Danny Devine keen to see Inverness Caledonian Thistle improve home form to strengthen bid for Championship title
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Danny Devine believes Caley Thistle need to improve on home form to maintain the strength of their challenge for a place in the Premiership.
While their record at the Caledonian Stadium is decent enough this season, with six wins and a draw from 10 league outings where the Caley Jags could have claimed home advantage, the Northern Irish defender admits there is still room for improvement.
In all competitions, including two domestic cups, Billy Dodds’ side has managed just one win in seven at home since late October, in contrast to a blinding start that brought seven wins and a draw from eight.
“If we want to challenge for the league, it is really important we win as many of our home games as we can – home form always has to be one of the things you nail down,” Devine stressed.
“We want to make it very difficult for teams coming up here, and we want to be picking up more points than we’re dropping.
“Our home form, overall, isn’t too bad but it definitely could be a lot better.
“Hopefully, starting on Saturday with another game at home against Queen of the South, we can kick-start the second half of the season with three points and – hopefully – start making our own ground a real fortress again.”
Few could argue that Caley Thistle’s spirit and resilience is fortifying their challenge this season, with the late rescue act to draw with Raith Rovers at home a case in point.
Devine remains buoyant but level-headed about the task ahead in the second half of the campaign.
“Most of the teams, especially the top five, are very evenly matched,” the 29-year-old said.
“It could be tight all the way to the end of the season, but we will always back ourselves, no matter what.
“We just have to take it one game at a time, and make sure we look after ourselves and perform to the best of our abilities.
“In the run we went on from the start of the league campaign, we were winning a lot of games by a single goal. That can be enough to get you over the line.
“We’re hopeful we can really kick on in the second half of the season and really start to establish our dominance at home.”
