Cameron Harper sees no reason for Caley Thistle to fear the task of climbing out of the Championship relegation play-off spot.
Inverness are second bottom of the table, with last weekend’s 2-1 loss at home to Ayr United leaving them two points adrift of Queen’s Park.
Caley Jags make the trip to face league leaders Dundee United on Saturday, with Jim Goodwin’s men also aiming to bounce back following a 3-1 loss to Dunfermline last Friday.
Defender Harper feels recent results across the league have shown how little there is between the teams, which makes him confident Duncan Ferguson’s men can start turning matches in their favour.
Harper said: “With the league position we are in, and looking at theirs, people will just say ‘United will win it easily’ but all the games have been very tight.
“It doesn’t really matter where you are in the league, anyone can beat anyone on their day.
“Since I have been full-time at Caley Thistle, there has probably always been one team that hasn’t run away with it as such, but has won more than they have lost.
“This year especially it seems even closer. We are not doing as well as we would have liked compared to seasons gone by, but the whole league is a lot tighter in general.
“Even thinking back to the Airdrie game, if we had scored one goal we would have gone up to sixth.
“It is still very tight everywhere you look. Apart from maybe Raith Rovers and Dundee United who have pulled away from the rest, everyone looks like they can be caught by the team below them.”
Harper confident Inverness have enough experience within ranks
Although Inverness emerged from the January transfer window with a young squad, 22-year-old Harper is confident the Highlanders have enough experience within their ranks to navigate their way out of trouble.
He added: “We have a young team, but I think there is enough experience in the changing room as well.
“It’s easy enough to just say all that, we have to go and do it. We are not silly and we understand the situation.
“As players we are the ones on the pitch, and we have to go and get ourselves out of this little bit of trouble. We are capable of doing that. I do believe that.
“We have spoken about it as a team. We know we have not been good enough this season, and Saturday was obviously disappointing.
“I think we have a good enough team, it’s just having that concentration for the 90 minutes.
“It might sound like such an easy thing to do, but it’s just having that focus and determination to be switched on all the time.”
Tight recent encounters against United
Inverness claimed a point when they last visited Tannadice, with United’s Kevin Holt cancelling out Nathan Shaw’s opener.
In the two games between the sides at Caledonian Stadium this term, United have struck late to leave Inverness empty-handed.
Harper has seen enough to suggest his side can cause the Tayside outfit problems.
He added: “In the games we have played against them before it has always been pretty tight, considering they are the joint league leaders with the biggest budget.
“Down there we probably felt a bit hard done by, after going that goal in front.
“We feel we can turn up and hopefully get the result, although we know it’s going to be hard.”
Conversation