Jim McIntyre watched his Ross County side put five goals past Elgin City on Saturday, but the manager knows there is still much work to be done before his team is ready for the Scottish Premiership season.
Elgin equalised twice against County before taking a half-time lead following five goals in the opening 45 minutes. The Staggies responded with a strong second-half showing and while pleased with aspects of his team’s display, McIntyre knows there is room for improvement.
He said: “There is lots for us to work on which would have been the case if we had conceded no goals in this game rather than three, but we did a lot of other things well and it’s a work in progress for us at the moment.
“The first goal was an organisational issue where we switched off for a second, but give Elgin credit as it was a great goal.
“Brian Graham rounded off a good move for the first goal and the second goal had a fantastic build-up and a great finish by Michael Gardyne.
“It was a great workout. It’s all about giving players minutes on the pitch and the fact everyone came through it unscathed is the most important part.
“With no disrespect to Nairn it was another step up for us as will the two games in Hungary, but the results will be irrelevant.”
Graham’s tap-in from a Michael cross gave County an early lead before the home side equalised with their first shot on goal on the half hour mark courtesy of Brian Cameron’s 20 yard low drive.
The Staggies reclaimed the lead instantly with Graham and Liam Boyce linking up well to set up Gardyne, but Elgin were level again when Mark Nicolson rose unchallenged to head Daniel Moore’s corner past Scott Fox.
The League 2 club then earned an interval lead when Craig Gunn played Cameron through for his second of the game.
McIntyre made eight changes to the team for the second half and two of the replacements restored parity when Tony Dingwall crossed for Craig Curran to slide in at the back post on the hour mark.
Another substitute, Rafa De Vita, curled home a terrific 20-yard free kick a minute later to make it 4-3 before Kyle MacLeod was tripped in injury time by Marc McKenzie, allowing Jamie Reckord to make it 5-3 from the penalty spot.
For Black and Whites manager Jim Weir, the lack of options was a factor in his side’s inability to last the 90 minutes against their full-time opponents, but he was still pleased with his players’ application.
He said: “I was happy with our reaction to losing an early goal. We scored a couple of good goals and Brian Cameron’s third goal was as good a goal as you will see in terms of pattern of play and a finish.
“But the advantage they had was the fact they could make eight changes at half-time. We’re running low on numbers at the moment and we had a few kids on the bench, but we’re working on bringing more players in.
“We hope to have three new loan signings in next week and I hope we can get them in for Tuesday’s game against Huntly. If we can’t get them in by then we may have to postpone the fixture as we’ve got a few players who can’t make it as they are working.”