Jim McIntyre reveals Ross County's injured quartet are on the mend
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FOUR injury doubts for Ross County boss Jim McIntyre will be back after the international break.
Michael Gardyne, Paul Quinn and Martin Woods all missed the 1-1 draw with Rangers last weekend, while full-back Erik Cikos was taken off early in the game.
However, McIntyre confirmed that all four of the players should be fine to return to first-team action for the trip to St Johnstone next weekend.
Jay McEveley, Tim Chow and Christopher Routis came into the side in Dingwall and McIntyre was impressed with their contributions.
Woods sustained a concussion in training prior to the game and Gardyne felt a recurrence of the hamstring injury which troubled him earlier in the campaign.
Quinn was rested after playing through a knock in recent weeks.
McIntyre told the North Star: “Michael was feeling his hamstring – we made the substitution against Motherwell and it is a problem he had earlier in the season.
“Paul has been carrying a bit of an injury and we thought it was time to get it right, rather than putting him at risk.
“Martin got hit with a ball on the side of the head at training and hit a bit of concussion, so from that side of things it hasn’t been helpful. But the boys that came in did well and showed what good players they are.
“Erik had a dead leg and will be absolutely fine. He started training again on Monday.”
The Rangers result, secured by Andrew Davies’ header cancelling out Clint Hill’s opener, can be used as a springboard for the Staggies climbing the table.
McIntyre admits he’s been surprised by the “crazy” set of results in the opening 13 games of the season, which sees just three points between County at the bottom and Caley Thistle in sixth.
Little will be decided at this stage of the season but there’s no doubt, in McIntyre’s mind, that there is room for improvement.
He said: “We’re only three points off sixth place in the table. It’s been pretty crazy in terms of results, to have only three points between sixth and the bottom team after 13 games.
“It highlights just how tight this league is and how bizarre an opening to the season it has been.
“We know we need to be better than we have been in the last five games prior to the Rangers result. But there were a lot of things we did well in the game.”
County are still looking for their first win since August 20 but the Rangers performance did yield some positives at the Global Energy Stadium.
While the Gers were below-par, the Staggies’ fighting spirit pleased McIntyre after a difficult run of results.
He added: “I felt we could have done a little better in the final third but we showed a real fighting spirit and with a bit better quality in the first half, we could have got into more one-on-one situations.
“We definitely finished the game stronger and defended well. Most of their chances came from our mistakes.
