Caley Thistle midfielder Sean Welsh needs no reminder how pivotal this month is going to be for his club.
Inverness begin the task of playing their games in hand on their rivals in the Championship, facing the first of six matches in March when they face Dundee at Dens Park tonight (7pm).
With both Caley Jags and the Dark Blues having played the fewest games in the division with just 15 matches completed so far, the need is pressing for both clubs as they bid to force their way into play-off contention.
Welsh knows the time to put together a string of victories has arrived.
He said: “We’ve got a busy schedule.
“We had three games last week, and we’ve got the same coming up again.
“We’re coming to the business end of the season where we want to start getting a run of results to get us back up the table.
“You see how tight the league is and a couple of results can put you from the bottom back into the play-off positions.
“We know that we need to put a string of wins together.
“We want to be in those play-off spots, so we need to go to Dundee and get a positive result to push right up there.
“Then we have a couple of games over most teams to go and build on that and put ourselves in a strong position.
“In this league, everyone beats everyone. Places change from week to week, so we don’t want to get too carried away win or lose.
“We’re going to try to win every game, and doing that tomorrow would put us in a much better position, so that’s what we’ll be trying to do.”
Victory for Inverness will take them above Arbroath and Dundee into fifth place in the division, but Welsh knows one win is not enough for his side in what has become one of the most competitive leagues in the country.
Consistency is key in the most inconsistent of divisions.
Welsh said: “Everyone is beating everyone.
“It’s a mad league in that sense, but if you can go and put two, three or four wins together it would really move you up the table and put you in a strong position, because nobody is really doing that.
“Even Hearts, they’ve gotten themselves a good bit in front, but they’re not putting two, three or four wins together.
“Nobody’s managing to do it, so if you can it would definitely put you in a strong position.
“I think you see that with the likes of Ayr, they’re close to the bottom of the table just now, but if they win three games in-a-row they will be right back up into the play-off positions.
“That’s our target, to go and build on the performance last Friday and put a run of victories together.”
Dundee’s need is equally pressing as they too find themselves chasing a play-off place and Welsh expects the fight for a top-four spot to intensify in the weeks ahead.
He said: “It’s not like any team is pulling away or winning every week.
“You’ve just got to take care of the game that is in front of you, and you can’t control what happens with the other so you let that go.
“You just have to control your own destiny by winning the games that are in front of you.
“I keep going back to it, but our target is to go and get a win at Dundee and get ourselves in a better position.
“Then we’re in a much better position with the games in hand to put ourselves in a stronger position for the play-offs.
“It’s a big game obviously.
“We go down there tomorrow, it’s going to be a tough game because they’re a good side, they have a good squad.
“We’re more upbeat though, and we’re ready to go, so we need to go down there and get a positive result. If we do, it puts us in a better position.”
