst we played all season, even though we scored early on Inverness manager Terry Butcher

The Buddies came back into the match with a fine strike from distance then a late solo effort to give the visitors all three points.

Butcher was particularly upset that the hosts had gone to a lot of trouble to make the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium playable, only to lose their recent run of good form at home.

"The backroom staff worked hard to get the snow of the pitch and the performance didn't merit the hard work we put in to get the game on," said Butcher.

"We got the game on for nothing. Although, scoring the first goal so early made one or two think it was going to be quite comfortable.

"Fair enough, St Mirren passed the ball well and we could see the equaliser coming.

"In the end, we lost a second goal, so it's just bizarre because the performance was not what the boys have been used to."

The defeat means that Inverness have failed to take the opportunity of the postponement of Hearts' match to move within three points of the Edinburgh side, although Butcher took some heart from his side's second half performance.

"The way we played in the first half was probably the worst we played all season, even though we scored early on," said Butcher.

"The second half was better, we had chances to get a second goal, but we left ourselves wide open at times and then we conceded the winner.

"I'm just so disappointed that we put in a performance like that, having worked so hard at Hearts, Celtic and when Rangers came here to get three points from the draws only to throw three away here."

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