WILL CLARK: Inverness Caley Thistle should not rule out chances of promotion
IT is still early days, but doesn’t a couple of wins get you carried away with enthusiasm?
Inverness Caledonian Thistle won their second consecutive match in League One on Saturday with a 1-0 victory over Alloa Athletic.
It moved them up to four points and only 10 points behind Annan Athletic who dropped to ninth place after they lost 2-0 against league leaders Kelty Hearts.
After the 15-point deduction, most people were convinced the sole objective for Inverness Caledonian Thistle this season was avoiding relegation to League Two.
However, there is a fact a lot of people seem to be forgetting.
There are still 22 games left in the regular season.
While a 15-point deduction was significant and saw Inverness drop into negative points for a brief period, they have managed to get into positive points quite quickly.
Looking at the current League One table, most teams aren’t too far away and are catchable if Inverness can put together a good run of results.
League One is quite congested with only five points separating first and seventh place. Kelty Hearts are top of the table on 22 with Montrose in seventh on 17 points.
Stenhousemuir who are currently in the final play-off spot in fourth are on 21 points, 17 points ahead of Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
No teams are running away with League One, with all the teams managing to take points off each other. Like I said, with 22 games remaining, there are 66 points available.
Inverness are more than capable of taking a significant number of points if they can stay injury free. Out of their 14 matches so far, Inverness have only lost three games.
At the same time, they have drawn seven of their 14 matches with them only finding the net 12 times this season.
But signs are encouraging that things are turning on the pitch with two wins in their last two matches. Inverness’ performance wasn’t perfect against Cove Rangers two weeks ago and their first half showing left a lot to be desired. But they dominated the second half to be worthy of their 2-1 win in Aberdeen.
Last Saturday was another dominant performance, but only won 1-0 against Alloa Athletic despite having a number of chances.
But the fact they are winning games is showing progress is being made and credit has to go to new head coach Scott Kellacher for bringing back a positive feeling to the club.
The style of football has definitely improved with a more attacking and passing emphasis in their play.
Some players have definitely shone in recent weeks, in particular Adam Mackinnon who looks a real threat at the edge of the box.
The likes of Charlie Gilmour and Luis Longstaff are showing they have the quality which probably belongs at a higher level, but are determined to do their all to improve the situation at Inverness.
They have also unearthed a diamond in goalkeeper Musa Dibaga, who despite only having previous experience in the Lowland League, is proving a real safe pair of hands.
The signs are there Inverness are capable of going on a run which could see them off bottom spot before the new year.
It’s easier said than done, but if they can get off bottom before 2025, who says a play-off is out of reach?
