Luis Longstaff thinks Caley Thistle – aided by youngsters who are impressing him – should relish the chance to aim for promotion from League One.
Inverness dropped down from the Championship and budget restraints are part of the reason why 12 of boss Duncan Ferguson’s 21-player squad are aged 20 or under.
Ferguson yesterday bolstered his squad with the captures of former Ross County midfielder Adam Mackinnon and ex-Dundee United left back Flynn Duffy.
This Saturday, Caley Thistle kick off their league campaign at home to newly-promoted Dumbarton as they seek to get off to a winning start.
Winger Longstaff, at 23, is one of the senior players, and says the squad know this should not be the division they are competing in.
Promotion goal ‘at the first attempt’
The former Cove Rangers player says Inverness will do everything in their power to return to the second tier at the first attempt.
Longstaff said: “We’d obviously be challenging for the Championship title, or be playing in the Premiership, but we are where we find ourselves.
“We have to just put everything into going for the best position we can. We want to get back up at the first attempt.
“While we’ve got a young group, there’s still enough quality to set that as a goal.
“Apart from Billy Mckay and Danny Devine, the next oldest to me is 24 (Jake Davidson).
When you have senior players aged 23/24, it is a shock, but the whole group must take responsibility. There’s not a whole lot of experience, so everyone must help one another as best they can.
“I’ve been impressed with every one of the younger lads, including last season with those who were not even in matchday squads. They trained with us, so we knew the quality was there.
“There are a lot of kids just aged 18 or 19, and they’re playing their first matches at senior level.”
Cup displays merited better results
Inverness played two League One rivals in their Premier Sports Cup group.
They showed up well, but slipped to a 1-0 loss at Annan Athletic and drew 0-0 with League One bookies’ favourites Arbroath before losing on penalties.
Longstaff feels there were enough signs to show his team are going to compete in the third tier.
He said: “Our performances have been a lot better than the results have shown.
“Although we lost 1-0 at Annan, some of the football we played was top drawer – on another day, we’d have scored four or five.
“Bonnyrigg, although they’re in League Two, was a game where we needed to put the ball in the back of the net. We did that in a 3-0 win.
“Against Arbroath, we started with a very young team, but even in the first half, the young kids showed a lot of quality and what they could do. We were just a bit unlucky.
“Last Saturday, (in a 6-0 defeat) against Dundee, it showed the levels between the Premiership and League One and where we are, but it showed where we want to get to.”
Relegation reality was ‘horrible’
Going down via an end-of-season play-off final defeat to Hamilton was so painful for everyone at Caley Thistle.
However, former Liverpool youth player Longstaff says the wound is “motivation” for the group.
He added: “It gives you motivation as you don’t want to feel like everyone in our squad felt at the end of last season. It was horrible.
“We don’t want to be in that position, and we know we shouldn’t be where we are at the minute.
“You always do the best you can, but it serves as extra motivation to push on.”
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