Richie Foran wants Inverness to be 'nasty' in derby battle with Ross County
Inverness manager Richie Foran has called for his team to get "nasty" in Saturday's Highland derby.
Foran feels Ross County have "out-muscled" his team in both meetings this season, which have each resulted in a 3-2 victory for the Dingwall side.
And with Inverness sitting bottom of the Ladbrokes Premiership ahead of the game at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, the Irishman wants a change of approach.
"It's developed into one of the friendliest derbies around over the past couple of years - and that's got to change when we walk onto that pitch," Foran said.
"After, it's a different story. You shake hands. We bump into these players almost every day, drink in the same coffee shops, eat in the same restaurants.
"All that is okay but, out there, we must be nasty and ready to battle. There can be no friends on that park come Saturday.
"We have to be in their faces from the first whistle because they'll do that to us.
"I believe we've been out-muscled by them. That needs to change on Saturday.
"There's not much between the teams in terms of quality, but we need to match their fight and more. We've lacked that in the previous two games."
Inverness have Ross Draper and Carl Tremarco back from suspension while Jake Mulraney is rated 50-50 to return following a hamstring injury.
Ross County defender Andrew Davies says his side will have to be on top form to get another result in the derby.
County had not won in nine league games against Inverness before this season, but the tables have turned this season.
However, Davies knows that Inverness will be fighting for their lives.
"Obviously, before this season, they had us on toast, they kept beating us and beating us and I think we had to turn that at some point," said the 32-year-old, who is back in the squad after a head injury.
"This season we have, and we've gained a lot of confidence from that but we're not naive enough to say that they're not good enough to turn us over, we've got to do what we've done against them in the past and fingers crossed we can get that result.
"They're not a team that's just going to lay down and die, they're a team that are fighting for survival this season so it's going to be a really tough game.
"But in both of those games we've done what the manager has asked, and we've played to our full ability and that's why we won the game."
Tony Dingwall misses out after suffering a cruciate ligament injury, joining Jay McEveley (knee), Paul Quinn (hamstring), Ian McShane (groin) and Chris Burke (illness) on the sidelines.
Goalkeeper Scott Fox (back) and Martin Woods, who limped off against Kilmarnock, are major doubts but Alex Schalk (hand) has been passed fit.
Source: PAR
