Striker Austin Samuels aims to help fire Caley Thistle into the Premiership – and vows to soak up scoring advice from head coach Billy Dodds.
The former Scotland, Aberdeen, Rangers and Dundee United forward knew where the net was in a brilliant career, which spanned a sparkling 20 years.
Now Samuels, who was on loan at Aberdeen earlier this season, is eager to shine in the Highlands after netting an 18-month deal to move from Wolves on Friday.
He’d barely signed the contract and he was meeting his new team-mates then coming off the bench in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Kilmarnock, which saw ICT slip to third in the Championship.
The chance to chip in with goals in a team which certainly knows how to create was a key factor in his returning to the north of Scotland.
He said: “The team are in a great position to get promoted and I felt it was a good opportunity for me. I like the way the team plays, so I knew this was the place I wanted to be.
“My goal is to do the very best I can, score some goals and be a threat to help the team get promoted.
“Hopefully the manager can help me along the way. I will ask as many questions as I can and try to get the best out of it.”
Grateful for game time at Aberdeen
The 21-year-old failed to score in seven outings for the Dons in the Premiership, but he was grateful for the experience nonetheless.
He said: “Hopefully I will get more opportunities at Caley Thistle so I can show people what I can do.
“At Aberdeen, I played a bit at the start, but a bit out of position. I had opportunities to start with and came off the bench a few times towards the end – but overall Aberdeen was a good experience for me.
“The 18-month contract here gives me a bit of security, which is what I wanted. You never know what can happen in football, so that was good.”
Inverness got stronger in second half
Samuels looked lively when he came on for Sam Pearson just after the hour mark and felt they were not far away from getting a result after a slow start.
He said: “The first half was really tough. I didn’t feel like we rose to the occasion, but in the second half we controlled the game and pushed bodies forward.
“They had chances on the counter attack, which was always going to happen. We were much more of a threat in the second half.”
Striker confident of promotion push
Although just in the door, Samuels was impressed by the quality of his team-mates, with even the bench looking strong at the weekend.
He added: “We have got talent in the squad. You can see that when you look at the bench. We have the chance to get promoted.
“Kilmarnock are one of the league’s better teams and we played well against them, so I think we will be fine.”
Inverness will be looking to bounce back from what was only their second away league loss of the campaign when they host Dougie Imrie’s improving Morton on Saturday.