JOSH MEEKINGS is only 23 but enough of a battle-scarred veteran of Inverness Caledonian Thistle campaigns to have heard it all before.

This is the year the Highlanders will go down, go the whispers. For Meekings it is a case of new season, same old story. The versatile defender, back from a recurrence of last season's knee injury in last weekend's thrashing by Hearts, knows just how often the club has been written off over the years.

After three straight league defeats and a League Cup exit to Alloa, the doom-merchants have only been fuelled by the coinciding arrival of a new manager in Richie Foran.

For them, it is proof of an enveloping crisis. For Meekings it is business as usual. Now in his sixth season, with an impressive 174 appearances behind him, the central defender retains a calm perspective.

He said: "People are talking on the outside but they've always done that. We're completely used to it. For many years since I've been here, there have been people on the outside talking about us being in a relegation battle from the beginning of the season.

"Time and again, we have proved them wrong. We have overachieved, some might say, but we've done very well. But that's not where we want it to end. We intend to carry it on – it doesn't stop there. There is a desire and belief in the squad we can keep going and make sure we go one better every season. "Unfortunately, we didn't make the top-six last year but as a group we've looked at that. First and foremost, we just need to get ourselves back into a good position and crack on with the league."

Foran has been devoid of luck in his first set of matches, with a serious knee injury to experienced summer signing Kevin McNaughton a real hammer-blow. Fortunately, Meekings, who broke down in pre-season with a recurrence of the knee injury that kept him out for spells last season, is back in contention in timely fashion.

In past campaigns, he forged a formidable partnership with Gary Warren in the heart of defence. Match fitness, though, is required for him to rediscover his best – starting with the visit of St Johnstone today.

Meekings admitted: "I'm pleased to be back. It was frustrating for me to come back from pre-season and suffer a reaction with my knee. Hopefully that's it now and I can try to help the team get back to where we want to be.

"As everyone knows, it hasn't been the start we wanted. It's just time to work extra hard to get to where we want to be. It was just the same injury as last season. I had a rest through the summer, but even in the last few games of last season I still wasn't quite right, but wanted to play.

"It's all good now and hopefully that will be the end of it. Kevin's injury put the manager in a difficult situation where he had to make a decision over whether to put me in or not. I'm grateful that he did. He trusted in me even though I'd had that time out. "It wasn't the result we wanted but, for myself, it was important to get 90 minutes under my belt. I'm just hoping that with a little more time and fitness I can improve, and the team can improve. "We've had poor starts before and come strong into the season and I've got huge belief in what we have in the dressing room. "We've got a great spirit and drive around the place and everybody wants to do well. It's just putting that on to the pitch – and that's down to us."

Foran, who snapped up French striker Lonsana Doumbouya before today's tussle, admits there was deep hurt in the dressing room after the Tynecastle battering.

He said: "The performance, in terms creating chances, was very good. We created more chances against Hearts than in the previous three games out together. The problem was they put theirs away. We caught Hearts on their day. Tony Watt was exceptional. There's no panic. We're keeping everyone positive."

Brian Easton, the St Johnstone defender, says he knows what is going through the minds of the Inverness players as they attempt to get their campaign up and running.

The top-six regulars have been notoriously slow starters, themselves, in recent years but this time around they have picked up four points from tough games against Aberdeen, Motherwell and Celtic, with three more targeted to take them into the international break.

Nevertheless, he has warned there might be a backlash after Foran’s side crashed to a 5-1 defeat from Hearts.

The McDiarmid full-back said: “It’s early in the season but we know that, if we were in their situation, we’d be really up for it to get it right.

“We’d be treating this as a massive game. But on the other hand they’ve taken a bit of a confidence hit. From our point of view we’ll just be approaching the game the same as we always do.

“In the last few years we’ve become notorious for slow starts and then kicking on. I don’t know why that’s been. We know it’s not a huge worry but as the games go by you do start to think that you’ve got to get things together. If you’re getting beaten 5-1 alarm bells can start to ring but we’ll just be concentrating on our own performance."