Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Caley Thistle’s Austin Samuels hopes he is hitting full fitness at the right time

Striker, who has been injured for five months this season, wants success in the league and Scottish Cup for ICT fans.

Caley Thistle's Austin Samuels in action against Hamilton Accies. Image: Simon Wootton/SNS Group
Caley Thistle's Austin Samuels in action against Hamilton Accies. Image: Simon Wootton/SNS Group

Austin Samuels is ready to put his injury struggles behind him and play his part for Caley Thistle in their promotion bid.

The Inverness striker has, over two spells, missed five months of this season due to fibula injuries.

However, since returning to the fold in February, the 22-year-old has added another six appearances to his tally to take him to 16 matches.

In Saturday’s 2-1 win at Morton, he played 80 minutes after coming off the bench to replace injured wide midfielder Jay Henderson, who is on loan from St Mirren.

Sixth-placed ICT, who face Falkirk on April 29 in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden, are hunting down a promotion play-off spot, chasing Partick Thistle, in fourth, who are six points ahead, but have played one match more.

Six league games remain for ICT, with Raith Rovers, who are one point below them, visiting before they host Arbroath on Tuesday.

ICT forward Austin Samuels would relish a chance to face Raith Rovers this weekend. Image: SNS

Sharpening up for crunch run-in

Samuels, whose two goals against Thistle last season helped Inverness reach the Premiership play-off final, cannot wait to try and make a similar impact.

He said: “It was good to get on against Morton. It was the most minutes (in one match) I’ve had since I’ve come back from injury.

“It was great to have a good performance and get the win as well.

“It took me a bit of time to get back into the flow of things, having been out for quite a while.

“I feel like I’m getting there and the more I play, the greater the chance there is for me getting back to how I was before.

“There is a lot at stake. We’re getting closer to crunch time.

“Even if we don’t have the top performances, if we grind out results, that’s the most important thing right now.

“Saturday was never going to be a smooth-sailing game. It’s never pretty football when you go down there. We had to grind it out and luckily we got the victory.”

Injury hit ahead of comeback match

Former Wolves player Samuels was on the brink of making a comeback against Morton in October. He explained how cruel luck at Cappielow put him out of action for longer.

He said: “I fractured my fibula twice this season. When I came back for the Morton game (in October) I did it again (in the warm-up) and made it worse and I was out for even longer.

“I was only meant to be out for six to eight weeks and it ended up being five months.”

Spirits high for Rovers’ trip north

Raith Rovers’ 2-1 midweek loss against Hamilton kept them one place below ICT, but forward Samuels says it’s now all about what they do as they look for their third win on the spin.

He added: “We just have to make sure we focus on what we’re doing and the results around us can take care of themselves.

“We’re confident going into the weekend and we should be confident going into every game because we’ve got good players and we’re a good team.

“We have got a lot of good, creative players in our side. It’s exciting.

“I like playing in this side and hopefully we can take our good form into the end of the season.”

Austin Samuels celebrates after scoring against Livingston in the League Cup this season. Image: SNS Group

Striker targets cheer for ICT fans

And Samuels, who was on loan at Aberdeen from Wolves in the early part of last season, says the ICT fans will hopefully have plenty to cheer in the last month or so.

He said: “We want to show what we can do by reaching the play-offs, as well as reaching the Scottish Cup final. After such a long season, it can still turn out to be a successful one for the club.

“The supporters have been really good all season. Even though it’s not been easy and we’ve been really up and down, they have stuck with us.

“Hopefully we can get these wins and we’re really grateful for their support.”

Conversation