Ross Laidlaw insists Ross County’s victory over Livingston showed the mettle within Malky Mackay’s squad.
The Staggies returned to winning ways at Almondvale, with Owura Edwards’ goal securing their second victory of the season.
It followed back-to-back losses, including Tuesday’s bruising 5-0 defeat at home to Motherwell.
The defeat, which was County’s heaviest since Malky Mackay took charge, prompted the Staggies boss to apologise to supporters.
Laidlaw knew the need for a strong reaction, with the goalkeeper insisting the win over Livi underlines the resolve within the dressing room.
He said: “We showed a lot of character to bounce back from that away from home. It would’ve been easy to go to Livingston and just sink but this result says a lot about us, especially because our next two games are really important.
“The best thing to do is to look through each of the goals to see what happened and be honest about it. There’s no hiding place so people held themselves accountable for each and every one of them.
“I was just desperate to get back on to the training pitch and the manager has stripped things back to the basics. He asked us to win the battle against Livi and I think we did that in our third match in a week.
“It was massive for us to bounce back from such a disappointing result and I think that did show we had character.
“We could have come down and just moped about but we got a big result, which shows we have something about us.”
County aiming to keep momentum building
County’s win narrows the gap on some of the teams they are chasing, with only two points now separating them from ninth-placed St Johnstone.
The Staggies take on bottom-side Dundee United in a crucial game on Saturday, before they travel to Kilmarnock the following weekend
Laidlaw hopes the result against Livi can spark a fine run of form.
He added: “We just look at ourselves because we can’t affect anyone else’s results. Obviously, we haven’t been getting enough points on the board before now. Hopefully, we can start kicking on.
“At the moment, it really is a case of one game at a time. We’ve brought a lot of new players in and that’s difficult when you’re bringing in guys on loan because we always have a big turnover every summer.
“I’m hoping that we can move on from this. It’s a steep learning curve for players arriving in Scotland and not being used to our league, which is a lot different from what most of them have been used to.”
Fine goalkeeping display to keep Livi out
Laidlaw was in impressive form at Almondvale, with second-half saves from Scott Pittman and Ayo Obileye helping to preserve his clean sheet.
The 30-year-old was pleased to restore pride following the disappointment of shipping five goals to Well.
Laidlaw added: “That’s my job – I’d let in five the other night so I wasn’t too happy about that. It was good to put that to bed and it’s a great feeling to have a shut out, especially away from home.
“I was just waiting for Obileye to put it in the net when it dropped for him but I think the ball checked up and I think it came off my shin. I’m not sure which part of me it hit.
“I’m just glad I was able to keep it out, although I’m not sure why he was free at the back post in the first place.
“At Pittman’s shot, I somehow I managed to get a foot on it and put it over the bar. It was a big chance for them so I celebrated the save because I knew we could hit them on the break.”
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