Familiarity is the pathway to success for Caley Thistle central defender Josh Meekings.
Meekings has played his part in the club’s excellent start to the season, his partnership with Gary Warren ensuring the Highlanders have yet to concede a goal at Caledonian Stadium in the Premiership.
Meekings is delighted with his club’s start and believes the fact the squad of last season has remained largely intact is a key factor in the Highlanders’ rise to the top of the table.
He said: “Last season we were a new team but this year we all know each other and that’s helped us make a good start. We’ve got good partnerships all the way through the team.
“We’re having a really good season so far. We wanted to start as well as we could but I don’t think anyone expected us to have the start we had. There are a lot of games to be played but we are very happy with how we are going.
“I don’t know if we are proving anyone wrong as I don’t know what was expected of us this season but we have been able to carry on the form of last season which is good. We’re doing our jobs properly and we just have to keep going.
“I don’t know what we can achieve and we are taking it game by game, trying to stay positive.”
The resilience of the team defensively is, naturally, a source of particular pride for Meekings, with Saturday’s 3-0 win against Hibernian stretching the run of matches without the loss of a goal at Caledonian Stadium to four.
Meekings was pleased to enjoy the comforts of home following a run of three away games and said: “We’ve had a lot of consistency by being able to pick the same team and, hopefully, we can stay injury free and keep it going.
“What the defence has been doing has largely gone unnoticed but we’re really pleased with what we are doing. We’re very happy with how we are performing and, thankfully, the rest of the lads are scoring the goals at the other end.
“Saturday was another clean sheet. We won at Dundee in the League Cup but it felt as if we were more like our usual selves against Hibs. We’ve had three away games on the trot, so it was nice to get a home game and we came back fresh.”