Roddy MacGregor hopes ending the Championship season on a high against Ayr United can provide Caley Thistle with a small consolation after missing out on the promotion play-offs.
Inverness were ruled out of promotion contention last weekend, after going down 3-0 against league winners Hearts at Tynecastle.
Caley Jags will now prepare for a fifth successive season in the second-tier, following tonight’s final game of the campaign against the Honest Men.
With the Highlanders virtually assured of fifth place, MacGregor is aiming to sign off for the summer on a high note.
MacGregor said: “Obviously it was disappointing at first.
“We didn’t play as well as we wanted to on the day, and we knew that we needed other results to go our way as well.
“We were just really disappointed, but there’s nothing we can do about it now.
“We’ve analysed it, and we just need to move on.
“It hits hard in the first few days but the damage was kind of done before Saturday really.
“You look at the games where we dropped points, and we should have done better.
“We were still in with a chance, and we let ourselves down on the day, which is unfortunate.
“We pick ourselves up, and we’ve just got to put that to the back of our minds and focus on what’s ahead.
“We’re going to give it our all.
“There will be no free hit, we’re going to go out and try and end on a high, and hopefully we can do that.”
Despite the campaign ending in disappointment for Inverness having failed to meet their target, MacGregor believes there have been encouraging aspects which his side can take into next season.
Caley Jags went seven league games undefeated prior to their trip to Tynecastle, while they also enjoyed a memorable 3-1 victory over Highland rivals Ross County in the Scottish Cup, before exiting the competition despite a brave showing against St Mirren.
MacGregor is aiming to keep the momentum going into next term, with the 19-year-old adding: “We’ve played good football at times.
“The fact that we’ve had all these setbacks and we’ve still managed to put a good run of games together towards the end shows that we’ve had to dig deep and we’ve got character.
“We can take a lot of positives from the last 10 games or so, we’ve been a different team compared to when we were struggling.
“In the last 10 games we’ve been really secure in possession, and we’ve been a tough team to break down.
“I think you can see that from our goals conceded record – there haven’t been too many in the last couple of months or so.
“We can take a lot of positives, and hopefully we’ll take that into next season.”
Tonight’s game will be interim boss Neil McCann’s last match in charge, with the former Dundee manager stepping down to pave the way for the return of John Robertson, who remains on compassionate leave.
MacGregor has enjoyed the experience of playing under McCann, and he added: “It’s been really good working under Neil.
“It was a lot different to what it was with John and it can take a wee bit of time at first to get everyone used to it, that’s just natural.
“But it has been really good getting different outlooks on how to play out, and different tactics.
“It has been really good, and I’ve enjoyed it.”
