Duncan Ferguson believes three wins will be enough for Inverness Caley Thistle to secure Championship status
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Duncan Ferguson is targeting three wins from Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s final five league games to secure Championship safety for another season.
The Caley Jags currently sit in the relegation play-off place, four points behind Queen’s Park.
Three victories before the end of the season, though, would take Inverness on to 41 points – a tally with which you would have to go back 15 years to 2009 to find a team ending up in the relegation play-off.
Caley Thistle will be favourites to pick up three points this weekend against Arbroath, but Ferguson is conscious that time is running out for the club to secure their status for the 2024/25 campaign.
“We’ve got to start picking up wins,” he stressed.
“We’ve got five games left and I think we will need at least three wins (to escape the play-off spot) and hopefully that will start on Saturday.
“We’ll be up for it and ready. 40 points is where people tell me we need to be, but I just look for the next win.
“We haven’t won for a couple of weeks now, we need to score goals and win the games, because they’re running out.
“We’ve got teams around about us in the next two games, Arbroath and Queen’s Park. If we can pick up wins in both, things look a lot better, don’t they?”
An added incentive for ICT will be that victory over Arbroath will all but mathematically relegate the Red Lichties, removing any possibility that Inverness could slip into the automatic spot.
With one win, one draw and two defeats to Arbroath this season though, Ferguson is taking nothing for granted as he knows that Jim McIntyre’s men will have to come out swinging at the Caledonian Stadium.
“If they win the game it gets them a lot closer to us,” Ferguson highlighted.
“Their goal difference is poor, so if we get the victory it will probably put them down, but it is going to be a tough game.
“All three games I’ve had against them have been close. They beat us down there and we beat them in my first game, so it will be close.
“They might play with a bit of freedom. They go quite direct anyway and we’ve expecting a tough match, one we’re looking forward to.”
Inverness will be boosted by the availability of Cammy Kerr, whose red card against Partick Thistle last weekend was successfully appealed.
“Cammy has done fantastically well for us – a great player, great leader,” Ferguson added.
“We knew the decision was wrong at the time. Alex Samuels was on the edge of the box and 20 seconds later it is in our goal. The referee should have blown for a penalty or free-kick for us, but he never.
“We’re not getting the breaks, but maybe that (overturning) is a break.
“They say that bad decisions even out over the season, so let’s hope we get some decisions from now until the end of the campaign. Time is running out!”
“Cammy has been brilliant, even changing positions. He has just got on with it and shown his ability. We’re happy it has been overturned and we’ve got him for the weekend now.”
