Malky Mackay insists he is seeing the right signs from his Ross County side as they look to navigate a way out of relegation danger.
The Staggies fell to the foot of the Premiership last weekend, with Dundee United leapfrogging them with a victory over Motherwell.
County play the first of six remaining fixtures on Saturday, when they make the trip to Tynecastle to face Hearts.
Mackay has been impressed with County’s showing in their last three matches, despite defeats to Celtic and Aberdeen bookending an away win against St Johnstone.
The Staggies boss remains adamant his side is on the right track in their efforts to survive.
He said: “I can only go with evidence I’m seeing in terms of their togetherness.
“Between Celtic, St Johnstone and Aberdeen, taking only these three weeks, we’ve ran Celtic and Aberdeen really hard – two teams in a good run of form – and we’ve had a good win down at St Johnstone.
“I like to think I’m not kidding myself, or trying to kid the public, because it quite quickly comes back in your face.
“The way they are working in games, as you see, and the statistics even the other night against Aberdeen, the way we played and chances we created, it doesn’t look like a team that’s chucked it.
“That’s where I’m at with our group at the moment. I’m really enjoying training them every day. They’re upbeat through what they’re playing and the confidence of me showing them the evidence.
“That lends itself for the last six games, with points to play for and twists and turns to come.”
Staggies forced to deal with injury problems
County have been beset by injury problems in recent weeks, with Alex Iacovitti, David Cancola and Jordy Hiwula sidelined for the 1-0 loss to Aberdeen.
Although the trio will return for the trip to Edinburgh, striker Eamonn Brophy remains sidelined – with Mackay hopeful he will return before the end of the season.
Mackay has been heartened with the way his squad have adapted to the enforced changes.
He added: “It says a lot about the guys coming in, and the work being done during the week to make sure that the ones coming in are getting the same messages and applying them the same way.
“It’s frustrating when you get big injuries in-game. At that point, you’re getting the message that someone is down, and that’s disappointing.
“You’re not quite thinking about how serious it is during the game, because you just want to get the next guy on, but it is in the back of your head that it might affect you longer-term.
“In the last couple of weeks there have been some bizarre ones. We’ve had a lot thrown at us, but again the ones that came in kept it going.
“You just have to plan properly – and we have been down to plans F, G and H.”
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