Billy Dodds was stunned at the manner in which his Caley Thistle side powered to victory over Raith Rovers after a draining week and three defeats on the spin.
The Inverness side lost back-to-back Championship matches against Partick Thistle and Morton before being knocked out of the Premier Sports Cup last week in a 4-0 defeat at Premiership Motherwell.
However, despite the midweek disappointment at Fir Park, the group summoned up enough energy to secure a fine 2-0 win at Kirkcaldy.
On-loan Hibs ace Daniel MacKay won a second-half penalty, which Scott Allardice put away then MacKay lined up Billy Mckay for a late second goal, which pushed ICT up to fifth spot.
Amazingly, it also stretched the club’s unbeaten league run against Rovers to 22 matches, stemming back almost 22 years.
Confidence and belief grew in game
Inverness head coach Dodds admits his players produced a massive result, given the circumstances.
He said: “It has been a happy hunting ground for us. After the couple of weeks, we’d had, when the confidence had drained, we showed unbelievable fitness levels. The boys just kept going.
“After playing on Wednesday, we got them on the training ground on Friday and they were sore. We went to Kirkcaldy and the energy they found was incredible. They played the game ever so well.
“They were a wee bit shaky to start with because of that (lack of) confidence, but once we grew into the game, we managed it well.
“We got our goal, which was brilliant work from Dan MacKay for the penalty. I knew once he squared up the defender and got inside him, any tackle (might lead to a penalty). He is scary over the first five to 10 yards. He was caught and it was a definite penalty.
“I said them, if we can get the chance where we cut out a pass or make a tackle when they are putting the pressure on, we’ll get them and that’s what happened – it was a brilliant finish from Billy Mckay. He had to take it with his left foot. I was happy to see it going in.”
And Mckay’s goal took him on to 84 for the club, one ahead of current coach Barry Wilson, with only Dennis Wyness in front of him on 101.
Goal number 8️⃣4️⃣@billymckay22 is now outright ICTFC second all time top scorer following today’s goal against Raith Rovers pic.twitter.com/1SQ6gPewwM
— Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC (@ICTFC) September 3, 2022
Dodds said with a smile: “I’m glad Billy’s got that goal, it’s been a long time coming because all I’ve heard about is that record.”
Battling spirit was there in cup loss
Dodds explained that there was evidence of the fighting spirit within his squad even last week when they didn’t get a headline-making battering which some other sides have when being under the cosh.
He said: “I saw the battling spirit last week at Motherwell, which might seem crazy when you’ve lost 4-0.
“When you see some of the results in the last few weeks with Dundee United and Bournemouth (losing 9-0 against Celtic and Liverpool), that’s what can happen to your team.
“But I saw that fight in us last week when we had to dig in. We worked very hard in the second half and kept Motherwell to a minimum because they were relentless, they didn’t stop going.
“I could see that team spirit and work ethic and they took that into Saturday.”
Harper coped with position switch
A slight reshuffle of the Inverness pack saw left-back Cammy Harper take a more advanced position against Raith, with Zak Delaney slotting into the full-back role.
Dodds was impressed and clearly has faith in the 20-year-old, who has played in every game this season.
He added: “Cammy has got such good energy and a brilliant left foot. You can see he enjoyed playing that position.
“I told him just to use his energy and scrap away. That’s what he did and he had a really good game.”
Caley Thistle could climb into the top four of the Championship this weekend, should they defeat John Rankin’s Hamilton, who drew 2-2 at Cove Rangers on Saturday.