Caley Thistle manager Billy Dodds insists it is time for his side to respond after relinquishing their five-point lead at the top of the Championship.
Caley Jags have seen their lead at the top of the division eradicated in the last two matches following a draw at Raith and a first home defeat of the season to Arbroath on Tuesday.
While his side have stumbled in the last two games, Inverness boss Dodds has watched title rivals Kilmarnock take maximum points from their two matches to move to the top of the division on goals scored.
The Caley Thistle manager is far from downbeat, but is eager to see his side bounce back when they travel to Partick Thistle on Saturday.
He said: “I’m not going to come in and mump about, it hasn’t been like that, it has been lively as usual.
“I think we’ve got to hand teams credit – especially Kilmarnock. We went five points ahead, and they have answered it.
“They’ve got a wee bit of momentum from their games, they haven’t been great games, but they won 2–1 against Hamilton and then they won the big derby, so fair play to them.
“It’s going to be like that, so now it’s our turn to respond.”
Championship race will go to the wire
The Championship is shaping up exactly as Dodds expected before a ball was kicked in the campaign, with the second tier of Scottish football being a hugely competitive division.
Dodds believes the unpredictable nature of the league reinforces the need for consistency of performance from his side if they want to be title challengers this season.
He said: “I’ve said that right from the start, even when we were a couple of points clear, and then when we went five clear, it was always going to chop and change.
“You’ve got to give credit where credit is due – Kilmarnock have had some tough games in the derby against Ayr and Hamilton at home, and you can see they are starting to pick up results.
“This is a tough league with Kilmarnock and Hamilton down there, and Raith Rovers being such a good team.
“Dunfermline are there, Partick are there – this is a tough league. I’m leaving a few out and, I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but if you’re not playing your best against those teams they will take points off you as well.”
“If you asked me at the start of the season, I would have loved to have 23 points on the board right now.
“I love it, it’s a great place to come to work and the players are upbeat –we’re disappointed, we’re not trying to hide that, but we’re not down because we’re joint-top.”
Three out of four away from home
The trip to Partick represents the start of a difficult run of league fixtures for the Highlanders with three of their next four due to be played away from Caledonian Stadium.
With trips to Firhill followed by trips to Ayr United and Queen of the South, Dodds knows it is vital his side regains momentum.
He said: “We have to embrace it.
“We will never be fearful. If results go our way, we will be through another period where people are looking at us to slip up, and they might be looking at us even more now, because we dropped points against Arbroath at home.
“We’ve got a fantastic home record this season, but now we’ve got to go away from home, where we’ve been okay.
“We need to start winning games away from home, but we have to embrace it and be ready for it.
“We can get plenty of points out of it, and we will be more than happy if the chance comes to go back to the top of the league.”