Caley Thistle skipper Carl Tremarco has described Saturday’s visit of Partick Thistle as his side’s biggest of the season thus far in Inverness’ efforts to mount a late Championship title challenge.
Inverness defeated second-placed Ayr 3-2 at Somerset Park on Tuesday to return to the promotion play-off spots, with the result leaving them nine points adrift of leaders Ross County with 14 league matches left.
English defender Tremarco insists the result will count for nothing if the Highlanders fail to follow it up with another triumph against the second-bottom Jags however, highlighting the need for John Robertson’s men to keep momentum on their side during the run-in.
Tremarco said: “The Ayr result could be massive, but we’ve got to capitalise on Saturday’s game.
“There is no point in going down to a tough place and getting three points against a team near the top of the league, then letting it slip at home to Partick, although that’s no disrespect to them.
“The performances in the last few weeks have been really good, even in the games we have lost. Hopefully we can kick on and keep grinding the results out.
“I have said numerous times that the team who will win the league will be the most consistent team.
“We need to be that team, and the past few weeks have given us a great platform. Coming off the back of the Falkirk game, we played really really well and were unlucky not to win.
“It has been a good few days so we will rest up ahead of our biggest game of the season. If we can put that one to bed we can relax for a couple of weeks and focus on the cup.”
Caley Jags led 3-0 at half time against the Honest Men on Tuesday, with Tremarco hailing Inverness’ resolve in surviving a late fightback from Ian McCall’s side.
The 33-year-old added: “I think maybe six or seven weeks ago we probably would have ended up drawing that game. That just shows the character we have shown in the last few weeks.
“It was a bit of a mad 20 minutes, but I think we totally deserved it. Being 3-0 up at half time, we knew they would bring Lawrence Shankland on and take risks – they just left their front three up every time we attacked.
“We knew it was going to be difficult, but we just tried to manage the game the best we could.
“Their first goal came from an error so we gave them a hand, but the second goal took a nick off the wall. We ground it out really well and ended up deserved winners.”