Shaw warns promotion rivals Dodds’s men still have to hit peak form

Scorer Nathan Shaw believes Caley Thistle are perfectly placed for a Championship title bid as they’re going to be bolstered by fit-again players.

Although Inverness could have gone second with a win, a point keeps them only three points behind frontrunners Ayr United.

Inverness head to Stenhousemuir’s Ochilview to face Queen’s Park on Saturday, with eight players still sidelined through injury.

Defenders Danny Devine and Robbie Deas, midfielders Roddy MacGregor and Scott Allardice, wingers Tom Walsh and Dan MacKay and strikers Austin Samuels and Shane Sutherland are all on the casualty list.

And that offers Shaw reasons to believe the Highland side have yet to peak.

The 21-year-old winger said: “Sitting three points off the top is not a bad place to be after the first week in November.

“I think we’re only going to get stronger as the season goes on with players coming back fit.

“We’re in a good place but hopefully we can improve further and aim for the top spot.

“We’re confident as a group. We are a good team but we just need to show it.

“The aim would be to try to win the league and go up automatically. Then again, if we do it through the playoffs it doesn’t matter.

“As long as we go up to the Premiership, that’s what we’re after.”

Shaw had mixed feelings after hitting the net only for Arbroath to bite back for a share of the spoils.

He said: “Personally, it was good to get on the scoresheet but we didn’t get the three points. We will go again next weekend against Queen’s Park.

“I felt it was a decent enough performance as we aimed for the three points.

“There were a few critical moments in the game where we had the chances to go 2-0 up. Had that happened, I think we would have come away with the win.

“We had a lapse in concentration and Arbroath got their goal and I’d say we were hanging on a bit for the last 15 minutes. They were throwing bodies forward.”

The strike on Saturday was Shaw’s third of the season in all competitions.

He was handed a start after a positive contribution from the bench in the 4-0 defeat at Morton.

The summer signing from Fylde is determined to continue to make a difference for Billy Dodds’s side.

He added: “I’m in the team for forward play and to create chances and score goals if I can. Hopefully, I can just keep doing that.”

Nathan Shaw nips in to tuck away the opening goal.