Aaron Doran out to lift his Inverness Caley Thistle strike-rate
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AARON Doran knows that appearances do matter – but adding more goals remains his great priority at Caley Thistle.
The long-serving Irish attacker would love to improve his numbers by hitting the back of the net with greater regularity through the rest of the Championship campaign.
That said, Doran is immensely proud of significant career milestones that lie just around the corner.
The 31-year-old, after almost 12 years at the club, is just two short of playing 350 times for Caley Thistle.
Another six appearances would take the Dubliner past club legends Barry Wilson and Russell Duncan, who sit on 353.
By the end of the season, if form and fitness hold, Doran could conceivably leap beyond Richard Hastings (366) and Grant Munro (368) as well, to single him out as second only to the great Ross Tokely (589) for games played.
All of these would be wonderful for the Irishman, but none of them more precious than promotion success.
Doran, who was caught unaware when told of the possibility, said: “I’m proud of it and it probably could have been more without injuries.
“Probably now, I mainly want to improve my goals return. I haven’t scored too many this season.
“I seem to always get chances during a game, but just haven’t taken them.
“It doesn’t stop me – I’m always going to get in there looking for opportunities that arise.
“But hopefully that’s something I can start improving on because I want my numbers to be better.
“With Barry Wilson and Scott Kellacher, every Tuesday and Thursday we do a lot of work on crossing and finishing, and the goals will come for the attacking players.
“We work hard on it.
“It is something we all want to improve on to help the strikers out.”
As for his status in the all-time list of club servants, Doran wasn’t shrugging it off.
“That’s something that makes me proud. To make 350 professional appearances for any club is a big achievement,” he said.
“I’m only 31, so I’m hopeful I still have a few years left in me in the professional game. Overtaking lads like Barry, Russell, Richard and Grant would be crazy stuff!
“When I was18 or 19 years old, arriving here on-loan under Terry Butcher from Blackburn Rovers, I’d never have imagined I’d make over 350 appearances.
“Hopefully I can rack up appearances and goals between now and the end of the season, put a few more wins on the board and hopefully win promotion.”
