Striker Austin Samuels wants the feeling of relief to turn to one of desire to keep scoring after opening his Caley Thistle account.
The January capture from Wolves got his first goal in ICT colours in their last game, which was a sparkling 2-0 home win against Dunfermline Athletic two weeks ago.
That followed victories over Arbroath and Raith Rovers to give Inverness a fighting chance of making the promotion play-offs, or even closing in on Dick Campbell’s second-placed part-timers.
The third-placed Caley Jags are chasing their four successive win when they travel to eighth-placed Ayr United on Saturday.
Against the Pars, Samuels stepped off the bench for Billy Mckay and, moments later, tucked away a cool finish against when he latched on to an excellent Aaron Doran pass.
And the 21-year-old, who was on loan at Aberdeen earlier this season, was thrilled to get off the mark, but hopes his first goal leads to many more.
He said: “It was a relief to score. I was happy and my family were happy.
“However, I don’t want to get into the habit of feeling relief when I score. I’d rather it became the norm that I have scored again and go into the next one.
“Scoring the first goal is definitely a confidence-booster. Your overall play improves and you can kick on.
“Things might go your way, such as deflections dropping to you and you might get a bit of luck in the box.
“Hopefully that’s the way it will go now. All little helps and counts.”
Ready for run of five swift fixtures
The forward reckons, after turning an 11-game winless run into a three-match winning surge, the Caley Jags side are ready for their rush of five fixtures to complete their season before the end of the month.
He said: “We’re feeling confident going into these games after three wins in a row.
“We just need to take that confidence and show it on the pitch. We’ll be confident we can win.
“Players will need rest as well and that will give the gaffer the chance to rotate the squad if he needs to.
“The main thing is to get the games out of the way and hopefully come the end of the season we will be in a good position to get promoted.”
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Luck on Caley Jags’ side at Raith
Samuels insists the players always believed poor form would be followed by a strong run and pointed to a stroke of fortune which has also aided their results.
He said: “We always felt like the results were coming and it was just a matter of time.
“In the end, it clicked and it has been good for us.
“You need a bit of luck also to go on a run. It could be an own goal from your opponents or a mistake from their defence. When we played Raith, they had a man sent off and Logan Chalmers scored two late goals.
“Stuff like that can give you a lift going towards getting these wins on the board.”
Samuels has eyes on Arbroath
While head coach Billy Dodds is keen to keep a lid on talk of possibly hauling in Arbroath for a runner-up finish, Samuels sees no reason why that cannot be a target.
He added: “Anything is possible and I think they can be caught. If results go our way, then there is a chance.
“It is still a long shot with just five games to go, but we will remain positive and believe we can get there.
“Second place is the best possible place to be in the for play-offs.”
Lower-placed sides cause problems
Despite Ayr being at the wrong end of the Championship, Samuels is taking nothing for granted and stressed opening the scoring at Somerset Park could be massive.
He said: “We need confidence going into games. Throughout my time, we’ve played teams near the bottom of the table and they’ve been getting results.
“In my first home game against Morton, they were on form at the time and we weren’t. They scored and it was hard for us to break them down, and we lost 1-0.
“The main thing on Saturday is we get the first goal and kick on. We’re going there with confidence, knowing we’re a strong team and we can win.”
