Caley Thistle suffered more call-off frustration as today’s Championship trip to Dundee was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.
Heavy rainfall in Dundee throughout the week, with further rain and snowfall forecast, prompted a 3.45pm inspection yesterday ahead of this afternoon’s scheduled encounter.
Following an assessment of the Dens Park surface a referee deemed the pitch unplayable, with this weekend’s fixture the ninth Inverness match to be called off since Boxing Day.
Although Caley Jags have had midweek fixtures against Morton and Arbroath in the last fortnight, John Robertson’s men have not played a Saturday fixture since a 2-1 defeat to Alloa Athletic on December 19.
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With the remainder of this weekend’s Championship card scheduled to go ahead as planned, Inverness are now likely to fall even further behind in their fixture schedule, having only played 11 games so far.
The Highlanders’ next game is at home to Alloa on Wednesday, followed by home fixtures against Morton and Queen of the South in the subsequent seven days.
Despite another call off blow, Robertson insists a climb up the Championship table is within Caley Thistle’s grasp if they can turn draws into wins.
Inverness have been forced to settle for a point in four of their last five games, drawing 1-1 with Arbroath in their most recent outing.
The series of postponed matches has seen Caley Jags fall behind in the race for the play-offs, and although Robertson is pleased his side are proving hard to beat he has challenged them to rediscover the winning habit in their rearranged matches.
Robertson said: “It’s just sod’s law – we will catch up when we catch up.
“All the games at the moment are huge.
“Looking at the league, it was a big result for Dunfermline to beat Raith Rovers and move on to 24 points.
“We are on 14 with three games in hand, and two to other teams. A couple of wins can concertina the league very quickly, as we have seen.
“We just need a wee break, nothing is really breaking for us right now.
“Any little mistake we make seems to be punished at the moment, but we’re hopeful that a little bit of luck will come.
“We need to pick up wins. Draws don’t help you move up the league too far, so if we can win the games we have to catch up on we can get ourselves up into the highest places in the league.”
The prolonged wait until Wednesday’s game against Alloa could give attacker James Keatings additional time to recover from a dead leg suffered against Arbrorath.
Inverness were also without defenders Danny Devine (knee) and Robbie Deas (glute) against Arbroath due to injury, which forced attacker Nikolay Todorov to deputise at centre half, with Robertson hopeful of having both in contention.