Richie Foran is tipping flying full-back Carl Tremarco to hit double figures on the goals front this season and hammer first-team coach Scott Kellacher hard in the pocket.
The Caley Thistle manager has a wager on with Kellacher, who insists there is no chance the Liverpudlian will take his goals tally to 10 or beyond.
Tremarco, in peak form this season, has been a marauding figure at left back and claimed his fourth goal of the campaign in Wednesday’s 3-0 victory at Motherwell.
The productive performances fit perfectly with Foran’s call for goals to be shared around the team and the Irishman said: “I think he’ll get 10 goals. I said that to him as far back as pre-season.
“I’ve got a bet on with Scott Kellacher, who doesn’t think he’ll get 10. His and Brad McKay’s fitness levels from the full-back positions are so high now and they’re bringing real quality, putting good balls into the box.
“We want them to run the opposition’s wide men into the ground. The great thing is they can do it for the full 90 minutes.
“As manager, you have to utilise those kind of attributes to the fullest and, when we have the ball, we want them to be attackers.
“Carl has been magnificent. He’s strong in the tackle and great in the air for a small lad. He trains how he plays and his attitude is magnificent. He’s a warrior and playing some fine football.”
Tremarco is certainly confident he can keep scoring, even if he still gets stick for a big miss away to Arbroath in the League Cup group stage.
The defender said: “I’ve still got this golden mark of 10 from the gaffer and I’m nearly halfway there.
“At Motherwell, I nearly missed. But I was glad to see it hit the net because our midfielder Iain Vigurs, who is only one goal ahead of me, keeps bringing up the Arbroath game where I missed an open goal because I thought I was offside.
“As long as I keep contributing, I’ll be happy. We go into the Hearts game on the back of a first clean sheet in a long time.”
Foran, equally delighted with the defensive shutout, knows Caley Thistle have a chance to make up for a 5-1 hammering by Hearts at Tynecastle this season.
The Jambos have rarely been happy travellers to the Highlands and it is six years since they won in Inverness and three years since they even netted a goal at the ground.
But Foran insists all past records are meaningless. He said: “Hearts gave us a big doing at their place. They’re a strong side but we’ll take confidence from scoring three goals at Motherwell and the clean sheet will give the boys at the back a lift, too.”
Foran is without frontman Alex Fisher (hamstring) and fellow forward Larnell Cole (Achilles), while former Hearts defender McKay, after an x-ray on a fractured finger, is a potential absentee.
