Caley Thistle are stepping up their search for opponents to face as warm-ups ahead of next month’s Scottish Cup final against Celtic.
The Highlanders, who finished sixth in the Scottish Championship, are kicking their heels one week on from their campaign finishing with a 2-1 home defeat against Ayr United.
It could be four full weeks between fixtures for Billy Dodds’ team and they are looking across the country for sides to step up and give the players vital game-time.
It is understood the club have been looking at options including going abroad, possibly to Spain, but the favoured option to to remain in Scotland as the days and weeks tick down.
Dodds, along with sporting director John Robertson, and chief executive Scot Gardiner have been weighing up all the options.
‘A real challenge’ to find opponents
In a report in the Scottish Daily Mail, Gardiner said: “It’s a real challenge for us to get meaningful games. Right now, it’s proving a very difficult challenge indeed.
“We could not do anything to prepare until we knew our play-off fate on Friday night.
“We gave our boys a few days off after the disappointment, because they had gone seven games undefeated up until the Ayr setback.
“The plan then was to get straight back into preparing for the cup final. But we are now in a scenario where they will return to training with no games scheduled as yet.
“And it’s a real challenge to get them at this stage of the season. Even in England, there is such an intense programme of games – particularly with the Premier League – and it’s the worst time of the year to try and get a game that is going to give us the physical and mental challenge the players need.
“We are going into a game against the Premiership champions, who are a terrific team, so it’s not ideal.”
This fresh issue comes on top of annoyance at the 5.30pm kick-off time and the cost of some bus travel prices after the club struck a deal with Citylink.
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