Ross County boss Don Cowie says his team will go into their final three pre-split fixtures confident of taking points from Dundee United and Aberdeen in Dingwall – and wants Staggies supporters to back them in big numbers.
Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Hearts means the Highlanders head into the international break ninth in the Premiership – four points below the Jambos and four points clear of second-bottom Dundee, who beat city rivals United 4-2 on Sunday.
Successive defeats on the road at St Johnstone and Tynecastle have prevented County from reaching the upper half of the Premiership this month.
However, away victories at Dundee, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock and Motherwell along with home wins over Dundee and Kilmarnock this winter have kept the Staggies away from the drop-zone.
County return to action on Sunday, March 30 at home to Dundee United, before hosting Aberdeen on April 5 and rounding off their pre-split schedule at St Mirren one week later.
Boss: Players get well-earned time off before final push
Cowie, who would not be drawn on their top-six chances at the weekend, said: “It’s a really competitive league.
“A lot of teams have been on good runs at different times of the season.-
“We’ve been in really good form since Boxing Day, so the ascendency has been there for us.
“We thought Saturday was an opportunity to continue that and we didn’t manage to do that.
“We will just get our heads down and get ready for the next game against Dundee United.
“The group are getting a bit of time off this week. They have earned that because of what they have done since Christmas – it has been a really intense time in terms of our games.
“We have got three games until the split. The next two are at home, so it’s a real opportunity for us.
“They are difficult games, but there is real belief that we can get a good points haul from them.
“We need everyone behind us and our fans to turn up. because I’m sure Dundee United and Aberdeen fans will travel in good numbers to Dingwall.”
Hearts scored with first real moment
Goals from Elton Kabangu in the first half and Jorge Grant in the closing moments earned Hearts full points at Gorgie at the weekend.
Although they left Edinburgh without a positive result, Cowie praised his men for keeping the game alive for so long, despite a lack of real cutting edge.
He said: “The game-plan was clear. We were trying to frustrate Hearts in the early stages, and I felt we were doing that extremely well.
“There was not too much happening in the game and then we conceded a goal the first time that Hearts penetrated us and got through us. That was really disappointing.
“From that point, you must try to not let the game get away from you.
“It can give you a negative feeling when you concede in the first real action for Hearts.
“But we responded and managed to keep the score at 1-0.
“We made a lot of attacking substitutions in the last half an hour to see if we could get the opportunity to get back in it – we just came up short.
“We didn’t manage to show the bit of quality, whether it was from a set-play, as we had quite a few of them, or in game-play.”
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