Jim Duffy is desperate to get his best team on the park — so Ayr United stop having to play catch up.
The boss insists his limited numbers are giving him everything in terms of effort just now.
But he admits slow starts continue to be their undoing.
United left themselves a mountain to climb at Raith last Saturday after a first-half shocker put them 2-0 down.
But Ayr played their best football of the season after the break and fell just short of a point, giving Duffy hope moving forward.
He told the Ayrshire Post: “We shouldn’t have been in that position to start with, but we have to take the positive of that second half, where we played some very, very good football.
“But the fact remains we lost the game and I’m not going to hide from that.
“Right now, we’re putting ourselves in difficult positions in games and needing to come up with a response.
“So that’s something we need to improve on.”
And Duffy believes having his full squad fit and available would be a good start.
He added: “I don’t think at any time this season — and that stretches back to David’s time in charge — have we been able to put out our best team.
“We’re still asking certain players to play out position and missing one or two of our key creative players, and all of that is having an effect.
“But we’ve played three of the top four in recent weeks and competed well in all of the games and we need to ensure we do likewise against Inverness this Saturday.
“They will come here in confident mood and we need to be ready to match them all over the park.”
Skipper Aaron Muirhead will miss out again through illness, with Steven Bradley likely to be kept sidelined by ligament damage to his shoulder.
Sean McGinty has returned to training this week and is given a chance of returning to the squad.
Daire O’Connor, who returned to the bench in Kirkcaldy, should be included again.
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