STRUGGLING with a broken bone in his foot, Sean Welsh wondered if his injury-punctuated career might be coming to an end.
He was so disappointed to miss out on a cup semi-final and the play-offs last season.
And when the problem did not clear quickly his frustration tuned to worry.
However, having clinched a vital victory with a late penalty at Dunfermline to move Inverness two points off the top Welsh is reinvigorated.
He said: “It’s been a very frustrating period because the injury came at the end of last season when we had the Scottish Cup semi-final and the play-offs.
“So that was hugely disappointing and then the injury took a bit longer to clear up than I had hoped but thankfully I’m over it now.
“I’ve had a few injuries in my career but it doesn’t get any easier.
“When you’re young and naïve you think you’ll be back no problem.
“But when you get older you wonder if you will, especially if they are serious.
“So you have to be mentally strong. Sometimes you question yourself but I have got my head down and worked hard.
“And then when you get back out playing you get the reward and to score the winner was even better because that doesn’t happen very often for me.
“It’s always a bonus when you then learn that Dundee United have lost.”
It looked odds-on a stalemate at East End Park but Welsh supplied the one bit of real quality when he slotted a penalty after ex-Caley Jag was judged to have handled in the box.
He added: “I have been champing at the bit to get back involved but I have had to bide my time.
“I was just glad to come on and contribute and it was great to get the winner.
“I put myself forward to take penalties and if you do that then you need to deal with the pressure.
“We played a very similar game at Dunfermline last year and we ended up losing it.
“We also had a lot of matches that were drawn so it’s good that we’re turning these games into wins.”
It was another major blow for The Pars who are joint bottom with Partick Thistle and go to Firhill next Saturday.
But Greg Kiltie says he knows from experience that things can change so quickly.
The forward, on loan from Kilmarnock, said: “It was only my second game but it seems to have been the way of it for the club – the breaks haven’t been going for us.
“I don’t think we should have lost and we have to take the positives out of it.
“It’s not the best start but we’re only five games in and we can turn things around very quickly.
“I was at Morton last year. Everyone was writing us off to go down and we finished up fifth.
“A couple of wins in a row and you can move up this division.”
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