Caley Thistle midfielder Aaron Doran does not personally favour artificial surfaces but believes it could work to his side’s advantage tomorrow when Inverness play Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.
Inverness have trained on the synthetic surface at Millburn Academy this week in preparation for today’s trip to Ayrshire.
Although Doran prefers playing on grass, the Irishman feels his side’s 2-0 victory against Hamilton Accies on another synthetic surface in August shows Caley Jags are more than capable of performing on it.
Doran said: “We trained at Millburn Academy during the week, getting ourselves ready for Kilmarnock. We’re getting a bit more used to it now.
“Personally, I don’t really like it. You can try to play a straight pass and the ball moves and bobbles, so it’s a bit harder. But the grass pitches aren’t the best anyway at the moment, so we can probably use it to our advantage.
“We like to play some nice football, so hopefully we can get it down on the pitch and get our passing going.
“They seem to dry up quickly and then they’re tough to play on. If it’s a nice, slick surface it will be easier for us to pass the ball around. That’s our game, so, fingers crossed, we can play some nice football.
“It worked for us when we went to Hamilton. It was a really good performance.
“I watched from the bench that day and the lads were brilliant. They didn’t give Hamilton a chance and played some really good football. If we can carry that on into this weekend, it should be a good game.”
Inverness have picked up again after three straight defeats, recording consecutive victories against Ross County and St Mirren in their last two games.
Doran feels the win against Saints demonstrates Caley Thistle’s ability to win ugly and the 23 year-old would settle for much of the same against Killie.
Doran added: “We lost three games in a row, including two 1-0 defeats by St Johnstone and Aberdeen. We were unfortunate in those games. They were tough results to take.
“But to go to the derby game at Dingwall and pick up three points and then another win against St Mirren amounts to the start of a good run.
“We want to keep that going against Kilmarnock. We do seem to be able to win matches when not playing so well, as you saw against St Mirren last weekend, so that’s a strength.
“We ground it out and, thankfully, Billy Mckay got the goal in the end.
“At times this season we’re grinding out results we might not have got in previous years.”