Striker George Oakley hopes Caley Thistle’s crushing blow at Partick Thistle might just jolt them towards three reactionary Championship points against Morton.
A 4-1 league loss at Firhill last Friday was Inverness’ first defeat of the campaign and it was a display which came out of the blue given their strong form in the opening weeks.
Oakley stepped off the bench in the second half and scored in the final move of the match, planting a powerful header into the net.
Sitting just below mid-table, ICT are level on five points with Saturday’s visitors Morton, and Oakley, who made a summer return to the club, admits the manner of the loss in Glasgow was a shocker.
He said: “We didn’t expect it. I don’t think they (Partick) expected it – no one did.
“It was a shock to the system, but that’s football. You love it, you hate it, it happens, but it’s the way you bounce back from those results.
“To be honest, you would probably rather get those out of the way and learn from them.
“Then you can move on and make sure it doesn’t happen again, because we don’t want to have that feeling again this season.
“It’s a difficult league, everyone can beat anyone, so we just want to go on a run of games now and correct what happened on Friday.
“Obviously, that’s what we want to do this Saturday against Morton.”
Full focus on getting weekend points
Slack play contributed towards the result, with Brian Graham netting twice, alongside a penalty from Kevin Holt and a crashing header from Anton Dowds, sealing the result for Thistle.
Oakley insists it’s all about moving on to ensure a sharper show against the Ton, which will be Caley Thistle’s first game at the Caledonian Stadium since their impressive 4-1 win over Cove Rangers.
Oakley said: “Looking at it, it’s very simple, but obviously you can’t change what has happened.
“You can only change what happens going forward.
“Mistakes happen, everyone makes them, so we just have to get on with it.
“We’ve got a game on Saturday to change everything, and then everyone can get that loss out of their heads and we can move on.
“In football, I’ve been around long enough to know that when you get results like that you don’t want it to happen again.
“You know the feeling, and you’re determined not to let that happen again, so it’s good to get it out of the way early doors.
“Now we just want to move on, and when Saturday comes, we’ll want to get the win and make everyone forget what happened against Partick.”
Keen to be ‘helping hand’ in title push
Oakley, who previously played for ICT between 2017-2019 before playing for Hamilton, Bulgarian side Pirin Blagoevgrad, Kilmarnock and Woking, has two goals so far this term.
And he’s determined to play his part in helping last season’s beaten play-off finalists go one step further – all the way back to the Premiership for the first time since 2017.
He added: “I first came here when the club got relegated to the Championship.
“At that point, it was a reshuffle, which is always hard when you want to bounce straight back.
“It took quite a while to gel, but stepping into this group, it was like stepping into a team that has moulded together and know what’s going on.
“Hopefully I can be the helping hand they need to take that extra step and get promotion.
“A lot of the lads are still here from last year, so it’s just nice to step in.”
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