Stenhousemuir's defence had an off day at Inverness, admits Brown Ferguson

The Warriors travelled north for the rearranged William Hill League One clash on the back of five straight wins but they were well-beaten by the full-timers – who would be level on points with Stenny in third if they hadn’t been deducted 15 points due to administration.

After a 30-minute delay to kick-off due to the referee being replaced, Ben Brannan gave the hosts an early lead after just three minutes. Euan O’Reilly levelled soon after but goals from Charlie Gilmour, Keith Bray and Paul Allan had the points wrapped up by the hour mark.

"We don’t want to make any excuses,” Ferguson said. “Part of this season was always going to be long trips to places like Inverness and Annan. They are difficult venues but it is the same for everyone else. It’s just part and parcel of football.

“It was a late one and it is a midweek journey but fundamentally we were uncharacteristically defensively poor. That isn’t something we can normally label at this group.

“We’ve been on a superb run and our defence has been prominent but on Tuesday we conceded early goals and avoidable goals. Up the other end, we’ve scored, hit the bar and missed a penalty. We did create chances.

“But what didn’t work for us was our defensive unit from front to back; we were simply too soft. It’s not the first time we’ve had a bump this season and we’ll look to bounce back straight away – just as we have done many times already.”

Stenhousemuir now host Kelty Hearts this Saturday at Ochilview with kick-off 3pm.