Injury stricken Inverness Caley Thistle star wants to put 'rubbish' year behind him. He makes first appearance in three months after draw with Raith Rovers in Kirkcaldy
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SCOTT Allardice wants to put a 'rubbish' year behind him as he looks to get back into the first team at Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
The 24-year-old had been out of action after suffering a thigh problem against Cove Rangers on October 15 and hadn't featured in the squad until yesterday's clash in Kirkcaldy.
It followed a knee injury he suffered at the start of January which kept him out for almost the entirety of the second half of last season's campaign, only making appearances from the bench during the play-offs.
In addition, he went to hospital over fears of a broken nose in July after their League Cup clash with Cove Rangers.
Speaking after making his first appearance in over three months yesterday, Allardice says there were few positives for him last year due to his injuries.
But he wants to put that behind him and look to make the 2022/23 campaign a positive season for Inverness and himself.
Speaking about being out for over three months, Allardice said: "It has been rubbish, but it summed up my 2022.
"Getting injured in January, coming back and putting in a lot to get back fit and then getting a serious injury again.
"But it is a new year and I want to kick on for the second half of the season.
"I am not 100 per cent, but I have been training in the last 10 days.
"The call off in the Scottish Cup helped me get more training sessions, but I feel that I can help the team in the next few weeks and get up to speed."
"I am putting last year behind me, but I have also learned a lot from last year, as we were 45 minutes from getting to the Premiership.
"It wasn't the best of years, but you learn from the bad times and try to put it right.
"I am buzzing to get back and I am hoping to have a strong second half of the season."
Allardice says he was pleased with how he performed when he came off the bench in the second half yesterday.
He felt Inverness finished strongly at Stark's Park and deserved to get the equaliser.
"I thought I was alright, in the first 10 minutes I was on I thought it was end to end, but in the last 15 minutes I thought we controlled the game and got the equaliser."
Inverness are undefeated in 2023, picking up eight points out of 12 from their last four games.
It comes after Inverness went through a run of eight matches without a win before thrashing Cove Rangers 6-1 at the Caledonian Stadium after the new year.
Allardice admits the team's form wasn't good enough between the middle of October and the end of December.
But he says they are starting to get back on track.
"The run was well documented and it wasn't good enough from our point of view, but going into 2023, there have been decent results.
"We haven't played our best, but we stayed ahead of Raith with a game in hand.
"We will play better and we need to, but it has been a better start in 2023 than how we ended last year."
With Partick Thistle suffering a shock 1-0 defeat to Hamilton Academical yesterday, Inverness are only two points off the play-off zone.
Allardice remains confident they can get themselves back into the top four quickly and then target chasing down Queen's Park, Ayr United and Dundee who are threatening to break away from the rest of the pack.
"You don't know how the league is going to go" says Allardice.
"Everyone takes points off everyone.
"We know we can go on a run like we did in the last two seasons. Both with the good with the wins along with the losses.
"We are capable of clawing ourselves in the mix and now it is a big game in the Scottish Cup."
