Caley Thistle forward Connor Bell is all the more determined to answer the doubts aimed at the Inverness squad by manager John Robertson.
Robertson questioned whether his players were prepared to put their bodies on the line in the wake of last Saturday’s 2-1 defeat by Dumbarton, which was their fifth defeat from their opening seven Championship games.
English attacker Bell was one of 13 new additions over the summer, following a short spell with Swiss outfit Servette.
After being released by Sunderland at the age of 16, Bell went on to have spells with Rotherham United, Wrexham and Rhyl and the 21-year-old, who has netted in Caley Jags’ last two matches, is desperate to make the most of the opportunity handed to him by Robertson.
Bell said: “I’m one of the players the manager has brought in, so he has put his trust in me.
“I know a lot of players have come in but he has given me a second opportunity.
“I know we all need to be in it together but I feel I, maybe more than some of the other players, need to prove I want to be at this club, and want to help take it to the place I think Caley Thistle should be.
“That’s a given in football, we all want to do well. It’s not happening on purpose at a weekend, so we just have to make sure we get it right.
“He might be right in some aspects. We all want to win at the weekend, we are all professionals.
“But he has questioned us, so now we have to come out and prove him wrong.
“We can only do that with our performances at a weekend. It’s all right doing it Monday to Friday on the training pitch but it’s a results-based business so it has to be done on a Saturday.”
Inverness are aiming for just their second league win of the campaign at home to Queen of the South today, and Bell is eager to secure a confidence-boosting victory, adding: “It’s a massive game – with the run we are on at the minute we need three points. Regardless of performance, I feel that’s a must now.
“I’ve seen some of the quality of some of the players. In some of the games that haven’t gone our way, we have actually played well.
“It’s just about being clinical in both boxes but I’m confident we can turn it around.
“When we have lost goals, heads have dropped, but that’s just something we’ve got to try and turn around.”
“It’s not exactly a crisis – we are only seven games in and it’s a long season.”
Despite the poor results, Bell senses the Highlanders’ much-changed squad is slowly starting to click.
He added: “With so many new faces it doesn’t just come together like that, it takes time to come together.
“We are starting to build relationships in training, I can definitely see that.
“We are getting used to each other on a Saturday as well, I’m starting to see where the likes of Iain Vigurs likes to play his passes.
“When that all starts to come together we will be fine.”