Caley Thistle manager Richie Foran has told his players to show their determination to set up a final-day survival bid by defeating Dundee tonight.
Inverness were handed a lifeline by rivals Ross County, who defeated second-bottom Hamilton Accies 3-2 at Victoria Park last night.
Caley Jags must now win their final two matches, against Dundee and Motherwell, and hope tonight’s opponents do them a favour against Hamilton on Saturday to secure their place in the relegation play-offs against either Dundee United or Falkirk.
First up for Caley Jags is Dundee at Dens Park tonight, and Foran is demanding strong character from his players.
He said: “We need to show hunger, desire, passion and pride, like it has been the last few weeks. The club and the supporters deserve it. Maybe there hasn’t been enough of that this season.
“It is out of my hands but these players work so hard. They’re a wonderful bunch and they’re hurting. It’s just been one of those seasons where we’ve had a lot of mistakes.
“There’s no way we can make as many of them next season – maybe we’ve just been very unlucky with that.
“We now have to try to learn from our mistakes. It was pleasing how we responded to going a goal down on Saturday as no one threw the towel in and we took the game to Kilmarnock.
“In the second half we were excellent. We’re creating chances and we were the better team, but lost the game. It’s the story of our season.”
Dundee sacked manager Paul Hartley and replaced him with untried Neil McCann last month, with the former Dark Blues midfielder steering the club away from the relegation play-off position with seven points from nine.
Foran has been encouraged by his team’s displays against the Tayside outfit this season, and he added: “Dundee have done very well and got a big boost, which happens when a new manager comes in.
“They’re a good side but we’re very confident going there. We probably put our best performance of the season against Dundee in November and got beat 2-1.
“We had waves of attack and couldn’t score that day either. But we should take confidence from that per-formance.”
