Caley Thistle forward George Oakley has set himself a target of 20 goals for the Highlanders this season.
Englishman Oakley finished Inverness’ leading scorer last term with 12 goals in his first season following his arrival from AFC Wimbledon last summer.
The 22-year-old admits he initially took time to settle into John Robertson’s side, but after finishing the campaign in strong form he is confident he can comfortably surpass last year’s tally.
Oakley, who got off the mark for the new season with a goal in Tuesday’s 5-2 Betfred Cup victory over Cowdenbeath, will be up against Nathan Austin and Jordan White for a striking berth this season.
He said: “I wanted to carry on from last season as quick as I could. I finished top goalscorer last year and that’s exactly what I want to finish this year.
“It was a really big accomplishment for me. It was my first year here, and I didn’t really break into the team until Christmas. I still finished top goalscorer in half a year, really, if you think about it that way.
“I just want to have a full season of playing every week this year. I’ve already said to myself and Ryan Esson, we have put it up on the board that I’m going to get 20-odd goals this year. We have already planned it and that’s one down already from Tuesday. I’ve just got to keep that count going.
“There’s going to be competition now which is good – you want that.
“As you can see now the goals are getting shared around the squad, and it’s good for me to get off the mark.”
Inverness have started the Betfred Cup campaign with back-to-back victories over Cove Rangers and Cowdenbeath to carry on their momentum of their superb 12-match unbeaten run at the end of last term, of which seven of the last eight were victories.
Oakley says confidence remains high among the squad, adding: “It’s really important, it just keeps momentum going within the team, the winning feeling is the one you always remember.
“I was talking to a couple of lads earlier in the week and we can’t actually remember the last game we lost, or which team it was. That’s really good, it was that long ago we don’t actually remember.
“That winning feeling is healthy, and we don’t want to lose it. Every time we step out on to the pitch, even if we go one or two goals down, we have that feeling we are going to get back in the game.
“At the start of the season last year we put pressure on ourselves, but now we don’t. We just go out there and we know we are going to win a game no matter what. That’s the mentality to have.”
