Caley Thistle midfielder Aaron Doran reckons only victory in Thursday’s Highland derby against Ross County will make amends for the 1-0 defeat by Aberdeen at Caledonian Stadium yesterday.
Peter Pawlett’s 13th-minute goal condemned Inverness to a third successive league loss, the first time that has happened since January 2011.
Doran is relishing the chance to put one over on their Highland rivals when the sides meet at Victoria Park on New Year’s Day.
He said: “There’s no better game to go into after three losses than the derby against County at Dingwall. We usually do quite well there, so we’re looking forward to it.
“We’re still confident in our play. We’re not playing too badly at present, we’re just not taking our chances and teams are breaking on us and scoring.
“Aberdeen probably didn’t deserve to win. We did well in the second half and created a few chances. Billy Mckay hit the crossbar and Gary Warren had a few chances as well. We huffed and puffed in the second half and got our game going a bit more. We were unlucky in the end not to get anything.”
Caley Jags remain fifth after yesterday’s defeat but Doran is determined to help the Highlanders recapture their form of earlier in the season.
Doran added: “We hadn’t lost any games at home and now it’s two on the bounce. We want to make this place a fortress and it’s been hard to take losing the last two games. But we’re playing all right. In the game against St Johnstone it was a dive that won the game and a counterattack from Aberdeen with a great finish.
“We could have gone back to second yesterday after losing two games. That shows how well we’ve done at the start of the season. We want to get going again. We just have to go to Ross County and try to get a result.”
Caley Thistle manager John Hughes felt his players did enough to get something out of the game.
He said: “I think we did well enough to take something out of it, but that’s football. If you give them a goal head start then it’s always going to be an uphill struggle.
“Other than that I was very pleased with how we played. It’s maybe just a wee bit of lady luck that’s deserted us.
“I can’t complain about the effort and commitment from the boys and in the second half we had Aberdeen on the back foot.”