It’s far from over for the Caley Jags
Mark Ridgers wants fans to keep the faith as Inverness Caley Thistle strive to turn a difficult season into one of the club’s most memorable.
The keeper, who produced several moments of brilliance in Friday night’s 10-man victory over Partick Thistle, knew the promotion dream would have been dead in the water had they lost.
Instead of a 12-point gap on the play-off places, though, Nathan Shaw’s early secondhalf finish slashed the gap on the Jags to six points, with a game in hand.
Given the prospect of a Scottish Cup semi-final against Falkirk towards the end of next month, obituaries seem to have been written rather prematurely on Billy Dodds’ campaign.
Ridgers said: “The season isn’t done. We can still reach the play-offs, be promoted, and we still have the chance to get to a Scottish Cup Final.
“It can still be a really special season for us. We all believe in that.
“With the fans sometimes, it can be doom, gloom and frustration. But we had a good support on Friday night, bigger than normal, and they stuck by us.
“With that backing, we’ll give them performances, like we did in the cup victory against Kilmarnock.
“They helped us through the second half.
“Fans will be fans, and players will be players – but you have to remain positive.”
There was no doubting the quality of Ridgers’ saves before and after Sean Welsh cynically took down Scott Tiffoney on the break.
The hosts felt it should only have been a yellow, but Tiffoney said: “For me, it was a stonewall red card.
“I think the rule is that you need to go for the ball to be shown only a yellow card.
“He just straight went for my leg to stop the attack. I think Rangers’ John Lundstram had a similar tackle this year, and got given a red card.
“Overall, for us it was another missed chance, which sums our season up.
“We’re still in there but our ambition at the start of the season was to win the title.”