Ross Draper says Inverness Caley Thistle slump was inevitable but now they can kick on

The Highland club stand on the cusp of history if they can complete the job and claim a passport to European football for the first time. They have also taken themselves into their first Scottish Cup semi-final in a decade, while earning plaudits for flowing football under manager John Hughes.

But the mood among supporters of late has been downbeat given the relative slump of going six matches in the league without a win with goals harder to come by since Billy Mckay departed for Wigan. Draper knows facing champions Celtic twice in a row hardly presents the easiest opportunity to break the run, but is confident recovery is just around the corner.

Draper admitted: "We do seem to be finding it hard of late. It is something we have to work on. But it's not down to any one thing - sometimes you go through runs like this in a season.

"If we didn't have dips in form we would be winning the league, given the positive runs we have had at different times in the season. Thankfully, we have done enough to keep ourselves in third position and with the last few games approaching we just need to go again. They are all big games and ones where we believe we can pick up points."

Draper confesses he would trade a result today for passage to the Scottish Cup final the following week.

Caley Thistle are huge underdogs, but the midfielder reckons they can draw confidence from previous performances against the champions.

He stressed: "It is always going to be tough against Celtic, whatever form they are in. I probably would take a defeat against them this weekend if it meant we won the semi-final, but we know it doesn't work like that.

"It is a bit of a dress rehearsal for the semi-final but we always look at these games as ones where we can win. We are up there in third place for a reason. It would be a whole different matter if we were down there near the bottom of the table and desperately needing points.

"This is different. we can play with a freedom against them and look to play as well as we have in the past against Celtic. We all want to finish our campaign strongly and complete the job we've started."