Ross County boss Jim McIntyre believes Highland derby opponents Caley Thistle have a point to prove
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ROSS County manager Jim McIntyre knows rock-bottom Caley Thistle will be heading to Dingwall tomorrow to show they are better than their results are showing.
Wednesday’s 2-1 home defeat by Motherwell makes it nine straight games without a win and only one victory in 13 fixtures.
A Liam Boyce hat-trick fired County to a 3-2 win in Inverness in August, although ICT have racked up five straight wins at the Global Energy Stadium.
County tested runaway leaders Celtic before going down 2-0 at Celtic Park and Wednesday and are keen to avoid a third loss on the spin following their 3-2 defeat by Partick Thistle last week.
With just four points between them, McIntyre is well aware that his players will be up against determined rivals in this hugely anticipated derby.
“We have to make sure we are the victors,” he said. “Richie Foran will be saying the exact same to them. They’re coming in to the game bottom of the league with a real point to prove.
“As we said with Partick Thistle, when you look at Inverness games they’ve done a lot well in recent games and have just not been ruthless enough at the top end of the pitch.
“Before we went on our run, we were a bit like that ourselves. It seems to be this season that every team is having a wee spell like that, not playing like a team at the bottom – creating plenty chances, but just not getting that wee bit of luck or quality in front of goal.
“Every one of the teams have had that. Inverness have good players, so we know we have to do what we do well. If we don’t, they can hurt us.
“It’s a Highland derby. They have a better record here and we have a better record through there in Inverness. We want to make sure we’re changing that.”
With the game also set to be a sell-out tomorrow afternoon, McIntyre wants a raucous atmosphere in Dingwall.
“I hope it’s a full house. We need the fans out and being vocal, getting right behind the team,” he said. “We want to make it as hostile an atmosphere as possible.”
On Wednesday against Celtic, Martin Woods and Liam Boyce had first half chances before a long-range strike from Erik Sviatchenko beat keeper Scott Fox before Stuart Armstrong swiftly made it 2-0 for the Hoops just before the break.
That win shot Celtic 16 points clear of Hogamanay hosts Rangers, but McIntyre plucked the positives from the performance against the champions.
“We gave a good account of ourselves. We’re disappointed with our quality in terms of working the goalkeeper more,” said McIntyre.
“In terms of togetherness and team spirit, it ticked all the boxes. They did a lot of things well because you need to be very disciplined when you play Celtic, with good organisation. We certainly showed that.
“We’ve been on decent form. Okay, we’ve lost the last two games but before that we were six unbeaten and we’re playing well.”
Midfielder Reghan Tumilty, who is only 19, was handed his debut from the bench in front of 55,000 fans at Celtic Park on Wednesday, and McIntyre explained that he’d earned his chance.
“We felt Reghan has been doing particularly well. He’s trained with us the last week or so and we felt with his pace he could pose more problems than a Dingwall or a Dow coming on.
“Again, players in that position need to do more if they want to play. If not, the young boys will get a chance.”
Ian McShane misses out this weekend due to a groin injury, while Michael Gardyne remains sidelined with a hamstring injury and Chris Burke with a virus, although Kenny van der Weg returns from suspension.
