Ross County interim co-manager Steven Ferguson says skipper Andrew Davies must be prepared to deal with the consequences of his reckless challenge on Celtic skipper Scott Brown which rules him out of tonight’s crucial match against Partick Thistle.
Defender Davies was sent off after 39 minutes of Saturday’s 3-0 loss at Parkhead for a lunge on Brown, which Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers labelled “disgraceful”.
Davies will now miss tonight’s game at Victoria Park, with the Staggies still waiting to hear if the Scottish FA will take any further action on the 33-year-old’s challenge.
The bottom-of-the-table Staggies are three points behind Thistle ahead of tonight’s vital match and Ferguson insists the absence of captain Davies will be a difficult one to fill.
Ferguson said: “It is a huge blow to lose Andrew Davies, but things happen in football. It isn’t ideal, but we will deal with it.
“We’ve not had any confirmation yet of how long he will be out for.
“Andrew is one of our most experienced guys. Listen, it’s a game of football – it’s passionate – with 22 men on the pitch wanting to win the game. Andrew is a wholehearted player and he will be accountable for his actions. Nobody is more disappointed at what happened than the big guy.
“He will need to take his medicine on it, and we will need to take our medicine on it. We’ll brush ourselves down and go again.
“We have options at the back and there are different ways we can go. Stuart and I will look at it and come up with what we think is the best way to go.”
The game is the first of seven matches remaining for the Staggies, and Ferguson knows the result will have a huge bearing on County’s bid to avoid relegation to the Championship.
He added: “When we took the job and first looked at the fixtures, this was one we had our eye on. We knew, whatever happened in games previous, this was going to be huge.
“In a nutshell, we have a chance to get ourselves off the bottom of the league. This is an absolutely huge game for Ross County.
“But it is also an absolutely huge game for Partick Thistle. It is a wonderful game to be involved in because it means so much.
“It won’t dictate exactly how the rest of the season pans out, but it will put us in a clearer position.”