The test is yet to come
Mckay: Inverness haven’t found top gear in title race
BILLY MCKAY insists Caley Thistle have yet to hit top gear in the title race.
The high-flying Highlanders opened up a five-point advantage at the top after sinking Morton with Mckay’s first league goal of the season and another from Michael Gardyne.
Mckay believes the best is yet to come from Billy Dodds’ side and also warned team-mates they had achieved nothing yet.
The win marked the end of the first quarter of matches and capitalised on Kilmarnock’s two dropped points at Dunfermline.
Mckay, who returned from Ross County in the summer, felt his first start in the Championship was a scrappy affair.
The Northern Ireland international said: “It was good to get off the mark in the league. I’ve had to be patient and wait for my first start. It was a first start, a first goal and three points so it could not have gone any better.
“I still don’t think we are at our best, but these are the kind of games you have to win.
“I’ve been in this position before and we need to scrape wins. We did that and got the three points. We have a lot more gears to move up and I still don’t think we are at our best.”
Raith Rovers took over second place, with the two teams set to clash at Kirkcaldy on Saturday.
Mckay stressed it is premature to speak about Caley Thistle being title contenders, but is confident they can maintain their form.
The 32-year-old said: “It is too early. We will take one game at a time because if you get ahead of yourself you trip up.
“We’ve got a tough run coming up, including Raith away, and we need to make sure we are at it. “We are at it and I believe we can beat anyone in the league. It’s a great start but we are only a quarter way through the season so we need to keep up. If we do that for the rest of the season, we will be right up there.” It wasn’t the greatest start for Inverness. Morton almost took the lead in spectacular fashion in eight minutes when Tom Allan spotted
Mark Ridgers off his line and unleashed a powerful shot from 30 yards out which went inches over the bar.
Ridgers then nearly gifted Ton the lead when a poor clearance was pounced on by Jimmy Knowles 25 yards from goal.
He charged into the box where his shot was blocked before Gavin Reilly’s follow-up attempt was stopped on the line by Devine.
Inverness broke the deadlock in 19 minutes with Ridgers launching a route one punt up the field which caught the Morton defence unaware.
Mckay beat the offside trap and, collecting the ball 25 yards from goal, charged into the box to fire a low drive past Jack Hamilton.
Four minutes after the break Inverness doubled their lead.
Roddy MacGregor did the hard work, charging into the box before passing to Mckay whose shot was blocked. The ball ricocheted kindly to Gardyne who fired into the net from eight yards out.
Morton boss Gus MacPherson said: “We keep making silly mistakes and that’s what hurts us.”