Caley Thistle midfielder Ross Draper believes helping the Highlanders retain their Premiership status would be as big an achievement as winning the Scottish Cup two years ago.
Inverness appeared destined for relegation to the Championship until Saturday’s 2-1 win against Hamilton Accies renewed a glimmer of hope they can pull off a sensational escape, although Richie Foran’s men are still four points adrift at the bottom of the table with only three games remaining.
Caley Jags’ fate will be decided in the space of seven days, with Saturday’s trip to Kilmarnock followed by another away match against Dundee on Wednesday, before Caley Jags end their campaign at home to Motherwell on Saturday, May 20.
With the odds still stacked against his side, Draper feels staving off relegation would rank along with anything he has achieved since joining from Macclesfield Town in 2012.
Draper, who yesterday launched Inverness’ new playing kit for next season, said: “We have seven days to change the season. It would be good to sit on the beach in the summer and think about what an escape we’ve pulled off.
“It would be up there with the best escapes I’ve seen up here in Scotland. I can’t think of anyone else who has been as far adrift and salvaged it – seven points adrift with four to play.
“We’re lucky. We’ve had great times – semi-finals, finals of cups, top six finishes, European places and the trip to Romania.
“They were great experiences for all the positive reasons. But to get out of this situation would probably be up there with all of those.
“There will be no silverware or medals for surviving in the Premiership and nobody mentions it in 20 years’ time.
“But as players we would look back on it and say what an achievement that was.
“We need to use that incentive as motivation but, performance-wise, we were much more positive and aggressive in the right way on Saturday. Much better as a unit, defensively and offensively.
“We’ll use that and aim for three points at Kilmarnock.”
Draper is determined to pile the pressure on the teams directly above the Highlanders, most notably Hamilton and Motherwell who face each other at New Douglas Park on Saturday.
The 28-year-old added: “We’ve given ourselves a chance. There’s a couple of teams to chase and given they play each other on Saturday it’s a big opportunity. A win at Kilmarnock really brings us right back into the mix, but we’ve got to do the business.
“Those teams are also trying to escape the play-off, but now they’re worrying Inverness are back in the mix and they need to avoid the automatic drop.
“We need to put as much pressure on them as possible.
“Nine points and we get out of it – simple as that. It might mean a play-off, but I feel it might be enough to stay up outright.
“But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. It’s all about three points on Saturday and then we will go again.”
