Ross County manager Jim McIntyre reckons a top performance will be required to see off the threat of Falkirk in tonight’s League Cup third-round tie at Victoria Park.
The Bairns are second in the Championship, winning four out of their six league games so far this season.
Falkirk manager Peter Houston has an impressive cup pedigree, having led Dundee United to a 3-0 victory against County in the Scottish Cup final five years ago before leading Falkirk to the final of the same competition last season, only to be defeated 2-1 by Caley Thistle.
McIntyre says the Bairns are capable of punishing his side if the Staggies are off-guard and said: “Falkirk are a good side. They have a really good blend and experience in the youngsters, some of whom have probably played 100 matches after being brought through their academy.
“They are a well-run club who have moved a number of players on to better things at a higher level. They’ve shown their academy system works the way it should.
“They have an experienced manager who has won a cup before, so knows what it is all about.
“They also have experienced players with Lee Miller and John Baird up front, and Mark Kerr in the middle of the park. We will need to be at our best.
“We’re in good form and our form at Dingwall is excellent this season. We want to continue that.
“We’re desperate to win this match and get into the next round.”
County’s squad was hit by a sickness bug ahead of Saturday’s 1-0 victory against Partick Thistle, with Michael Gardyne the worst affected but still able to play until being withdrawn after 51 minutes to be replaced by Jonathan Franks.
McIntyre says Garydne will be fit for tonight’s game, although captain Andrew Davies remains doubtful with a back injury.
McIntyre added: “Michael is fine. He was the main concern with sickness and diarrhoea on the Friday but he still wanted to play. We could see he wasn’t quite himself but he still did a great job for 45 minutes. These things go about sometimes but we had three or four players who had not trained.”
McIntyre says a decision is still to be made on Dutch trialist attacker Alex Schalk, who spent last week on trial at Victoria Park.