Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Steven Ferguson insists managerial upheaval at Raith Rovers won’t alter Ross County’s focus

Ross County's co-manager Steven Ferguson
Ross County's co-manager Steven Ferguson

Ross County co-manager Steven Ferguson insists Barry Smith’s resignation at Raith Rovers will have no impact on tomorrow’s IRN-BRU Cup tie at Victoria Park.

Former Staggies under-20 coach Smith walked out on the League 1 side on Tuesday following reports of a breakdown in the relationship between the manager and his board at Stark’s Park.

Kevin Cuthbert has been placed in charge on a caretaker basis for the trip to Dingwall tomorrow but having dealt with a similar situation in their last game Ferguson says the County players will have no problem in maintaining their focus on the task at hand tomorrow.

He said: “It doesn’t change things for us. We faced the same issue last week before the Falkirk match.

“Everyone talks about this bounce and it maybe makes our preparation slightly different from what it would have been, but we’re a firm believer in getting right what we’re doing.

“If we focus on ourselves while showing the opposition the respect they deserve then we’ll be okay.”

While County are focusing on booking their place in the third round Ferguson is sad to see Smith leave Raith.

The former Rovers boss and the County co-manager were colleagues at Victoria Park when they worked together in the youth academy but Ferguson has been in the game long enough to ensure little surprises him in the game anymore.

The Staggies co-manager said: “It’s a strange one. I know Barry well from his time up here when he took our under 20s squad. I don’t know the ins and outs of it.

“Certainly from the outside looking in, he was unlucky in his campaign last year, where he was pipped to automatic promotion.

“He’s started this season joint top of League 1. There’s nothing funnier than football.”

With a near full-strength squad to choose from tor tomorrow’s cup-tie Ferguson and co-manager Stuart Kettlewell are considering making changes for the visit of the lower-league club but Ferguson insists the expectation level will not change regardless of who is picked for the game.

He said: “We’re still throwing things about. There’s an argument for both (changing the team and keeping it the same). Obviously we believe we have a good group of players who all want to play, so we have a decision to make.

“Stuart and I will make that decision, but any competition we enter we want to win. We’ll be making sure we go about it in the right way.”

Marcus Fraser is the only absentee after suffering a calf injury in the Betfred Cup loss at Hibernian last month but Ferguson is hopeful the defender will return for next week’s Championship match at Queen of the South.