Inverness Caley Thistle captain Danny Devine says League One survival remains club’s priority after defeat to Annan Athletic
Inverness Caledonian Thistle defender Danny Devine insists staying in League One will remain the team’s priority in the wake of their defeat to Annan Athletic last weekend.
The Caley Jags had the opportunity to move eight points clear of the bottom two last Saturday, but a 1-0 defeat means their cushion instead sits at just two points.
While a victory would have meant a promotion play-off spot was not out of the question, the reality is that Inverness are now firmly embroiled back in a battle to avoid a second successive relegation play-off.
News coming out of the club since Saturday’s defeat does not paint a positive picture for ICT’s future either, with no offers forthcoming to buy the club out of administration and liquidation being touted as a genuine possibility if nobody comes forward.
Even before that, though, Devine had reinforced the idea that staying in League One would make for a successful campaign.
“Staying in the league has been our aim since the start of the season, and that remains our aim,” he insisted at the weekend.
“The sooner we can do that, the better, but we know it’s going to be a hard slog until the end of the season.
“Nothing is going to be easy. You saw how Annan were fighting for their lives, so we’ll just have to move on and look forward to Alloa next week.
“It has been a big effort already, but you have to make sure it counts for something.
“You can’t do all this hard work and then not actually get there, so we just have to regroup and make sure we get where we want to get to. To do that, we have to be more clinical and win more games.”
Being clinical was certainly Caley Thistle’s issue against Annan, doing practically everything but finding the back of the net.
Devine was visibly devastated to come away from the game empty-handed, but knows that the players will have to regroup quickly before hosting Alloa Athletic this coming Saturday.
“The boys tried our best, but it just wasn’t our day,” Devine explained.
“The ball just wouldn’t go in, and you have days like that, but it was a real sickener because of what was at stake.
“We could have put a good bit of daylight between ourselves and Annan, so we’re gutted.
“It was a strange game, we’ve done everything but score. I haven’t played in too many games like that to be honest.
“If you had told us we would be sitting ahead of Annan before the Dumbarton game, we probably would have taken it, but that doesn’t mean much now when we’ve just lost to them and they’ve gained points back on us.”
“I’m usually quite positive but this one is really gutting. I can’t believe we didn’t get back in the game, and I can’t believe we didn’t score. That’s football.”
