Three-time promotion winner Keatings confident that current Inverness Caledonian Thistle squad can kick on and get out of the Championship
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James Keatings has confidence in Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s ability to push on in their bid for promotion this season.
There are not too many players who have made the step up from the Championship to the Premiership as often as Keatings, having lifted the second-tier title three times, with Hamilton, Hearts and Hibernian.
He is therefore well-placed to judge the merits of the Inverness squad, knowing exactly what it takes to get out of the league and into the top flight.
As part of a young squad in the Highland capital, Keatings has to play a slightly different role than he did at his previous clubs, but he feels the squad has every chance of achieving their target of going up.
“We’ve got a lot of young boys, normally I’ve played with a lot of experience, but these young boys are learning quickly,” he explained.
“You can see the confidence that they’re gaining game by game.
“The mistakes they’ve made in early games, they’re learning from, they’re adapting to it and they’re also just good players. You can see their quality in training every day.
“We’ve got a good balance this year with a lot of energy, and a bit of experience as well, so it’s a squad that’s capable of really kicking on.”
Caley Thistle’s 2–0 win over Raith Rovers last time out, in front of 300 supporters at the Caledonian Stadium, almost felt like a new start to the club’s bid to go up.
Players are returning from the injury crisis that decimated the Inverness squad at the start of the season and momentum seems to be back with ICT, so Keatings simply wants to keep it going next weekend.
“We’ve got the squad, and obviously we’ve put ourselves in a nice position after coming through a difficult period at the start of the season,” Keatings added.
“The points we’ve got have been good considering the injuries that we’ve had, so to kick on we knew it was a must-win last weekend.
“It would be nice to have a game this weekend, but we need to wait.
“We’re looking forward to the next one though, and we just have to take what we did against Raith into the next game and keep putting points on the table.”
