Caley Thistle manager John Robertson insists his side still has plenty time to make amends for a disappointing start to the second round of Championship fixtures.
Despite a strong first quarter, which Inverness came within seconds of ending as league leaders before losing a late goal in last month’s 2-2 draw against Alloa Athletic, the Highlanders have only taken three points from a possible 12 since.
Pacesetters Dundee United have taken full advantage of Caley Jags’ slump by moving 13 points ahead of Robertson’s men, albeit having played a game more, however the Inverness boss insists the damage is not irreversible.
Robertson said: “We had a very good first quarter, the second quarter hasn’t gone the way we wanted it to so far, but we have still got time to recover from that.
“All we can do is keep racking up the wins, and make sure we climb the league.
“We want to try and challenge for the title as much as we can. United are setting an unbelievable pace, they just keep winning games.
“Fair play to them, we cannot affect what they do. We can only affect what we do ourselves.
“We keep saying to the players we will reassess after every quarter. After the first quarter we were fine, we were on target with where we wanted to be.
“We have still got five matches left of this quarter, and we need to start winning more games.
“We will then reassess at the halfway stage what is required in the second half of the season.
“The aim is quite simple – it’s promotion by whatever means possible.”
Caley Jags needed penalties to defeat League 1 side Clyde following a 0-0 draw in their Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer Challenge Cup quarter-final tie last Saturday, with Inverness failing to find the net for a third successive game.
Robertson is confident the goals will come, and he added: “It’s not that we have not been creating chances, we just haven’t been taking them.
“You will go through spells like that – it will happen. You go through spells where you lose goals, and spells where you don’t concede.
“It’s just a little spell we are going through just now where we are not taking our chances.
“We have shown earlier in the season we are more than capable, and I’m sure once we start hitting the target again the wins will follow suit.”
Inverness will be without winger Tom Walsh for tomorrow’s home match against Dundee after he aggravated a hamstring injury, with Robertson adding: “Tom tweaked it last Friday before the Clyde game. We are just waiting for it to settle down.
“It has settled down, but he may be a couple of weeks yet.”
