Billy Dodds knows winning the Championship title is a long-shot – but he wants to beat leaders Dundee and ensure they have one foot in the play-offs.
Tuesday’s 2-1 comeback victory at Hamilton, which came four days after a 2-1 win in similar fashion at Cove Rangers, put the Scottish Cup semi-finalists into third spot.
Six successive wins have taken Inverness from seventh place and ahead of rivals Partick Thistle, Ayr United and Morton.
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After taking on Dundee on Saturday, they will have just one regular league game to go – at home to Ayr on Friday, May 5.
Tuesday’s game was brought forward from April 29 due to their semi-final against Falkirk, so they have currently played one match more than their promotion rivals.
They host Dundee, knowing a win would cut the gap between the two sides to just one point.
However, Dundee would still have two fixtures left – against Cove Rangers and Queen’s Park – and would be expected to get enough points to cross the finish line as champions.
Before that, this Friday night, Queen’s Park tackle Ayr and a victory for Owen Coyle’s Spiders would take them back to top spot and six points ahead of ICT going into the weekend.
Slim chances of winning the league
There are many ifs, buts and maybes. While Dodds would love a sensational title tilt, he acknowledges the best they can hope for is to ensure a top-four finish to ensure they are a promotion play-off entrant.
He said: “I think we’ve got to be realistic (in terms of winning the title).
“We’re hopeful, but realistically we have to make sure we’re in the play-offs. We’ve still got two hard games to go against teams who are up there vying.
“It’s two real tough ones, so we’ve got to make sure we take the right amount of points out of them to make sure we’re in the play-offs.
⚽ The goals from last night's 2-1 win against Hamilton Accies!
Goals from Nathan Shaw & Billy Mckay completed the comeback and earned us three points! 🔴🔵 pic.twitter.com/LVwG3mNuKK
— Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC (@ICTFC) April 19, 2023
“You can look at all the permutations and see who’s playing who, but we’ve just got to do our job and make sure we try and win the two games to be absolutely sure.
“You don’t know what that might bring you. I would like to apply a bit of pressure to the top as well, because that can do weird and wonderful things – especially in this league and this division.
“We’ve just got to make sure we try and win both games and get as many points as possible.
“I think four points would see us in the play-offs, but this league is crazy – I couldn’t guarantee anything.
“We’ve got to make sure we at least win one of the two, and two out of two would be brilliant.”
Finishing second ‘would be helpful’
Caley Thistle were beaten by St Johnstone in last year’s promotion play-off final after coming through a punishing schedule of four games against Partick and Arbroath to get there.
Finishing third or fourth means two more play-off matches compared to the runners-up.
Dodds would love to get the wins against Dundee and Ayr to give themselves a shot of potentially finishing as the runners-up to give his shattered players a rest at crunch time.
He said: “I think it would be very helpful if we could finish second.
“I would still take the play-offs, but I have thought about having less games to play because we’ve had some run.
“Seven games this month, one at the start of next month and then hopefully just play-off games after that.
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“It can catch up with you because it’s a lot of work, but my players have got the right mindset to get through it.
“I don’t want them to falter at all. I would take the play-offs, but if we finish second it would be some achievement plus it would be some games less.”
Team will be all set for Falkirk clash
The ICT head coach would love to be heading for Hampden’s semi-final against Falkirk next week on the back of another win by beating Dundee.
However, he said whichever way it plays out, it won’t hamper the team’s bid to reach the Scottish Cup final against holders Rangers or Celtic on June 3.
He said: “Even if the game doesn’t go our way – which I hope it will – we will still go to Hampden with confidence because we’ve been in such good form.
“We won’t let one result derail out confidence going into a Scottish Cup semi-final, but if we win it we go to Hampden on an unbelievable run.
“I’m just making sure we’re keeping that positivity and mindset to keep winning games, because we still have three very difficult games to go.”
Fans can join the journey with ICT
Caley Thistle chairman Ross Morrison this week issued an SOS plea for as many supporters as possible to snap up tickets for this final push for ICT in their promotion push and Scottish Cup semi-final next weekend.
Dodds, as ever, said the vocal backing of the supporters is always appreciated by his players and staff, and he insists they do make a telling difference.
He said: “We heard them on Tuesday at Hamilton, and I still don’t think the fans realise how much they mean to give the players that edge to get over the line.
“Last year we saw the numbers grow as the season went on, and it’s the exact same this time.
“If they keep turning up in their numbers, they can help us get over that line to reach the play-offs, and hopefully reach a cup final.”
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