Dundee midfielder Paul McGowan is too aware of the quality of Inverness to start looking beyond Saturday’s mid-table Ladbrokes Premiership battle.
Dundee secured a Scottish Cup quarter-final spot against Rangers when they beat Dumbarton 5-0 in a replay on Tuesday night. Their Ibrox clash comes next weekend, three days after a midweek game at Celtic Park.
But the Old Firm double header is on the back burner for Paul Hartley’s side as they face a crucial match against Caley Thistle on Saturday.
A win would open up a five-point lead over seventh-placed Inverness and put Dundee in the driving seat for the top six, but the Tayside club have not beaten this weekend’s opponents in 13 games and defeat would see them slip into the bottom half.
McGowan said: “It’s a big week for the club. It’s exciting. But we are just looking at one game at a time and Caley come here on Saturday.
“We don’t have a good record against them, we have not beaten them since we came up. So it’s going to be a tough game.
“I’m a big admirer of Caley Thistle, the way they pass the ball and they can roll their sleeves up as well. We need to be at our best.
“I don’t think they get the credit they deserve. Every game against them is a tough, tough game.
“It’s a massive game for both clubs. (If) we beat them on Saturday, it puts a cushion between us and them and gives us a bit of breathing space and hopefully we can get away from another couple of teams. It’s top six we are aiming for.”
The former Celtic and St Mirren player added: “The gaffer will drill into us that we take one game at a time. Even though we know we have two massive games coming up, we can’t stray away from Caley Thistle because this is just as important a game as it is against Rangers or Celtic.
“If we start worrying about a couple of games ahead then we could go out there on Saturday and get a drubbing.”
Midfielder Nicky Low is back in training ahead of the visit of Inverness.
The former Aberdeen player has missed two games with an ankle problem.