Striker George Oakley is urging Caley Thistle to remain confident as they seek to bounce back from Friday’s 4-0 Championship battering at Morton.
It was as poor a performance as fans have seen from Inverness over the past two years as confident Ton cashed in on mistakes and ruthlessly buried the injury-hit visitors, who had seven regulars out.
Oakley, who has scored four times since his summer return to the Highlands, explained how it’s important for the players to keep the faith after a torrid 90 minutes at Cappielow.
He said: “We can’t put ourselves in a pit over Friday’s result, because it’s a long season.
“I believe in the boys. I believe in all of us and I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t.
“We want to come out in the next game and show everyone this was a blip in the journey.
“The quality is definitely within this squad. It is not like it’s just gone missing.
“Football can be the best thing in the world, but also the cruellest. You just have to keep a strong mentality, stay positive and keep going.”
Keeping confidence high is crucial
Arbroath are visitors to the Caledonian Stadium on Saturday and ICT are now among a tight cluster of clubs, including Friday’s winners Morton, at the top of the table.
Caley Thistle are three points adrift of leaders Ayr, but level on 21 points with Morton and Queen’s Park.
Oakley, who has also led the line for Hamilton, Bulgarian side OFC Pirin Blagoevgrad, Kilmarnock and Woking, feels it’s vital people look at the bigger picture, with Inverness firmly in the title mix after 13 fixtures.
He said: “It was a tough night overall for the team. It was a hard one to take and football can be a horrible game at times.
“All we can do is reflect on it and move on, because we need to keep our confidence high – we’re still up there.
“If you’d say to us at the beginning of the season we’d be where we are now in the mix of it, we’d have taken it. We will keep pushing on.
“Games like these happen in football. On another night, it could have gone our way.
“We will just pick ourselves up. We have a lot of injuries and a lot of things to think about after Friday, but we just need to remain confident – and that’s the main thing.
“As you can see in this league, one week a result like Friday happens, then the following week we do the same to another team.”
Mistakes led to Morton goal spree
A Mark Ridgers error, a follow-up from a penalty and a David Carson own goal had Morton leading 3-0 by half-time, before Cameron Blues added a fourth in the second half.
Oakley, 26, felt Inverness had enough of the play at Cappielow, but they fell short when it came to making that count.
He added: “Despite the scoreline, we kept the ball well, but we were not ruthless enough and didn’t create enough to give Morton a scare.
“That was frustrating. We had enough possession of the ball, but we did nothing with it. That’s the hard thing.
“When you look at it, Morton didn’t create, in that it was one chance, one goal; one mistake, one penalty, then another mistake – you make mistakes in football, you get punished.
“I don’t think they created much, it mainly came from our mistakes. It was simple things, but we will learn from it and bounce back.”
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