Caley Thistle manager Richie Foran wants the hurt that followed last month’s 6-0 Scottish Cup defeat by Celtic to fuel his side’s determination to avoid another heavy loss against the Hoops tonight.
Inverness suffered the humiliating defeat by Brendan Rodgers’ side at Parkhead on February 11 and take on the champions-elect once again at Caledonian Stadium on league duty this evening.
Caley Jags remain the only side to have taken points off Celtic in the league this season, however, in their 2-2 draw in Inverness in September, and Foran has urged his players to make it another difficult night for the Hoops.
Foran said: “We’ll work on the fear of not getting the thumping which we did down there when they put six by us.
“That’s always the worry and that’s what should make them work extremely hard to stop Celtic getting chances.
“It’s 11 men against 11 men. Let’s hope it’s a horrible evening, the wind and snow comes, and the park is poor. That’s what we need when we’re playing against that calibre of player.
“We need our boys working their socks off and cutting out those little errors, matching runners all the time.
“Celtic, the way they’re going at the moment, it doesn’t even need to be a half-chance and they’re finishing it.
“If they go ahead they can build on that and really punish teams.”
Inverness go into tonight’s game on the back of a revival in fortunes having taken four points from a possible six against Hearts and Rangers, with Friday’s 2-1 victory against the Gers ending a run of 14 league matches without a win.
Foran reckons his side will need an even better performance in order to take something against Celtic but will be pleased with his team’s upturn regardless of tonight’s outcome, adding: “I would have been very happy with four points from these three games.
“Supporters will now be thinking we’ve beaten Rangers, why can’t we go on and beat Celtic?
“Maybe we’ve got to think like that as well, but they’re flying high and they’ve had an outstanding season. Brendan has built one of the best Celtic teams around for years and the club is really pulling together as one.
“They’ve got everyone behind them – the supporters and the board. They’re flying high and it’s hard to stop. We’ve got to be at our best and we’ve got to perform better than we did against Rangers.
“We’ve got to start better than we did in both halves and we’ve got to keep it tight as well.
“Rangers had a couple of chances against us but if that’s Celtic they’re probably going to take them. We’ve got to cut out the individual mistakes as well.”
