Ross County’s last encounter with Aberdeen was a miserable day at the office for Jim McIntyre’s men, but the much-improved Staggies cannot allow themselves to be scarred by that experience when they host the Dons on Saturday.
The Reds raced to a 4-0 victory at Pittodrie two months ago – in truth it could have been many more – on a day in which County had to play the majority of the game with 10 men following Tim Chow’s early dismissal for a reckless challenge on Jonny Hayes.
The result came in mid-October, the month which brought County’s poorest form of the season. Of the five games they played, the Staggies lost four, drawing the other, conceding four goals in all but one of those defeats.
The improvement since then has been sizeable. Not only have County managed to avoid losing since that sequence, but they have shown their capabilities against some of the best sides in the league, defeating St Johnstone in Perth and securing draws at drawing at home to Rangers and Hearts.
In both Victoria Park fixtures, against a similar level of opponent to what they will face on Saturday, McIntyre’s side displayed resilience to come from behind and secure a point, while showing enough promise in attack to come away feeling hard done by in not taking all three.
Games against Hamilton Accies and Dundee are ones the Staggies should have won, but it was through no lack of intent – on each occasion they simply didn’t get the breaks required to finish their opponent off.
Along with the improvement in the form book, the make-up of County’s team shows a far more confident and assured side than the one that imploded in the Granite City.
At the time, the side had something of a makeshift look to it. Chow’s red card brought a premature end to his first start for the club, but he has since returned in the injury absence of Martin Woods to form what looks a promising central midfield partnership with Christopher Routis.
Craig Curran was the Staggies’ only fit senior forward at the time, but leading scorer Liam Boyce has now come back to join him in attack, and but for a disallowed goal against the Dark Blues would have made it four goals from his last four games.
Along with Woods, County have been forced to do without Paul Quinn and Chris Burke through injury and illness respectively. Others have stepped up however, with Andrew Davies and Jay McEveley striking up a solid defensive partnership, and Tony Dingwall seizing his chance in the side with a couple of bright performances on the wing.
The Dons have some excellent players and are firmly in the hunt for second place. Following the abandonment of their game against Motherwell in midweek they will not want to lose any more ground on Rangers. County showed last season they can cause Aberdeen problems though, taking the lead in all four encounters and holding out for victory twice, so they will approach this one feeling they can make life difficult for Derek McInnes’ side once again.