Mark Ridgers insists Caley Thistle will do all they can to return to the Premiership – after blowing their chance of winning the Championship.
The Inverness goalkeeper, who helped earn his side a 1-0 win at Morton on Saturday with some fine stops, is determined to kick off next season as a top-level player.
The victory at Cappielow, secured by a superb Roddy MacGregor strike, ensures ICT will finish as the third-placed team behind Killie and runners-up Arbroath.
Fourth-placed Partick Thistle are three points and eight goals better off than chasers Raith Rovers ahead of their final fixtures on Friday against Ayr United and Kilmarnock respectively.
Inverness can freshen the side up as mid-table Hamilton visit the Caledonian Stadium on Friday before next Tuesday and Friday’s away-then-home play-offs, most likely against Partick.
Ridgers’ five-year wait for promotion
Caley Thistle fell short in the play-offs in 2019 when Dundee United swept past them 4-0 on aggregate.
However, 31-year-old Ridgers – who joined his hometown club just after their 2017 relegation from the top-flight – is ready for their fresh opportunity.
He said: “When I joined Caley Thistle, I said my first goal was to help take this club back to the Premiership.
“We’ve had difficult circumstances, but we have another shot at it, like we did a few years ago, and we will give it our best shot. Fingers crossed we can go all the way, but there’s still a long way to go.
“Over the course of the season, especially when we watched Kilmarnock win the title (against Arbroath) on Friday, it has been frustrating for us.
“Sometimes we shot ourselves in the foot, but we knew what had to be done on Saturday.
“We done a professional job to get over the line by winning at Morton and will play our game on Friday against Hamilton to set ourselves up for the play-offs next week.”
Costly defeats hampered title push
Caley Thistle have been a match and better against all of their promotion rivals.
They’ve beaten Killie three times, taken seven from 12 points against Arbroath, shared one win apiece and two draws with Partick Thistle and defeated Raith Rovers twice and drawn the other two meetings.
However, losses this term against now relegated Queen of the South and struggling Ayr and Dunfermline, as well as Morton and Hamilton have been costly.
Ridgers admits the lack of consistency at times has been hugely frustrating, but five wins from their last seven outings is great timing ahead of the play-offs.
He said: “It baffles me and it baffled a lot of people, because when you look at our form against the teams round about us, we’ve performed very well.
“Then against teams in the so-called bottom five, we have let ourselves down this season.
“But we’re looking forward to the play-offs, whether it is Partick Thistle or Raith Rovers, we will be confident going into it.”
Ideal response after Queens’ defeat
The only blip in their recent run was last Tuesday’s 2-1 loss at Queen of the South, who needed to win to take their survival shot on to Saturday when they fell short late on as their 1-1 draw against Ayr relegated them.
Ridgers was delighted by a much better team performance and outcome against Morton.
He said: “Queen of the South was one of those games where they seemed to want it more. They knew what was at stake (they had to win to keep their slim survival bid alive).
“You could see how well they started and we let ourselves down that night. We found ourselves on the bus still and a poor first 15 minutes effectively killed us.
“But we went to Cappielow and done what we needed to do, got the three points and finished third, which is a big thing for us. We can take that into Friday before focusing on the play-offs.
“Last Tuesday aside, we’re on a good run after having that sticky spell, which cost us a shot at the league title. The next best thing is to win the play-offs and that’s the next goal for us.”
Ridgers determined to keep place
Illness opened the door for Cammy Mackay to get his chance between the posts and he kept his place with some sparkling performances when Ridgers was fit and available.
However, Ridgers has played in the last three games and has no intention of losing his spot again.
He added: “It’s been nice to be back in the team and all credit to Cammy, who came in and was brilliant.
“The manager decided a change was needed again. I was always ready. I didn’t feel I was doing much wrong to be out of the team in the first place, but it is nice to be back in.
“Hopefully now, the good performances can continue and we can go on to achieve what we set out to do at the beginning of the season.”
