Caley Thistle are facing a horrendous fixture backlog after they suffered their 11th postponement since Christmas, while Ross County also have a free weekend.
The Inverness side’s Championship meeting against Greenock Morton, scheduled for today, was called off yesterday afternoon due to a frozen pitch.
Ross County’s home Premiership encounter against Hibernian suffered the same fate 30 minutes later, making for a frustrating Saturday of inactivity for the two Highland sides.
The Staggies could end the day bottom of the table if Hamilton Accies defeat rivals Motherwell in today’s Lanarkshire derby at Fir Park.
John Hughes’ side sit three points above Accies but have played two games more and have an inferior goal difference.
With only 10 games of the 2020-21 season remaining, County boss Hughes knows his side have little room for error over the closing stretch of games.
He said: “The position we are in can sometimes bring that trepidation into the play, but I have tried to free them up to express themselves as that’s the way I see games being played.
“I’m applauding the quality of some of the things I’m seeing on the training pitch, it’s about taking that on to the pitch on a Saturday.
“When we do that we are good, it’s getting the consistency of doing it for 90 minutes.”
County were beaten 2-0 by Dundee United last weekend and will now have to wait until next Sunday’s visit of Celtic before they return to action.
Hughes added: “We want the players to go into games thinking they’ve played the game before and they know exactly what’s going to happen.
“That’s my job, once it starts we want there to be no surprises and then they can implement the things we’ve worked on.
“You have to impose yourself on the opponent and on the game.
“Then it’s about coming up with that cross or that goal which wins you the game.
“We need to take the good bits from recent games and get rid of the bad bits.”
Caley Thistle are facing a hectic end to the season after their third postponement in the space of a week after last Saturday’s trip to Dundee and the midweek visit of Alloa were also called off.
John Robertson’s side have played only 11 league games this season – five fewer than Championship leaders Hearts.
The Caley Jags boss said: “It’s going to be busy but it’s fine. The boys are raring to go, they just want games.”
Meanwhile, Caley Thistle have confirmed they have sold more than 9,000 virtual tickets for this month’s Championship game against Hearts on February 26.
Virtual Ticket Sales go over 9,000!
👉 https://t.co/i94t0j0C7w pic.twitter.com/RovJvJ1G4q
— Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC (@ICTFC) February 12, 2021
The club have sold more virtual tickets for the match than they did for their record attendance of 7,753 at Caledonian Stadium against Rangers in 2008.
The initiative came about after Stevie Kilgour, the general secretary of the Federation of Hearts Supporters, approached Caley Jags chief executive Scot Gardiner to find out how Hearts fans could assist Caley Thistle during this “extremely onerous financial period for Scottish football”.
The approach was prompted by the memory of a gesture made by Caley Thistle towards Hearts in August 2013 during the Gorgie side’s financial problems when the Inverness side made the offer to pay Hearts 1874 Fighting Fund a £5 donation for every Hearts fan who travelled to a league match between the clubs. More than 1,100 Jambos made the journey up the A9 to watch the game.
