Dundee United boss Ray McKinnon believes his side can lay down an important “marker” if they can beat Inverness in the Highlands tomorrow.
The Tangerines have been installed as favourites to take the Championship title but one prominent bookmaker rates Caley’s chances of winning the league as remote as 5/1.
However, McKinnon is definitely taking nothing for granted against a side that was relegated from the Premiership last season.
New Inverness boss John Robertson still has seasoned campaigners such as Ross Draper, David Raven and Iain Vigurs at his disposal while the manager has added new faces to his squad.
So, McKinnon knows if United can head back down the A9 with all three points in the bag it would be a great start to their league campaign.
He said: “Inverness should be one of the favourites to go up this season.
“They haven’t really lost anyone from last season and you look at their squad and see how strong it is.
“They have added players like John Baird up front who knows what this league is all about.
“So we are going there expecting a tough game.
“If we can win up there this weekend it would put a good marker down for the season.
“But we are kind of soldiering on right now because of the suspensions and injuries we have.
“We will be a much better team in about three weeks’ time when we have everyone free of injury and served their bans.
“But we will go up north this weekend looking to get a positive result.”
