Caley Thistle’s long list of injuries are a key reason why they have failed to fire on home turf this season.
That’s the view of ICT’s chief executive Scot Gardiner as Billy Dodds’ men seek to see off Championship opponents Dundee at the Caledonian Stadium this Saturday.
Strong form away from Inverness has helped keep the Highlanders within six points and five places of leaders Ayr United.
Only Ayr and Queen’s Park have better form on their travels, but ICT have not banked enough points against visiting sides, with only basement duo Arbroath and Hamilton worse off on their own patch.
However, an injury list like Dodds has never seen before – which is currently sitting at nine players – has been an issue throughout this season.
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Different challenges in home games
Gardiner, speaking to fans’ podcast The Wyness Shuffle accepted they have to be more ruthless at home, but factored in the absence of stars such as midfielders Scott Allardice and Roddy MacGregor and forwards Shane Sutherland and Austin Samuels.
He said: “Our home form has to get better if we want to get out of the Championship this season. Billy Dodds thinks that as well, we all think that.
“Up to the Morton game, our away form has been unbelievable.
“One of the reasons for our home form not being good enough is down to the injuries.
“Teams come and play us differently at home from the way they play when they’re at home.
“We don’t have our full complement of creative players to make a difference.
“We haven’t been hammered at home. We’ve lost some stupid, poor, single goals at home.
“The two gubbings we’ve had have been away from home (4-1 at Partick and 4-0 at Morton), so teams don’t come and do that to us at home, but we’ve not been scoring and creating.
“We believe once we get our creative players back, or should we can bring in a free, out-of-contract player, then it might help us.
“You don’t play the same home and away unless you’re Manchester City. We know we must to better at home.”
Unusual run of injuries at Inverness
Gardiner stressed the nature of the injuries they’ve been dealing with have come purely down to bad fortune.
For example, Samuels suffered an impact knee injury when the ball came at him, Sean Welsh’s knee locked when warming up in the changing room, Dan MacKay stood on the ball when running and MacGregor dislocated his ankle when challenged against Cove Rangers.
Gardiner highlighted how the deep impact of the injuries has affected their day-to-day preparations.
He added: “None of these happened on the training pitch, which is really unusual.
“You normally get half your injuries in a match, but it has really affected us because during half of our week we don’t play matches – we dare not have a full-contact game just in case these types of injuries happen.”
Doran testimonial still being planned
Gardiner also confirmed plans for a testimonial for long-serving wide midfielder Aaron Doran are being revised due to the club’s extensive injury.
The ICT chief said Inverness is “extremely hopeful” the game, which was in line for November, will take place against “a big club” and “not local” later this season.
Doran, in his 350th appearance for ICT, scored the winner in the 3-2 Scottish Cup victory against Stirling Albion on Saturday.
ICT are five points adrift of Dundee and ended a six-game winless run last Saturday to line up a home tie against Queen’s Park on January 21.
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