Inverness Caledonian Thistle striker wants to kick-start form in League Cup.
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Shane Sutherland wants Inverness Caledonian Thistle to register three points away at Raith Rovers tonight and go back into Championship action on a winning run.
Caley Thistle have only won once inside 90 minutes this season, a 3–1 triumph at home against Arbroath.
Opponents Raith meanwhile are at the top of the league table with 10 points from their first four Championship games, and also beat East Fife in their Betfred Cup opener.
Form would suggest the Kirkcaldy outfit are the favourites on home turf, but with James Keatings, James Vincent, Danny Devine and Sutherland himself all likely to return to ICT’s starting line-up after injury, it will be a different prospect facing Rovers tonight.
It could provide something of a fresh start for Inverness this season, and Sutherland wants to ensure it is a positive one.
“Raith have been winning games and their confidence will be massive,” he said.
“It’s something we need to do now – get a run of wins together, hopefully in the cup, and take it back with us into the league.
“The confidence and habit of winning keeps you flying high. You go into every game thinking you will win.
“If you’re not winning games, it becomes a little more difficult to carry that mentality into every game.
“Tuesday night is about trying to get the win.
“It doesn’t matter if, at a later stage, we don’t qualify – it is just about trying to breed confidence and win games.”
Qualification is extremely unlikely for the Caley Jags, who claimed just two points from their first two group games.
They would need six more points, a lot of goals and several other results to go their way to stand any chance, but that does not make either of their last two group matches mere fitness exercises.
“You put pressure on yourself to win every game,” Sutherland insisted.
“It might not be enough, we might not qualify, but we don’t know that. We could win on Tuesday and Saturday and it might be enough.
“There’s always pressure as a professional player, especially with things being a little bit different with no fans to get on top of you if you’re not performing, or giving you a lift if you need it.
“You want to put too much pressure on yourself, but if you don’t have that I don’t think there’s much point in playing – you want to win whether you can qualify or you have zero points.
“You want to win regardless, it’s three points in the League Cup section that we’re after.”
Sutherland will face competition for his spot from an in-form Nikolay Todorov, the soon-to-be returning Miles Story as well as James Keatings and the club’s younger players.
With those options, the 30-year-old is confident that once everyone is fit and firing, results will follow, adding: “If we can keep the back door shut, which I’m very confident the defence can do, in any game we can score no matter who plays.”
