DAVID Hopkin insists that he has plenty of positives from Tuesday night’s defeat against Inverness to take into Saturday’s game against Arbroath.

The Ton manager was delighted with the grit and determination that his players showed to claw themselves back on level terms after falling behind to the Caley Jags twice, thanks to goals from the in-form Aidan Nesbitt and the returning Reece Lyon.

He told the Tele: “I thought we lost a point that we deserved but I’m proud of the effort that the boys put in, it was fantastic.

“We’ve played one of the teams looking to go into the Premier League and I thought we matched them everywhere over the pitch.

“We brought subs on and they all had an impact on the game.

“You had players like Nicky Cadden, Aidan Nesbitt, every one of them gave me everything against Inverness.

“It was good to see young Reece Lyon, pictured, back and I’m delighted that he got himself a goal so there are a lot of positives to take from the game.

“I’m absolutely devastated for the players that they weren’t able to take away a point after the effort and performance that they put in.”

Despite losing out on Tuesday, Hopkin believes the performance shows the progress his squad have made since the last time they visited the Highlands on league duty.

The Ton were on the wrong end of a 5-0 hammering last time out, and Hopkin believes that having a bit of time to implement his ideas on the squad has paid dividends.

He said: “The way we played and the result shows just how far we’ve come as a team since the last time we were up there because we conceded five goals the last time.

“But you need to remember that we had only been in the door only four or five weeks at the time.

“We were a totally different team at that point, and everybody has seen how different and organised we are now.

“The two goals that we scored were fantastic and I thought that the three that Caley Thistle scored were poor.

“It’s three free headers that we should’ve been dealing with.

“From my perspective, Inverness are a great footballing side, but they didn’t break us down once.

“I thought Danny Rogers made a fantastic double save at 2-1 down to keep us in the game, but credit to the players because they kept going right until the end and even when Inverness scored the third, they went looking for an equaliser.

“We should’ve at least had a point and not many teams will come to Inverness and give them a game like that, make them defend like they did and push them so close to the wire this season.”