Don Cowie says Ross County’s unity and togetherness have shone through in their record-breaking run of three successive Premiership away wins.
The Staggies triumphed 1-0 against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park on Sunday, which followed wins on the road against Dundee and Aberdeen during the festive period.
The feat, which is unprecedented since County were first promoted to the top flight in 2012, is all the more remarkable given the Dingwall men had failed to win an away fixture in 15 months prior to the streak.
George Harmon’s goal four minutes from time proved the winner in Ayrshire, which saw County leapfrog Killie into ninth place.
County have now opened up a 10-point gap on bottom side St Johnstone, and are now only two points off the top six.
Cowie praised the efforts of his side for navigating a demanding festive schedule, to propel their focus further up the table.
He said: “It’s pretty special for the boys. It was well documented our away form had been really poor over the last 15 months, and it was up to me, the staff and the players to create a gameplan for us away from home.
“It’s then up to the players to go and execute that – and they have done it unbelievably by getting three wins in the last three away games.
“The strength of us is the unity and togetherness. I don’t think we fell on the right side of the computer this year in terms of the fixtures – with three games away from home in 11 days over the festive period, and the amount of travelling we have to do.
“What you can do is feel aggrieved by that, or roll your sleeves up and come together. That’s exactly what we’ve done.
“Football changes very quickly. Everyone has spoken about how we are pretty solid at home and struggling away, and all of a sudden we go on the purple patch we are on.
“We will not get carried away, we will keep working hard and trying to improve and pick up points.”
Leak facing lengthy spell on sidelines
County faced injury disruption to their backline ahead of the trip to Rugby Park, with Ryan Leak and Michee Efete sidelined through injuries suffered in the win against Aberdeen.
Cowie revealed Leak is facing a lengthy absence, with the 26-year-old preparing to undergo an operation on his achilles early this week.
The Staggies boss felt his backline – which included skipper Connor Randall as a makeshift centre half – coped impressively with the circumstances against Killie.
He added: “It’s not really positive on Ryan Leak. He’s going to get an operation on his Achilles on Tuesday.
“It’s a bad one for him, we are really disappointed. He was part of a couple of performances we have just had away from home.
“It’s up to us to rally around him and get him feeling good after he gets that operation.
“It’s still early in terms of Michee, but we will see how that settles down.
“The defence was outstanding. We limited Kilmarnock to very few opportunities. Players were putting their bodies on the line.
“We were minus seven players going into the game, and down to the bare bones in terms of numbers. We just managed to fill the bench.
“At the end Connor Randall was battling through to stay on the pitch.”
Conversation