Head coach Billy Dodds hailed his Caley Thistle stars for turning the heat on their Championship promotion rivals with a 2-0 win over Raith Rovers.
Goals from Jay Henderson and Nathan Shaw lifted ICT to fifth spot and they are five points behind fourth-placed Ayr United with Tuesday’s match in hand against Arbroath their chance to shear that to just two points.
It was a fine display all-round from ICT against a Rovers side dogged by injuries, meaning they could only put three outfield players on their bench.
In league and cup competitions, Inverness have now won five of their last six matches.
Huge game now against Arbroath
Dodds considered how the league table looks after Ayr and Morton drew ahead of Tuesday’s home date with eighth-placed Arbroath.
He said: “It looks better, I wouldn’t say really good.
“We’re fifth, five points behind fourth with a game in hand. We want to try and get into the play-offs. That’s the aim.
“The boys have been magnificent over the last few weeks or even month or so because we’ve had to play some tough teams in this league – and we’ve handled them pretty well.
“Even in the Queen’s Park game we lost recently, I felt we should have taken something from, but we missed great opportunities.
“Even to bounce back from that undeserved defeat, I think they have handled it well mentally and physically.
“We look a good team – an assured team – but we have another big game on Tuesday night and we go again – and try to close that gap.”
‘Comfortable’ display pleases Dodds
And Dodds was happy to come through the 90 minutes without too much to worry about in terms of knocks and spent energy against of next week.
He added: “A lot of people have said that was routine, but let me tell you as a manager it didn’t feel comfortable in the second half.
“I just wanted us to make sure we didn’t gift them anything.
“It takes a lot of energy to give nothing away and see it out.
“Then I got told, yes, it was comfortable. But we were good in the first half, moved the ball well.
“I don’t want to be too critical of the second half because I think the boys just wanted to do enough to see it out and save a bit, hopefully, for Tuesday.”
Injury-hit Raith want season to end
Raith Rovers manager Ian Murray admits the current injury crisis, along with this defeat, makes him want the season to end.
He said: “We don’t have our problems to seek in terms of injuries. We had seven injuries going into the game and picked up another two today. We had only three (outfield) players on the bench.
“We were down to 11 fit outfield players and that is before we assess the guys on Sunday morning.
“I might have to get the boots on if we pick up another injury. We are literally going going to Dundee on Tuesday with 10 outfielders.
“That’s not good for the league when teams are going for titles and fans are paying money. It’s not ideal.
“It’s a bit early to say about Esmael Goncalves (who went off injured late on). It doesn’t look great. He’s struggling to put weight on it, which is always a tell-tale sign.
“It was a strong challenge from the Inverness player. An old fashioned challenge and he probably knew what he was doing. I have no real complaints, but I am disappointed for Esmael, who has picked up a knock within that.
“It just seems to be the way it’s going for us at the moment.
“We will get Tuesday night’s game against Dundee out of the way. We will try to get a few more wins and we will be glad to see the back of the season.”
Two early goals dented Rovers’ hopes
Murray felt the two goals scored within the first 22 minutes made it a tough challenge for his players.
He added: “Inverness scored with their first two shots on target. That knocked the stuffing out of us a wee bit.
“We knew it would be difficult against a good side which has good attacking players in particular.
“We rallied really well and created a couple of half opportunities to try and get back into it but those two early goals were big blows for us.”
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