Caley Thistle contemplate matchday five in their playoff pursuit

Next up it's St Johnstone with the away leg in Perth on Monday

Billy Dodds believes Caley Thistle can become the first club to come through three phases of the play-offs
Author: John RosePublished 19th May 2022

Inverness manager Billy Dodds hopes to use home advantage to lay down a marker against relegation-threatened St Johnstone ahead of phase one of their two-legged Premiership play-off final.

After a third-place finish Caley Thistle are chasing promotion from the Championship. St Johnstone head North after only one of their last six games. They finished second bottom of the top flight, ending with a 4-0 loss at Easter Road.

Dodds said; "I'd love an advantage, but the main thing is we're still in the tie going to McDiarmid and putting on the pressure,"

"Everybody's got pressure in this game but St Johnstone are probably under more pressure. We want to get them to a place in the tie where they're really starting to think about it.

"That's our objective. St Johnstone have not had a great season but they've got good players.

"We're going to have to be at our best, but I'm so positive going into the games because of where we've been, what we've gone through and where we've got ourselves to."

"It's a hard route... Nobody's done it... My boys are more than capable" - Billy Dodds on the play-offs

As Dodds has previous stated, no team has managed to come through all three rounds of the play-off to win promotion. Inverness have already overcome Partick and Arbroath over two legs.

"I'm really looking forward to it," said Dodds. "My players are ready for it. We're in a good place, we've got momentum, we've got confidence, we've earned the right to be here and we're going to give it our best shot.

"It's a hard route to go right through the play-offs. Nobody's done it and we'd love to be the first team to do it. My boys are more than capable.

"The good thing is we've had a week's rest from Friday to Friday and we've taken them right off it.

"We've had a few good days off and we've got them ticking over again.

"We know it's a hard route, we know it's a long route but the message is 'bring it on'. I think we've got to the final without playing our best. We've got here by showing guts and determination, but I want us to play a bit as well."

Inverness CT will be without suspended pair Wallace Duffy and Danny Devine, as well as injured trio Shane Sutherland, Roddy MacGregor and Tom Walsh.

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