Mark Ridgers hopes a winning Caley Thistle team will make turnstiles click and help super-charge the club’s bid for promotion to the Premiership.
The Inverness goalkeeper has yet to play in the top-flight with his hometown team, having joined just after their relegation to the Championship in 2017.
There have been near misses, none more so than two years ago when St Johnstone pipped Billy Dodds’ side in the play-off final after a late-season surge by ICT.
On Saturday, the new league campaign kicks off with Queen’s Park visiting the Caledonian Stadium.
Last year, the Spiders, then bossed by Owen Coyle, lost a title-deciding game 5-3 against Dundee, then were out-gunned by Partick Thistle in the play-offs.
Now, Dutchman Robin Veldman is in charge and the Glasgow club will remain as ambitious as last year in their push to reach the top-tier.
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Even 100 extra would be welcome
That’s the target for Inverness as well and, having reached the Scottish Cup final where they lost to Celtic in June, Ridgers hopes fans can boost the players by getting right behind them from day one.
The goalkeeper, who has a club record 82 clean sheets from 239 games, said: “For us to start at home with a win would be perfect, but it’s going to be a long season again.
“Our home form let us down massively last year, so we have to improve that.
“Getting supporters through the gate to support us off the back of the cup final would be great.
“If we can even get an extra 100-150 people through the door, that would be a massive improvement.
“Of course, that comes from winning games, so if we can start with one that would be ideal.
“We’re seeing more kids wearing Caley Thistle tops, so if we keep winning, they will come to games, and hopefully they can get us over the line at the end of the season.”
Local talent can lure people to games
With young players such as Keith Bray and Robbie Thompson breaking into the first-team, Ridgers hopes that will also help boost numbers coming along to matches.
He said: “It’s people’s friends and family, so they will come and watch.
“It’s good for the football club, and the youth department.
“(Under-18s coach) Ryan Esson has done an unbelievable job with the under-18s over the last few years with players coming through, so that will help get people through the door just like our success in the Scottish Cup last season.
“We have to put that to bed now and focus on being consistent in the league campaign now so that we can be up there at the end of the season.”
Major dips in form too costly for ICT
In the past two years, Inverness – not helped by deep injury setbacks – have dipped into winless league runs of 11 and eight fixtures.
Late-term improvements to results have almost brought success, but 32-year-old Ridgers knows any slips in form must be addressed quickly.
He added: “There are times in the season we have to improve on.
“The biggest thing we have to do this year is stop these blips that we go on where we go five or six games – sometimes even more – without winning.
“We have to make sure it’s only one or two games without winning, and that’s the mentality we have to have.
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— Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC (@ICTFC) August 3, 2023
“We’ve gone on runs without winning, but it’s a difficult league – everyone knows that.
“Even the teams who have been promoted are good and financially backed, but we’ve got a good mix of youth and experience.
“It’s a dressing room that knows what has to be done, and starting with a win on Saturday would be perfect.”
Inverness aim to be in step-up mix
Caley Thistle crashed out of the Viaplay Cup in the group stages after defeats against Dumbarton, Airdrieonians and Dundee.
The narrow loss at Dens Park on Sunday against their Premiership hosts offered an improvement, especially defensively, and Ridgers said the focus is fixed fully on beating Queen’s Park.
He said: “You can take what you want from the League Cup – some teams do it completely differently from others.
“It’s a strange situation to be starting competitive games so soon, but results-wise it doesn’t really matter if your main focus is the league.
“We used the League Cup to get as many minutes in boys as we could.
“Of course, we would have loved to get through, but with the short time off all the staff had an idea of what they wanted to do with the players.
“Everyone has had game-time, and this is where it really matters now, so for me it’s deja vu and trying to get ourselves promoted.
“It’s going to be tight again, but a lot of teams are going to be competing.
“It could be the case again this year where we have eight teams with something to play for in the last day of the season, and we want to be up there.”
