Cammy Kerr is confident Caley Thistle will bounce back from their 3-1 Scottish Cup defeat to Hibs to find a spark in the Championship.
The on-loan Dundee right-back moved north until the end of the season from the Premiership Taysiders and looks to be a key addition to Duncan Ferguson’s squad for the closing few months of the campaign.
The 28-year-old, who has spent a decade with his beloved Dark Blues, jumped at the chance to join ICT for regular game-time in the January window.
On Saturday, in only his third Inverness match, he crashed a header off the bar when it was only 1-0, before Hibs raced into a 3-0 lead.
Aaron Doran’s fine strike for ICT was the final kick of the ball, with two of Hibs’ three goals aided by errors at the back by the Caley Jags.
While this was playing out, in the Championship, Queen’s Park’s 3-0 league win at Dunfermline Athletic took them above Inverness and Ayr United and into sixth spot.
Ferguson’s team dropped to eighth, only above now ninth-placed Dunfermline on goal difference – and having played one match more.
This weekend, the Caley Jags are home to third-placed Partick Thistle seven days before they visit rock-bottom Arbroath.
‘Everyone’s demanding maximum’
Kerr explained, from what he’s seen of his short-term Inverness team-mates, there is enough to suggest they can push away from the threat of relegation.
He said: “The standards and the training are so high with everyone demanding the maximum every day – you’ve got to be on it.
“I think, if you continue to do that every day, you are going to get your rewards eventually.
“In the Raith game (a 3-2 away win), we were magnificent and, in the first half of the Queen’s Park game (a 1-0 loss), we were really good.
“Again, on Saturday, we had a good display.
“Now it’s about going on a good run, which teams have shown in the past, and it starts this week.”
Kerr ‘gutted’ to bow out of Scottish Cup
Although Hibs were favourites to reach the quarter-finals, Kerr felt Caley Jags had a real chance to cause an upset.
He said: “I think the first half we were good in terms of limiting them to very few chances, but probably, in the end, I was disappointed that we lost – because for large periods we did well.
“We were obviously going to be up against it for periods of the game and that is natural when you are playing one of the top teams in the country.
“But I’m gutted that we are out of the cup, because I thought we had a real chance against Hibs.
“But we’ll go home, reflect on it and put it behind us and go again.”
ICT pressed for leveller against Hibs
The full-back, who has won three promotions to the top-flight with Dundee, reflected on how his header off the bar, which came from a Max Anderson cross, might have changed the flow of the tie had it hit the net.
He added: “There are moments that define games and, at 1-0, if that header goes in, it changes it.
“Then they go up the other end and score through an individual error. That can happen anytime.
“Maybe it would have changed the game because I think we would have gone again and put a bit more pressure on them and maybe tested them higher up the park. But it wasn’t to be.
“At 1-0, you can sense it and it was there for us. I felt we were starting to pick up second balls in the middle of the pitch and get it wide and play one-twos. It was just that final wee bit we didn’t get.
“But when it goes to 2-0, their fans are behind them, and they can take a wee bit more time on the ball and maybe play passes they wouldn’t do at 1-0.
“If you don’t take your chances, or you are on the receiving end of an error, then it changes the total complexion of the game, especially in a cup-tie.”
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