Caley Thistle’s Championship campaign has become a struggle for survival.
Forget talk of an immediate return to the Premiership. It’s time to think about the consequences of another relegation for the Highland club.
Saturday’s grim loss at Dumbarton was the fifth in seven matches in the second tier.
A home draw against Morton and victory at bottom club Brechin City on September 2 is all Inverness have to show for their efforts.
The poor start means Caley Jags are eighth in the division, two points better off than a Brechin side yet to win a game and five points behind the seventh-placed Sons following Steven Aitken’s side’s win against the Highlanders at the weekend.
The 12-point gap between his side and leaders Dunfermline is irrelevant.
It is the club’s predicament which is causing Robertson the most concern.
This is not a manager scrambling to save his job. This is a football man who knows the danger signs.
The former Scotland international attacker knows a huge points swing to catch a Pars side which has lost just one of its opening seven games is wishful thinking.
All talk of titles and promotion is off the agenda. Robertson’s pressing issue is trying to stop the rot. He knows the consequences if this pattern continues and not just for his position.
He said: “This is not just about staying in this division, this is about the club’s survival because if we were to go down again then it would put us in a really vulnerable position.
“Apart from a 20-minute spell against Dunfermline no club has outplayed us but when they have had their spells they have taken advantage. We need to be sacrificing everything we have for this football club because it needs us.
“The situation is not desperate, but it is a worrying one. In hindsight, and it’s easy to say this, had we taken the chances we have created when we’ve dominated matches we would be sitting just off the top of the league, under the radar, in a good position.
“But we’re not. We’re in the spotlight because of the position we are in at the wrong end of the league and the next three games won’t make it any easier.
“We’ve got Queen of the South at home then trips to Falkirk and Dundee United. There’s the reality check for the players – where are we going to be? We need to show some professional pride in ourselves and we cannot keep blaming managers and coaches.”
The debate among Inverness supporters as to who is to blame for the sorry predicament the club finds itself in is ongoing.
Caley Thistle won the Scottish Cup two years ago. It feels like a lifetime ago.
John Hughes, the man who led his side to cup victory, is long gone. His successor, Richie Foran, lasted a season and took the club down. His chairman, Kenny Cameron, went with him.
Cameron’s successor Willie Finlayson has already been and gone with his only notable act being the dismissal Foran and appointing Robertson.
Finlayson’s replacement is Graham Rae, who so far has been something on an enigma. Boardroom statements on the club website have become en vogue but what he and his directors think of on-field events so far remains a mystery.
Robertson needs time to bed his hastily assembled team in but whether he will get it no one knows.
However, Robertson has been in the management game long enough to know the signs point to an improvement being required quickly.
He is the man who led the club to the top flight for the first time in 2004, but this is a very different Caley Jags in 2017.
The team has been built from scratch in little time and with little chance to gel.
It would be easy to hide behind a sob story, but that is not Robertson’s style. He knows football is a business and it is his reputation on the line.
But he cannot do it alone and Saturday’s defeat reinforced his belief his players need to do more.
Saturday’s loss at Dumbarton was symptomatic of the club’s woeful results. Lots of pretty football, chances missed then goals conceded with alarming ease.
Even the manager is becoming tired of talking about it.
He said: “We are not clinical at both ends. We’re not taking chances when they come and we are not defending as we should. As a coaching staff we’re giving the players everything.
“We’ve had a long and frank discussion. Is the training wrong? No, we work them hard. Is the information we’re giving them about the opposition wrong? No. Is the way we’ve asked them to play allowing us to dominate games for long spells? Yes.
“Are the players prepared to do the extra hours and throw their bodies on the line? That’s what we’ve been talking about.
“On Saturday Carl Tremarco gave us everything he had for 70 minutes and we had to take him off as he had nothing left to give. Can the rest of them say that? I’m not sure. It’s easy for players to sit in the dressing room and say it’s my fault as I should have picked that player up or done this or that, but I want them to go and do it, not talk about it.
“I want them to show they care about the badge and it is a badge of honour.
“I’m not sure some of them want to work for this club. They come to training and it’s a Monday session or a double Tuesday session but it isn’t. Everything we do is geared towards the next game.
“My staff is committed and our supporters are frustrated. Nobody is more frustrated than I am, I can assure them of that. I’m frustrated and I’m angry. I want a reaction and quickly.”