Manager Karen Mason insists Caley Thistle Women are determined to see off Edinburgh City to regain their push near the top of the Championship.
Four victories and one defeat from their opening five fixtures had Inverness riding high in the table.
And they led East Fife 1-0 at Millburn Academy at half-time last weekend before falling to a 3-1 defeat in a match switched from the Caledonian Stadium due to the heavy downpours.
They are in fourth position, just below Westdyke on goal difference, six points behind perfect starters Rossvale, who take on second-placed Ayr United this weekend.
This Sunday, Edinburgh make the trip to Inverness with four points on board, but on the back of successive 7-0 and 4-0 losses against East Fife and Ayr United respectively.
Mason – East Fife deserved victory
Mason insists cutting out errors while continuing to show bite in attack can bring them their rewards against their capital city opponents.
She said: “Before Sunday, we were on really good form.
“We felt we’d turned the corner with some of the things we let ourselves down with last year, but Sunday was a real disappointment.
“We dominated the first half and created multiple chances, yet only managed to take one.
After yesterdays defeat we need to pick ourselves back up, refocus and prepare for the first visit of @EdinburghCityW to Inverness 🔴🔵 pic.twitter.com/4N6cPuZdjD
— Inverness Caledonian Thistle WFC (@ICTWFC) October 9, 2023
“In the second half, mistakes cost us. We could not pick ourselves up from that, so it was disappointing after having been on such a strong run of form.
“Perhaps had we gone 2-0 ahead, given our level of dominance in the first half, it would have killed East Fife off, but they pressed us a lot higher in the second half and had a lot more bite about them.
“They deserved their win. Their goalkeeper also had the game of her life, which didn’t help us.
“Overall, we’re still up there and Rossvale are not too far ahead. They have a tough game against Ayr this weekend, so they might slip up.
“We’re still keeping up the pace. Our target was to maintain a challenge as long as we could. We have to up our game on Sunday to ensure we don’t make any more mistakes.”
Chances created keep Mason upbeat
The positives for Mason are how well her side are playing right now and the quality of depth of the squad right now.
She added: “We go into the weekend still high in confidence. Last week was hopefully just a blip, but we still played some really good football and created lots of chances, so we will take confidence from that.
“We had 17 players last week and we should have 17 again for this game.
“We’ve got plenty of options, with a fully fit squad, so we will probably ring some changes and hopefully come away with three points.”
Sunday’s match starts at 12.30pm at Millburn Academy.
ICYMI – The Draw
Here's how those Championship and League One Cup quarter finals came out the hat, including a replay of last season's final! #BeTheDifference pic.twitter.com/1Ok31pNgwV
— SWF Championship (@SWFChampionship) October 4, 2023
