Ross County boss Don Cowie plans to tap into his brother Paul’s knowledge of Saturday’s Premiership opponents Dundee United.
The Staggies play their first home game of the league campaign against a newly-promoted United side, who kicked off with a thrilling 2-2 draw against derby rivals Dundee on Sunday.
After landing the County job permanently during the summer, Cowie made one of his first moves to appoint his brother Paul as first-team coach, after he left his position as academy director at Tannadice which he held for nearly two years.
Among United’s standout performers on Sunday was youth product Miller Thomson who netted their second goal, while fellow academy graduates Kai Fotheringham, Lewis O’Donnell and Brandon Forbes were among the substitutes.
Staggies boss Cowie intends to leave no stone unturned ahead of United’s visit this weekend.
He said: “That is natural, to tap into that.
“From Sunday, Miller Thomson was a real standout for Dundee United from within the game.
“He is a player that Paul knows really well.
“We will get some information from him, in terms of what Miller and others will bring to the game.
“From what I saw, he was a big part of what they did.”
Goodwin has cast United’s net wide
United boss Jim Goodwin has overseen a busy summer since leading United to promotion, with 10 new arrivals making the switch to Tayside.
Among those, North Macedonian winger Kristijan Trapanovski opened his league account with the first goal in Sunday’s derby fixture.
Cowie has been impressed by Goodwin’s recruitment, adding: “It is going to be a difficult game. I watched Dundee United in the derby and it was a really entertaining game for the neutral.
“There are a lot of unknown quantities in the signings they have made, but Jim has a really good track record of going into that market, the Eastern European one.
“The early signs are that he is going to be successful again. There are a lot of good players who look like they have adapted to the Scottish game really early.
“On top of that they have some top players from their academy that have done well in the last few years.
“They’ve got a lot of attacking threats and that is something we need to be aware of that.”
Ricki Lamie still expected to be sidelined
Cowie expects defender Ricki Lamie to remain sidelined due to an Achilles injury.
Lamie suffered the injury in a Premier Sports Cup tie against Stirling Albion last month, with his absence fast-tracking the return of Will Nightingale for last weekend’s Premiership opener against Motherwell.
Cowie added: “I don’t think it is anything too serious with Ricki. It is settling down well.
“There are no obvious signs of any long-term issues.
“We just need to be patient and not push it too quickly.
“He is not out on the grass yet and it makes me think Saturday will come too soon.”
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