Barry Wilson insists he and Ryan Esson are ready to step into the breach as Caley Thistle deal with John Robertson’s absence.
First-team coach Wilson and goalkeeping coach Ryan Esson will be in temporary charge of the team, until chief executive Scot Gardiner is able to make a short-term appointment to take over.
Robertson has been given compassionate leave following a family bereavement and Inverness are also without assistant boss Scott Kellacher, who has been suffering with a serious illness and contracted Covid-19.
Wilson and Esson worked together with the club’s under-18s and are both former Caley Thistle players. Wilson has some managerial experience with Wick Academy and Elgin City, however the latter was his last role in 2014.
The team for tonight’s game against Alloa Athletic was picked by Robertson and Wilson at the weekend, with the coach hoping to deliver a valuable three points.
He said: “Our thoughts are with John and Scott. It has been a really tough time and we have been asked to step in. Myself and Ryan are looking to tonight to try and get three points. It is as simple as that.
“I am the good cop out of the two of us. We work well together, we worked with the under-18s so we spent a lot of time together so we know how each other works but he is the bawler and shouter.
“When players cross the white line everything else can be forgotten about. I always found as a player it was a great release if you had any issues. That’s what we will ask them to do. Myself and John spoke about the team on Sunday for Alloa so we will go along those lines.
“We need the same attitude and work rate we showed at the weekend. Alloa will think if they win they will close everything up at the bottom. If we can win we will jump a few places and we will still have games in hand and we can really move forward. This is a huge game for us.”
Caley Thistle picked up their first win of the year in the 2-0 win at Ayr United on Saturday, in the first of nine games before the end of March.
🗣️ "A really good win and important three points."
Barry Wilson gives his thoughts following yesterday's 2-0 win against Ayr Utd
Full interview on our Facebook page 👉 https://t.co/BzTcAvm4XW pic.twitter.com/J8pURy3bmg
— Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC (@ICTFC) February 21, 2021
They have had injury problems to deal with too, with Lewis Toshney and Kevin McHattie making their way back from long-term issues prior to both Aaron Doran and new signing Anthony McDonald going down this month.
That makes any changes to the squad difficult in the days ahead.
Wilson added: “Squad rotation is difficult as we have only had a few games in the last few months. Players are needing to get their fitness levels up to speed again. At the same time we need to get everyone game time.
“We went six or seven games without a win so it is important we get momentum so we can’t change for changes sake. It has to be the right changes regarding who we are playing against. Tomorrow’s team is picked. We are ready to go and hopefully they can put on a performance the gaffer would be proud of.”
