Derek Adams is urging Ross County to rise to the challenge of facing a Hearts side brimming with confidence – and a razor-sharp Lawrence Shankland.
The Staggies were forced to turn back on the flooded and snowbound A9 on Wednesday as their Premiership match at Rangers was postponed.
Hearts’ derby with Hibs went ahead at Easter Road and red-hot striker Shankland brushed off an early penalty miss to smash home a spectacular late winner to keep the Jambos third.
Shankland, a real contender for the Scotland squad competing in the Euro finals in Germany next summer, is now on 17 goals this term and is heavily linked with a move to title challengers and Viaplay Cup winners Rangers.
On September 30, when Malky Mackay was still in charge at County, they shut out ex-Aberdeen man Shankland, but Alan Forrest’s goal secured a 1-0 win for the visitors to Dingwall.
Hearts ‘chopped and changed’ v Hibs
Saturday’s trip to Tynecastle for 10th-placed County will be their first game since their stoppage-time 1-0 defeat to Dundee on December 16 – which sparked Adams’ fury about poor standards within the Scottish game five matches into his return from League Two Morecambe.
While wary of Shankland, manager Adams was quick to point out he is not Hearts’ only weapon.
He said: “It was a fabulous performance from Hearts, getting the win in a derby game thanks to a fabulous goal from Lawrence Shankland.
“They’ve got a lot of players to choose from in their squad – you saw that the other night when they chopped and changed their squad around, changed systems and personnel.
“It was a really good performance from them.”
Adams: County must be brave at ‘intimidating’ Tynecastle
Adams is urging his men to impose their own game on Hearts, despite what can be a tricky, testing, venue.
He said: “To go to Tynecastle, we always know that it’s an extremely tight venue.
“It’s a narrow pitch, but not only that, the stadium that comes inwards makes it intimidating for other teams.
“We have to have players that can get on the ball and pass it to take the pressure off us, get up the pitch and create chances – as we would have had to do against Rangers.”
🎟️ Tickets for Saturday's trip to face Heart of Midlothian are still available.
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County aim to ‘prove their worth’
And Adams says his players cannot wait to go out to perform at one of Scottish football’s best stadia.
He added: “We’ve got players that want to play on the big stage.
“Going to Tynecastle, Easter Road, Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen – these are the venues those players want to perform in.
“They will have the opportunity to do that on Saturday, and it’s a venue that can be really good for the players in our squad.
“Going to a team that are third in the table and coming off an Edinburgh derby win, they will be jubilant – we understand that.
“But we have players who have to prove their worth as well. We’ve got players in the team that are more than capable of producing some magic on the day.
“We’ve got players in the team who can create openings and they will have to take them. We’ll have to be very good defensively as well.”
County travel to the capital without the services of injured trio, defenders Will Nightingale, Dylan Smith and midfielder Ross Callachan.
The Dingwall’s team’s final league fixture before the winter break sees them host Aberdeen on Tuesday night.
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