Caley Thistle head coach Billy Dodds believes patience is the route to success when they face teams at the Caledonian Stadium.
On Saturday, Inverness host Jim McIntyre’s League 1 winners Cove Rangers in the Championship just a few weeks after the sides drew 1-1 in the Premier Sports Cup.
The home team came through on penalties to earn a bonus point to win Group G and secure a second-round shot at Premiership Motherwell on August 31.
The first match of the league season for Inverness was also at home and they were held to a 1-1 draw against another promoted opponent in Owen Coyle’s well-drilled Queen’s Park.
A goalless draw at gusty Arbroath last weekend means Dodds’ men, who aim to win the Championship, are sill hunting for their first league win.
So, to avoid a third successive home draw over 90 minutes, Dodds will urge his players to give nothing away at the back and not permit frustration to affect their performance.
He said: “Teams will come here knowing we’re a good team and make it difficult for us.
“Maybe away from home, teams are more open and we can play through them and get a couple of goals.
“At home, teams can make it difficult and try and frustrate you. We need to find a way to handle that frustration at times, but we have the quality. We also need to make sure we don’t give anything away at the other end.
“We lost (defender) Kirk Broadfoot at the end of the season. He had the experience which can at times help the younger boys through games when they’re having a tough game. But we have still got experienced players.
“We’re still unbeaten this season. While it is disappointing to only have two draws in the league, we’re through in the League Cup and a win on Saturday would make it an excellent start.”
McIntyre will organise Cove Rangers
Dodds will go head-to-head with his good friend McIntyre again, who he won the League Cup with when the duo were at Ross County in 2016.
A fortnight ago, Cove, in their first fixture in the Championship, scored a terrific 2-0 win against Raith Rovers.
However, failure to cash in on good play was costly for them last weekend when they slipped to a 1-0 loss at Dougie Imrie’s Morton.
McIntyre is keen to bolster his Cove squad, but Dodds knows the way he sets his side up – and with the firepower of Mitch Megginson – will make for another tricky encounter.
He said: “Cove have a small squad and I know Jim wants to add to it.
“I do know how organised he is and how he will get the best out of what he’s got. They have good players.
“We never took the cup game lightly. We’d have loved to have won the game, but it was more about us getting through to the next round.
“A point then winning the penalty shoot-out was a good result for us.
“It was a tricky one for us to handle and we were between a rock and a hard place.
“We could have gone for the win and they could have scored and we’d be on nine points in the group and worried about getting through.
“A bonus point win was a good result and we qualified as the group winners.”