Caley Thistle match-winner David Carson slotted away his first goal of the season – then vowed to help drive the club into the promotion play-offs.
The midfielder-turned-full-back popped up with the crucial clincher against Morton on Saturday, which pulls sixth-placed Inverness to within one point of the Ton in the Championship.
Vitally, it keeps fourth-placed Partick Thistle within six points of them. They also have a game in hand over Thistle to try and edge closer to those play-off places.
Despite being without injured defenders Danny Devine and Wallace Duffy, it was another strong display all-round.
Scott Allardice slammed home the opener early in the second half and, after a hotly-disputed penalty was scored by Grant Gillespie, Carson was the hero of the day for ICT with his ice-cool finish with five minutes to go.
🙌🏻❤️⚽️ https://t.co/q8n7WmMd2c
— David Carson (@DaveyCarson8) April 1, 2023
Carson thrilled by his late winner
Carson celebrated his only goal of the campaign so far in front of the delighted away supporters at Cappielow and he’s determined to give his all to keep the wins coming, following on from beating Partick 1-0 last week.
He said: “Everyone defends from the front. Everyone wants to score goals. You can see it’s a real collective performance. We’re all doing jobs on the pitch and we’re getting our rewards.
“Long may that continue because we’ve deserved it. We’ve had a really tough season at times and it just shows the character in this group and we’re going to fight right to the end.
“We want to take the club into the play-offs and give the fans as much as we can.
“We still believe we can make the play-offs. There is massive belief within the club and the squad.
“We just need to take as many points as we can from every game now. Let’s see where that takes us.
“All we can do is win games and build momentum. We can take positives from scoring a late winner at Cappielow. That gives us momentum ahead of next weekend.”
ICT target third successive victory
A slick move involving Nathan Shaw and substitute Steven Boyd led the Carson’s goal and he was thrilled to have been on the end of the attack to round off what ICT felt was a deserved victory.
He said: “We got a good turnover and Boydy picked up the ball. I noticed that my man switched off and hit on the underlap, gave Boydy a shout and he squeezed it to me and I managed to tuck it away into the corner.
“I was delighted to score and get the three points. It was a bonus to get a goal.
“It was a huge win for us on Saturday. Over the next few weeks, we know we need to pick up as many points as we can and see where it takes us.
“We can only control what we’re doing on the pitch and how many points we pick up. We can’t look elsewhere and, on Saturday, we started the month with three points.
“We’re looking forward to playing Raith Rovers on Saturday. We need to back up our win at Morton with another win.”
Side responding to pressure games
Last season, a powerful run of form took ICT from the edge of the top four all the way to the Premiership play-off final when they lost out to St Johnstone over two competitive legs.
And Carson insists these high-pressure games are ones he and his team-mates love to be involved in.
He added: “When you get to this stage of the season, myself and the boys want to play in these kinds of games. We know what we can aim for.
“We put massive pressure on ourselves and we need to keep going as much as we can. We know we’re good players.
“Although we haven’t picked up points in certain games this season, which has been disappointing, this is the time to step up.
“We have got the majority of the squad back and everyone is fighting for a shirt and for one another to try and get us into the play-offs. That’s the aim.”
Saturday’s visitors Raith Rovers, who are one points and one place below ICT, can climb above them into sixth if they beat Hamilton in a rearranged game on Tuesday night.
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