the Scottish Premiership, suffering relegation to the Scottish Championship on the final day of the season despite a 3–2 win over Motherwell. The club needed a win from Dundee over Hamilton Academical, to secure play-offs, which unfortunately did not come as Dundee succumbed to a 4–0 defeat. A few weeks after the sacking of Foran, former manager John Robertson, who brought the club into the Premiership for the first time in their history in 2004, returned to manage the club in a bid to get them back to top flight. Doing this, he became the second former manager to return to managing the club, after Craig Brewster left in 2006 and came back for a second spell in 2007. Robertson's attempt to return to the top flight immediately was halted by Dunfermline Athletic after a late goal stopped any chances of Inverness making the play-offs, and took the season, like the previous year, to the last day, where Dumbarton were playing Dunfermline Athletic, and Inverness were away to Greenock Morton. To secure a play-off spot, Dunfermline had to lose and Inverness had to win. Inverness did their part with a 3–0 win, but Dumbarton lost 4–0 after going down to 10 men against the Pars. The following season did not start out successful, with 9 draws in their first 12 games, which also included failing to defend the Challenge Cup title after being defeated 2–1 by Dunfermline. However results soon picked up and by May, Inverness captured a play-off spot; they also enjoyed a strong cup run with a 6–1 win over Edinburgh City, a 4–0 win over East Kilbride, a 5–4 penalty win over Ross County and a 2–1 win over Dundee United before heading to Hampden where they were beaten 3–0 by Hearts in the semi-final. The play-offs started well, however after beating Ayr United 4–2 on aggregate hopes were shattered with a controversial 4–0 loss to Dundee United in the semi-final. The 2019–20 season started off, again, with an early League Cup exit. Come March, the club were doing well in the Challenge Cup and league. However, the season was abruptly cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This meant that the season of every league from the Championship down was to be abandoned with the league tables being recognised as the final positions, however, the play-offs would not take place, resulting in Inverness being set for