Caley Thistle midfielder James Vincent believes the pressure is on former club Dundee in their bid to secure an immediate return to the Premiership.
Inverness return to action against James McPake’s side at Dens Park this afternoon, having been idle for last weekend’s Betfred Cup second round fixtures following their elimination from the competition.
Englishman Vincent, who returned to Caledonian Stadium for a second spell this summer, will return to Tayside to face the Dark Blues, where he spent three years after leaving the Highlanders first time around.
Vincent is well aware of the expectations surrounding today’s opponents, and reckons Dundee’s supporters will be eager to see their side bounce back at the first time of asking after suffering the drop from the top-flight last term.
Vincent said: “When Dundee were in the Premiership there were expectations on us to do well and break into the top-six.
“With the season they have had there has been a downfall. The fans, and the players and manager on the inside, will all be expecting to get right back up.
“There is an expectation, they get a good fanbase so they will have them on their back.
“It will be difficult for them to maintain that, as it is a hard league sometimes.
“Sometimes you drop into the league and it is difficult. It’s about us capitalising on that.”
Caley Jags are now in their third season in the second-tier since themselves suffering relegation from the Premiership in 2017.
Vincent, who spent last season on loan with Dunfermline, feels his side are familiar with what to expect in their own pursuit of promotion, and the 29-year-old added: “A lot of the games unfortunately can be battles sometimes, it’s the way it is.
“We do our best every time to go out there and try to play the right football and make it entertaining.
“We try to play to our strengths but sometimes it’s not going to be like that. It’s the other side of the game which maybe some of the teams that have come down might not have in their locker.
“We know our strengths. We have got some lads that have been there and done it in this league. They had a fantastic campaign last year, so hopefully we can build on that.”
Caley Jags fell to a 1-0 loss to Dundee in their final Betfred Cup group fixture last month, however Vincent is not disheartened by the loss, adding: “From our point of view we didn’t quite play to the levels we know we can as a team.
“In that sense, we know there is room for improvement and on another day I think we could have done something better with the result.
“The goal was a bit of a mistake from our point of view, so hopefully we can play the right sort of football and get the team going and we can get a result down there.”