Caley Thistle midfielder Ross Draper has insisted there is no need for panic despite only one point from the opening two matches in the Scottish Premiership.
Manager John Hughes’ squad has been ruined by injuries, with Draper forced to fill in at the centre of defence during Saturday’s 1-1 draw at St Johnstone due to the absence of Gary Warren and Josh Meekings.
Ryan Christie looked to have earned maximum points for Inverness with his first-half goal but Graham Cummins scored a 90th-minute equaliser to earn the Perth Saints a point.
It was a much better display from Caley Jags in comparison to their 1-0 defeat by Motherwell on the opening day of the season and Draper is feeling optimistic ahead of Wednesday’s match against Partick Thistle.
He said: “We wanted to get off to a flier and we were 20 times better than last week against Motherwell, when we were poor and didn’t get a shot on target.
“We’re going in the right direction. We played a lot of good stuff in the first half but in the second half there were a lot of tired legs.
“We retreated towards our own goal and gave the ball away sloppily and it created chances.
“They switched their forwards and brought on a couple of big lads, and got the ball the in the box, and it was like the Alamo at times.
“It was always going to be tough.
“That’s two games without a win but it’s not panic stations yet.
“Partick will be a tough game on Wednesday but we go again and it would be nice to get that win before the Celtic game.”
Draper was disappointed Caley Jags failed to hold on for the victory at McDiarmid Park but felt there were plenty of positives to take from the match.
He added: “We were comfortable until they scored, so it’s going to take us a couple of days to get over it. But it was a great finish. Nine times out of 10 he might not put that in but it’s a heck of a header from 18 yards.
“It’s tough to take but I thought we were brilliant in the first half. We played a lot of positive football and scored a great goal from Ryan.
“In the second half we didn’t really pass the ball well enough but we only had 12 fit players training this week, with a couple of trialists, so we were down to the bare bones.”