Danny Devine believes Caley Thistle have shown they can compete in the Premiership. Now they are aiming to reach it as the play-off chase enters the home straight.
With three matches of the Championship season remaining Caley Thistle’s fate is in their own hands. Nine points out of nine and the club will be in the Premiership play-offs.
But the road to the play-offs is a difficult one with rivals Dundee set to visit Caledonian Stadium tonight (7.0) followed by a trip to Tynecastle on Friday to face champions Hearts before a final game at home to an Ayr United side which is fighting to avoid finishing in the play-off position of ninth place.
The stakes are high but following a Scottish Cup win at Ross County and another impressive showing despite losing 2-1 at St Mirren on Friday defender Devine believes his club has shown its Premiership credentials.
He said: “We’ve held our own against two Premiership teams. We’ve more than held our own against one and played well against the other.
“We’ve got stronger over the course of the season, got a few back from injury and added one or two. It has given the boys a lift knowing if we can get there we will fancy ourselves to stay there.
“St Mirren had a lot of good chances as well but we had a lot of the ball and matched them all over the park. That has to give us big confidence going back into the league.
“We’re looking forward to it after a good performance at Paisley. It was a huge disappointment to lose the game as we did but the performance was very good and if we take it into tomorrow’s game we have a great chance.
“We spoke after the game about not letting it eat away at us as we now have the most important game of the season and we have to make sure we carry the good performance into tomorrow and I’m pretty confident we’ll do that.”
Victory against Dundee, who beat Inverness 2-1 at Dens Park on March 2, will allow Inverness to leapfrog Dunfermline into fourth place and move within a point of the third-placed Dark Blues and Devine insists his club is ready for the challenge.
He said: “There’s Dundee and Dunfermline in about us so if we can get a win not only does it put us in a good position it puts pressure on the teams around us which is why it is important we get a result.
“Credit to Dundee, they have been on a good run themselves. It was a tough game down there last time and we were very disappointed with our performance that night. We let ourselves down but our confidence is high and we are a totally different team now.
“We were outfought that night as we just weren’t on it but I think tomorrow will be totally different.
“We are going into these last few games knowing we need to win. We can’t rely on what other teams do, we need to be picking up three points. There is a lot more on these next three games but the boys are well aware of that.
“It’s in our own hands and that is what we wanted coming down the stretch. It’s not easy and we have the toughest run-in but that is what football is all about. The boys are well up for it.”