Noah Chilvers hopes his first Ross County goal might open the floodgates – for both more goals and away Premiership wins.
The classy midfielder guided home the opener in the Staggies’ 3-0 victory at Dundee on Boxing Day, which was the Dingwall team’s first away league success since September 2023.
Josh Nisbet doubled the scoreline in the second half before a Jordan White penalty deservedly earned Don Cowie’s men maximum points to move up to 10th spot.
This Sunday, County host Hearts, whose 2-1 home derby loss to Hibernian leaves them two points adrift of County and just two points ahead of rock-bottom strugglers St Johnstone.
Second time lucky for scorer Chilvers
Not for the first time this season, summer signing for Colchester, Chilvers, was a star man for the Staggies, in a big performance which ended a four-match losing slide.
And not only did he put County in front, he lined up sub Nisbet for the goal which all but buried Dundee.
And the 23-year-old thought he might have got off the mark even earlier than he did at Dens Park.
He said: “I tried to lob the keeper early on and I thought it was in all the way.
“I thought I’d never be scoring a goal, but thankfully my goal went in and hopefully, like the away wins, more will come.
“We were really pleased with how we played on Thursday.
“Everyone, to a man, stood up and fought. We showed a lot of courage to get on the ball and we were creative in the final third.
“We defended really well as a team, so it was a good all-round performance.”
‘Statement’ victory Dens Park
County’s last Premiership victory away from Dingwall came when Simon Murray, now a Dundee player, scored the only goal at Kilmarnock last season – more than 15 months ago.
Chilvers said: “For us, it’s just a game of football over 90 minutes, home or away with goalposts at either end, so it was just about getting that out of our minds and trying to play our game.
“On Thursday, we could have played our game anywhere and got a result.
“It was a massive performance.
“To win the way we did makes it a bit of a statement. We were comfortable throughout the game.
“It was good to bounce back.
“In the games previously, we were competitive, but we just found a way to lose – it was good to win so comfortably at Dundee.
“We took the lead, and we didn’t sit back. Dundee had a little bit of domination towards the end of the first half, but we were still comfortable with that.
“They didn’t really have a chance, and we controlled the game in and out of possession.”
League table is ‘all about perspective’ – Chilvers
The festive result lifted County to within one point of Dundee and they now sit just three points behind in-form, seventh-placed, Hibs.
Chilvers is relishing the chance to build on their Tayside triumph by beating an under-pressure Hearts side beneath them.
He added: “Sunday’s game is one we’re really looking forward to.
“It’s another chance for us to go out and show what we can do as a team and as individuals.
“When you lose, it’s doom and gloom, when you win, we’re looking up the table – it’s all about perspective.
“We have got to just focus on what we’re doing. There’s no point looking at the table.
“We’ll try to play like we did against Dundee. If we do that, we will win more than we lose.”
County were seconds away from winning 1-0 against Hearts at Tynecastle in September before Lawrence Shankland got the Jambos out of jail with a last-gasp leveller.
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