Billy Mckay insists Caley Thistle will use a “siege mentality” when the injury-hit hosts welcome Championship leaders Ayr United this weekend.
Inverness have nine players sidelined through a range of injuries, with Zak Delaney’s hamstring pull in the 2-1 defeat at Queen’s Park on Saturday taking the left-back out of action.
Just two points from their last five fixtures have seen Billy Dodds’ men slip to sixth in the table, six points away from Ayr, who beat Hamilton 3-2 last Friday.
Ayr are super-charged by their 13-goal hitman Dipo Akinyemi and collecting points when not at their best.
Training hard and ready for action
Slipping nine points behind the Honest Men with nine players injured is the danger, but experienced forward Mckay explained the squad will use the odds being stacked against them in their favour.
He said: “We obviously want to be winning more games and we can’t wait for Saturday.
“This is a good group here and, despite things going against us, we’re sticking together.
“We’re training hard and we’ve had a couple of really good days of training this week.
“For me, it’s periods like this for me when Inverness really come together and show your underdog mentality, like a siege mentality and that’s what we’re going to do.
“We have to make sure we come out on the right side of it against Ayr. We believe, even with all these injuries, we’ve still got a good enough team to get the win on Saturday.”
Winning ‘ugly’ won’t matter to Mckay
An ideal example of ICT pulling out all the stops came on October 7 when Mckay struck the only goal to see off a then rampant, free-scoring Partick Thistle.
He’s urging his team-mates to dig deep and repeat the feat against Lee Bullen’s visitors on Saturday.
Mckay said: “Teams are used to coming to our place as the underdogs, Ayr will be seen as the favourites on Saturday, because they are top of the league and we’re on a poor run.
“However, we are just one win away from turning this around and getting going again.
“We showed we can battle against teams at the top. That’s what we did against Partick Thistle up here and we’ll get back to doing the ugly side of the game. We back ourselves against anyone in this division.
“It was just a few weeks ago this squad went on a five-game winning run, so the quality is there.
“In times like this, it’s important not to get down about it. There’s no point beating one another up about it when confidence is low.
“We’re training hard and we want to make sure when we go on the pitch we’re ready. From what I can see in training, all these boys are ready.”
Striker urges fans to stick with side
Mckay, whose 86 goals are only bettered at Inverness by the 101 bagged by legend Dennis Wyness, is calling up supporters to cast side concerns and rally behind the team.
He added: “The fans are massive to this club. We know things are not ideal, but they can really help us on Saturday.
“This is when we need them the most. We need them to get right behind us. We’re going to keep trying for them and hopefully, they can stick with us and that win will come for all of us.”
Mckay’s latest goal came against Queen’s Park at the weekend, which gave ICT the interval lead at Ochilview.
However, the Spiders responded and goals from Charlie Fox and Simon Murray deservedly earned Owen Coyle’s full points as they moved fourth, just four points away from Ayr.
Mckay hailed captain Sean Welsh, who scooped the ball onto his foot before he crashed an unstoppable shot into the back of the net.
He said: “It was a great ball in from Welshy. He has that in the locker and it’s great to have him back.
“Ideally, he’d have liked to have been eased back into the games after his injury, but we’ve needed him straight away. Since he has come back into the team, he’s been great.”
Spiders were worthy winners – Mckay
Northern Irishman Mckay admits, despite the ideal start against Queen’s, they didn’t deserve to win.
He said: “The first half pretty much went to plan. We were 1-0 up and went in at half-time very confident.
“We were disappointed with our second-half display and, in the end, Queen’s Park deserved to win.”
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