Captain Billy Mckay is warning his Caley Thistle team-mates to realise they face a survival fight to remain in the Championship.
The striker scored from the spot to equalise in Saturday’s 2-1 home loss to Ayr United, which extended their winless home league run to nine games and to more than four months.
The defeat, which followed a period of four draws, one win and three successive clean sheets, leaves ICT in trouble.
With seven fixtures to go, they are ninth in the table, two points behind Queen’s Park and now four points below Dunfermline Athletic and Ayr.
‘We’re in a real battle now’ – Mckay
They are eight points clear of rock-bottom Arbroath, but with leaders Dundee United and third-placed Partick Thistle their next two opponents, and away from home, the heat is on.
Mckay, the club’s record scorer with 112 goals in 252 appearances, hopes the seriousness of their situation sparks a reaction.
The forward said: “Towards the end of the game, you become a bit frustrated, and you start worrying that the goal is not going to come.
“We’re still well in the mix, but a bit of realisation needs to happen amongst the lads that we’re in a real battle now. We have to pick up wins.
“We’ve two tough away games now and we have to get points from them, simple as that.”
Strong away form offers ICT hope
Only joint leaders Dundee United and Raith Rovers and now Ayr United have performed better away from home than Inverness in this season’s Championship and Mckay says that can give them belief as they hit the road.
So far this season, United have posted two 1-0 wins in their meetings and it ended 1-1 when they locked horns at Tannadice in November.
Mckay said: “We’ve played Dundee United three times this season and there has not been anything in those games.
“Our away form is good, and we have to get points from these next two games. We can’t come away with nothing, otherwise we will find ourselves further adrift.
“The pressure is on the lads now, but I believe we have got a good group here. We just need to grow up a little bit as a team and come together a bit more and get some points.”
45+' | 1-1
GOALLLLLLLLLLLL! BILLY MCKAY CONVERTS THE PENALTY! pic.twitter.com/MQReM5KpVG
— Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC (@ICTFC) March 16, 2024
Caley Jags punished for ‘sloppy play’
The 35-year-old feels the players must improve all over the park to become sharper and keep a cool heat when the going gets tough.
He added: “On Saturday, there were not lots of chances and I don’t think Ayr were much better than us, but that was one of our worst performances in weeks and we got punished for it.
“We conceded two sloppy goals. We started the game well and had a couple of chances. They broke away, won a corner, and it was 1-0.
“We got back in the game at 1-1 for half-time and we felt we could have a real go, but then it was more sloppy play let them in too easy with a ball across goal.
“At 2-1, we have given ourselves a mountain to climb. When we are chasing games, we have got to be better. We must be more composed and try to work our way into the box a bit more.
“We need to get more efforts on goal rather than just booting it long and panicking a little bit.
“There was not much in the game, but we didn’t play well, so we can’t have too many complaints about the result in the end.”
Duncan Ferguson targets three Caley Thistle wins after defeat to Ayr United
