Manager Duncan Ferguson insists Caley Thistle must address their home results finally start pulling away from the drop-zone in the Championship.
Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Airdrie offered plenty of positives in terms of the way the team played, but they lacked the killer touch to see off the fifth-placed visiting Diamonds.
Such is the tight nature of the division, a home win would have taken the Highlanders up to sixth position and to within four points of fourth-placed Morton – albeit having played one match more.
In terms of home results, ICT have the joint worst record of just 12 points, along with basement side Arbroath.
On their travels, their 19 points are only bettered by leaders Dundee United (33 away points) and second-placed Raith Rovers (28 away points).
Inverness have now gone four months without winning a league game on home soil, with their 3-1 win over Ayr United on November 11 being their last such success.
Fans ‘stuck with’ ICT on Saturday
With Scott Brown’s eighth-placed Ayr visiting this weekend, Ferguson knows Inverness must tuck away chances to secure only their third Caledonian Stadium league victory this term.
He said: “Unfortunately, we couldn’t win at home again on Saturday, but the fans stuck with us.
“Conditions were a bit better than they have been, so hopefully as conditions improve, our performance will get better and better.
“Our home form has been poor, which is concerning, and those results here have put us under pressure.
“Away from home, we have been absolutely excellent and looked like a really good team.
“We looked like a good team against Airdrie, but we could not put the ball in the net – the home form is crippling us.
“Ayr United this Saturday, back at home, is massive, so we go again.”
Ferguson ‘delighted’ with full-back Duffy
Inverness are now five successive games without a loss, although four of those have ended in draws.
One big positive is they have kept clean sheets in their last three outings, which delights the boss.
Ferguson said: “We have tightened up at the back. I thought the defensive line of Danny Devine, James Carragher and Remi Savage have been excellent.
“Wallace Duffy has come into the team from nowhere and played the last three games – I am delighted with him. I never even thought he could get himself fit.”
ICT were pushing for the winner
Ferguson was delighted to have more than matched Airdrie, who are pushing hard for a top-four spot and praised his men for looking the likeliest to win at the weekend.
He added: “I couldn’t fault any of the players against Airdrie. We just never got that chance.
“Airdrie are a good technical team and they have got nice patterns, but we restricted them to very little, although we never had many (chances) ourselves. That said, we were the team in the ascendency and pushing for the goal.
“It just didn’t fall for us, but I thought our overall play was good. We switched the play well and we zipped the ball about. There were no poor performances. They gave 100%.”
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