Billy Mckay lashed home a lethal leveller for Caley Thistle against Queen’s Park and rose up the club’s all-time scoring charts too.
Inverness had to settle for a 1-1 draw on Saturday against the play-off winning Spiders, bossed by Owen Coyle.
The former Northern Irish international striker swept home a wonderful shot just before half-time, wiping out the early goal by Queen’s Jake Davidson.
Following on from his goal in the 4-0 Premier Sports Cup win against Albion Rovers, he’s now joined first-team coach Barry Wilson on 83 Caley Jags goals – one ahead of legend Iain Stewart.
He’s still 18 goals away from the outright top scorer, with Dennis Wyness sitting as the sole century-breaker on 101 goals.
Mckay was pleased to have drawn level with Wilson on the charts, and is desperate to add to that tally.
He said: “It’s great to go joint with Baz. To score that many goals for the club is brilliant, but hopefully there will be many more goals to come.”
Scorer plucks positives from draw
The 33-year-old, who bagged 15 last season on his return to Inverness after leaving Ross County, was delighted to see his shot fly in against Queen’s.
He said: “I struck it really well. I had a couple of chances in the second half where I didn’t hit it as well as that.
“If I had, those would probably have gone in as well.
“The moment I hit it for the goal, I knew I’d hit it really well. I was just glad at the time to get the boys back in the game.
“Overall, we had some good chances to win it. Steven Boyd had a few shots in the first half, George Oakley had a chance coming off the bench.
“We know it wasn’t good enough in the first half, but the positive is we still had chances.
“We need to tighten up a bit on the tactical side, with our positioning off the ball.
“There is a lot to learn, but there were a lot of good things as well so we’ll take the positives.”
New sides mean business – Mckay
After finishing third and reaching the play-off final last term, ICT are regarded as one of the title favourites.
Mckay believes, having reached the second round of the Premier Sports Cup for the first time in six years, they’ll be good enough to be at the right end of the table come April.
He said: “We’ve had a really good cup campaign in our group.
“There are a lot of boys fighting for places in the team, which is good.
“We’ve seen in the last couple of weeks just how hard this league is going to be.
“Cove last week (in a 1-1 cup draw) and Queen’s Park are two teams coming up who have ambitions in the league, not to just avoid relegation but to be right up there.
“It is going to be a tough league again, it always is.
“But we’ll back ourselves to be up there towards the business end.”
Mckay ready for battle in Arbroath
ICT’s first away league game will be away to last season’s runners-up Arbroath this Saturday.
Inverness didn’t lose a goal there in 2021/22, drawing 0-0 twice and winning 1-0 on the first day of the campaign.
The play-off semi-final at Gayfield had plenty of drama, with ICT defying the odds – being down to eight men at one stage – to win on penalties before losing the final against St Johnstone.
Mckay added: “We had a really good time there at the end of last season, a really memorable match.
“We got a couple of draws down there and a win.
“We know what they’re about. They’re going to be hard to beat and it is going to be a hard game.
“We’ve got to make sure we match their physicality and show our quality when we can.”
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