Wallace Duffy has rejoined Caley Thistle for a League One promotion push – but warned they must raise their game or be left behind.
The 25-year-old, who has played more than 100 matches for ICT since 2000, signed a two-year deal just ahead of Saturday’s sore 1-0 defeat at Annan Athletic.
It’s just two league fixtures into the new league season following their relegation via the play-off final loss to Hamilton in May, but the Highlanders have one point and are in ninth spot after their 1-1 draw with Dumbarton last week.
Inverness manager Duncan Ferguson had out-of-contract Duffy training with them recently and was able to sign him and ex-Bo’ness United goalkeeper Musa Dibaga after chats with prospective new owner Ketan Makwana led to a cash injection.
Duffy started on Saturday at the expense of Keith Bray in right midfield and the loss to a hotly-disputed Tommy Goss penalty cost off-colour ICT their chance of a result.
Annan hit League One’s top spot with six points after the victory added to their opening day win at Cove Rangers.
It was Inverness’ second 1-0 loss to Annan this term, with Goss also scoring the only goal in last month’s Galabank tie in the Premier Sports Cup.
Patience paid off after waiting game
While Duffy is delighted to sign back up until 2026, he admits there must be a realisation that League One will require high-level displays to be in a promotion chase.
He said: “I am happy to be back. I was in talks for a while. There was a lot going on in the background and that made it a lot slower than I, or the club, would have wanted.
“I understood that, I was patient and the gaffer told me what he wanted. I spoke to Scot (Gardiner, the chief executive) and we managed to get the green light from the (prospective) new owner.
“There is still the potential to make this a really good season by going up – that is the aim, but we won’t go up if we play like we did on Saturday for any more than a couple of games this season. We must get better to get up this league.
“There are still a number of boys still here from last season and Saturday’s performance was a wake-up call for us.
“That was a reality check that we can’t go to any place and steam-roller anyone. You need to earn results and we didn’t do that at Annan. We were really off it.”
Failure to score was so costly – Duffy
Duffy was as baffled as anyone why referee Alex Shepherd awarded a spot-kick to Annan early in the second half.
It seemed later that Shepherd felt Danny Devine had tugged defender Tommy Muir to the ground illegally.
However, Duffy also believes ICT needed to be sharper in front of goal to avoid the defeat.
He said: “I didn’t think it was a penalty. And I didn’t hear one complaint from Annan. I hit the ball, looked around and the only person who felt there was a penalty was the referee.
“He said there was a blatant foul, but I didn’t see anything in it.
“However, overall, we missed a couple of sitters, but we didn’t create enough chances.
“When you come away having not scored at least once, you are giving yourself a massive task.
“We were really poor on Saturday. I’ve been to every game since the start of the season and – take away the Dundee match (a 6-0 Premier Sports Cup loss) – that was the poorest performance so far.”
Duffy will get sharper with games
Duffy explained he didn’t find it easy personally on Saturday as a lack of matches since May took its toll.
He added: “It was my first game in around three months, but I need to be better.
“The manager has brought me in to improve the team. I missed pre-season and I was running myself, but you can’t replicate what a team does (in training).
“I missed a lot of hard running and definitely games that you maybe don’t feel you need, but then you realise you do.
“Training is not the same as games and I missed out in the League Cup as well, which would have helped me.
“We go again on Saturday (at home to Montrose) and, if I am in the team, it will be a chance to get another 90 minutes in the legs.”
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