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.

Zak Delaney aiming to grow stronger from Caley Thistle’s difficult times

Inverness are without a win in eight matches, ahead of Saturday's Championship trip to Raith Rovers.

Zak Delaney. Image: SNS
Zak Delaney. Image: SNS

Zak Delaney believes he will only grow stronger by going through the difficult times with Caley Thistle.

Inverness will be seeking to end an eight-match sequence without a victory when they make the trip to Raith Rovers on Championship duty this weekend.

Billy Dodds’ men suffered a 4-2 defeat to Arbroath in the SPFL Trust Trophy last Saturday, which leaves them to focus solely on the league until they enter the Scottish Cup in November.

Zak Delaney in action against Arbroath. Image: SNS

Irishman Delaney has been a regular in the Caley Jags team since joining from West Brom last summer, with the move to the Highlands affording him his most sustained spell of senior football in his career thus far.

Defender Delaney feels experiencing tough spells is part of his development.

He said: “I think I played nearly 40 games last year.

“To do that in my first year, I was buzzing.

“Coming up, everyone around me was only thinking I would be in and out with 20 games maximum, so I was happy.

“There were a lot of ups and downs. That’s the thing I have been trying to get my head around and do a bit better.

“There are a lot of downs in football, like you see right now.

“You are not always going to be flying

“I think those experiences of the tough times as well as the good times are definitely going to benefit me as a player, as I’m only 21.

“I can look back and stuff like that and say ‘that happened, but this is what we did to get out of it.’

“The coaches and the boys around me are great, so I have really enjoyed it.”

Inverness aiming to kick start Championship campaign

Inverness’ only win of the campaign came on July 15, when they defeated League Two side Bonnyrigg Rose in their opening Viaplay Cup group fixture.

Caley Jags are bottom of the Championship table, with only a point from their opening four fixtures.

Caley Thistle head coach Billy Dodds. Image: SNS

Delaney feels getting the elusive first victory of the league campaign can kick start a revival.

He added: “When you haven’t got three points for a while, it gets on your mind a bit.

“Once you get that first three points everything changes for you, so hopefully that’s going to happen.

“Last year it happened, and we still have a lot of boys here from that.

“The same thing happened the year before when I wasn’t here, but the boys pulled out of it and ended really strong.

“I don’t think it’s only us it happens to, it happens to teams in every league. They go through slumps, and then they go through hot patches.

“Hopefully we can pick up a few wins and be flying for the rest of the year.

“Because it’s at the start, there’s more focus on it.

“Within ourselves we know what we are capable of and we just need to go and show it now.”

Raith have shown vast improvement from last season and are only behind league leaders Dundee United on goal difference.

Raith Rovers manager Ian Murray. Image: SNS

Delaney is relishing the challenge of trying to end the Fifers’ unbeaten start, adding: “Every player wants to play in the bigger games against the best teams.

“They are going to be one of the better teams in the league this season, they are up at the top for a reason.

“Caley Thistle always have a good record against Raith, and we did well against them last year.

“Hopefully we can do the same.”

Conversation