Daniel Armstrong has pleaded with Kilmarnock’s fans to stick with the team as they face ten games to secure their Premiership safety.
The 1000-strong travelling Killie faithful were left raging in the Highlands on Friday evening after a disgraceful performance by Derek McInnes’ men.
You’d be forgiven for thinking Inverness was the top-flight side in Friday’s quarter-final Scottish Cup clash between the teams, as Billy Dodds’ team dominated Killie for the majority of the game.
Killie actually got off to the perfect start, with Kyle Vassell nodding the Ayrshire men ahead after only three minutes.
However, what would follow for the remainder of the game was nowhere near good enough. Billy McKay and Sean Welsh secured Caley Thistle’s spot at Hampden for the semi-finals of the competition.
Killie’s full focus now lies on staying in the Premiership. They’re three points above bottom spot Dundee United and currently occupy the relegation play-off position. Armstrong understands the fans showing their frustration but has asked them to remain faithful to the team.
“I don’t blame them,” the winger admitted. “All I can ask is for them to stick by us. We need to be together and the more positive they are and the better we can be on the pitch.
“A lot travelled up on Friday and we thank them for that and apologise we didn’t get further. We now have the league to concentrate on and we have loads and loads of big games coming and we will need the fans as much as possible.
“We made a great start then we gave away a penalty. I am not entirely sure it was a penalty because I don’t know what that particular rule is. If you kick the ball off your own hand I am not sure if you can call that a penalty or not. I thought if you do that it is not a penalty but they were given it.
“We then conceded a sloppy second goal as well and we weren’t good enough on the night. We need to move on and focus on the league. We have a big task ahead of us and we need to focus on that.”
Meanwhile, for Inverness, Danny Devine insists they always had the full belief they could defeat their Premiership counterparts.
Dodds’ side were deserved winners on Friday evening. There’s little doubt he and his players would have enjoyed their weekend.
Devine is looking forward to hopefully continuing their cup journey all the way to the final. He said: “It feels good to reach another semi-final. Once the whistle went, it took a wee bit of time for the boys to realise what we'd actually done.
"This is a young group and they'll be looking forward to it and I'm looking forward to it again. It will sink in over the next few days what we've achieved.
"We did feel comfortable during the game. We said that at half-time, given the creating chances and we had good control of the game.
"But we knew Kilmarnock would come out in the second half with a wee bit more fight. I'm sure Derek McInnes would have been at them at half-time.
"But we have shown that it's nothing we can't handle. Against Livingston, we showed we're a really tight unit that fights for one another.
“There is no point turning up unless you think you can win. It's going to be very difficult, no matter who we get. It's a one-off game at Hampden and we will certainly fight for every ball and give it our absolute all.
"Anything can happen. We're going down to Hampden to win, no matter who we play.”
