The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Devine believes Caley Thistle have all the right credentials
Danny Devine believes Caley Thistle have shown they can compete in the Premiership. Now they are aiming to reach it as the play-off chase enters the home straight.
With three matches of the Championship season remaining, Caley Thistle’s fate is in their own hands. Nine points out of nine and the club will be in the Premiership play-offs.
But the road to the playoffs is a difficult one with rivals Dundee set to visit Inverness tonight followed by a trip to Tynecastle on Friday to face champions Hearts before a final game at home to an Ayr United side which is fighting to avoid finishing in the playoff position of ninth place.
The stakes are high but, following a Scottish Cup win at Ross County and another impressive showing despite losing 2-1 at St Mirren on Friday, defender Devine believes his club has shown its
Premiership credentials. He said: “We’ve held our own against two Premiership teams. We’ve more than held our own against one and played well against the other.
“We’ve got stronger over the course of the season, got a few back from injury and added one or two. It has given the boys a lift knowing if we can get there we will fancy ourselves to stay there.
“St Mirren had a lot of good chances as well but we had a lot of the ball and matched them all over the park. That has to give us big confidence going back into the league.
“We’re looking forward to it after a good performance at Paisley. It was a huge disappointment to lose the game as we did but the performance was very good and if we take it into tomorrow’s game we have a great chance.
“We spoke after the game about not letting it eat away at us as we now have the most important game of the season and we have to make sure we carry the good performance into tomorrow and I’m pretty confident we’ll do that.”
Victory against Dundee, who beat Inverness 2-1 at Dens Park on March 2, will allow Inverness to leapfrog Dunfermline into fourth place and move to within a point of the third-placed Dark Blues.