Head coach Billy Dodds admits several star performers have given him the ideal selection dilemma ahead of Caley Thistle’s Championship showdown with Morton tomorrow.
The Inverness team are three points clear of Kilmarnock at the top of the table and they are widely tipped to see off their second-bottom visitors.
A sparkling hat-trick from Billy Mckay and a goal from on-loan St Mirren forward Lewis Jamieson in the 4-2 weekend win at Elgin City in the SPFL Trust Trophy has shone the spotlight on Dodds’ team selection.
ICT slipped up two weeks ago when they suffered their first league loss in a 2-1 defeat at Hamilton.
Dodds, when asked about Mckay’s hat-trick putting the striker in the frame for a start, said: “It wasn’t just Billy Mckay. I thought Lewis Jamieson was excellent, Reece McAlear, too. They are good players.
“There are a few players asking questions of me again, but I’ve also got to heed the fact that my team was also doing well before the Elgin game.
“That’s not to say I won’t make changes. I’m definitely having one or two thoughts.
“To be honest with you, it has been taking a it of my time up, but that’s good. It is the way it should be.”
Goals reaction pleasing for Dodds
Leaking two goals each against Accies and Elgin is a concern for Dodds, but he likes the way his team reacted to being up against it in both of those matches.
He added: “We’re still doing well. We’ve won a lot of games. Hamilton was disappointing, but even the reaction during the Hamilton game – and I showed them the video – we kept going at it.
“It would be easy by a certain point in the game just to accept it isn’t going to happen, but we kept going and it was just a bridge too far in the end.
“It was disappointing, but there was still that reaction. My players are doing well, but we lost silly goals.”
Red zones remain in Championship
Meanwhile, all 10 Scottish Championship clubs will continue to operate with red zones “due to the current levels of vaccination” within the second tier.
Caley Thistle have confirmed areas of the Caledonian Stadium will remain out of bounds for the general public, with the visiting teams using alternative changing facilities.
Clubs received a recent update from the SFA/SPFL Joint Response Group (JRG) and a decision was agreed at a Championship meeting this week.
ICT’s statement said the “unanimous opinion was – due to the current levels of vaccination within playing squads across the Championship – and given the unchanging JRG close contact regulations, all 10 clubs will continue to maintain the current red zones and alternative away changing facilities until a review of the vaccination status of Championship clubs around Christmas time.
“We recognise that the situation is far from ideal, but in what was an extremely constructive and respectful discussion, all 10 clubs respected the differing situations and challenges we all still face.
“We greatly appreciate the continued patience and support of our fans during this period and everyone can be assured that we are working diligently towards a position where we can resume normal seating and non-impactful red zone and away team facilities.”
