Return of the Mack hopes to lead Inverness Caledonian Thistle to promotion
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Daniel MacKay wants to fire Inverness Caledonian Thistle back into the top flight after returning to the club on a season-long loan from Hibernian.
The 21-year-old moved to Edinburgh last summer, but a disrupted first campaign at Easter Road has seen MacKay make the temporary move back to the Caledonian Stadium for more game time.
Before his return against Kelty Hearts last Saturday, the lasting memory of MacKay at Inverness was of a young player in the form of his life, scoring six goals in his final 11 appearances in all competitions.
He finished the 2020/21 season with nine goals, but now the target is to hit a new personal best tally this campaign to help his boyhood club earn promotion to the Premiership for the first time since 2017.
“I’m delighted to be back in familiar surroundings and be back home in a sense,” MacKay enthused.
“It’s also an opportunity for me to get back playing football again.
“It has been a year of ins and outs and not really playing and having injuries, but I am glad to be back. I want to just kick on and help this team achieve its ultimate goal of winning the league.
“I would hopefully be hitting double figures in terms of goals. I also want to be in a winning Inverness team every week.
“We want to build a winning mentality at this club again and get us back to where we want to be. That is the most important thing.
“Personally though, I want double figures with goals.”
It was a turbulent season for Hibernian last time out.
After MacKay was signed by Jack Ross, Shaun Maloney and Lee Johnson were each appointed around interim spells in charge for David Gray.
The attacker also spent time on loan at Kilmarnock under Derek McInnes.
While perhaps not getting the results or performances he would have liked, though, MacKay feels he is in a better place to thrive for ICT after the ups and downs of the last 12 months.
“It has been different – I have enjoyed it, but there have also been parts I haven’t enjoyed,” he explained.
“It has been difficult with four managers coming in. It’s hard to prove yourself when you’ve not been playing.
“Hopefully at Inverness I can get back to the levels I was at before and even go beyond that and hopefully I can put myself back in the mind of the manager at Hibs.
“I have grown up a bit and become more of a man. I also have developed a lot off the pitch and I’m a lot stronger and bigger. Hopefully that will help me adapt and that will help lead me to goals.”
