Will Clark: Ross County could blow chances of Premiership survival by pressing panic button on Malky Mackay

Ross County are used to being involved in relegation battles since returning to the Premiership two years ago.

Having done enough before the pandemic cancelled the 2019/20 season, Ross County escaped the bottom two on the final day of last season with a 2–1 win over Motherwell to ensure top flight football stayed in Dingwall this season.

Ahead of tomorrow night’s game at Dundee at the time of writing, County are four points adrift of the rest of the table, and whatever the result, will stay bottom of the table.

Going into the game the Staggies have played 10 matches, won 0, drawn 3 and lost 7.

Manager Malky Mackay said he wants Ross County to aim higher than just escaping relegation, but for this season, I fear that is the best they can hope for.

Ask any Staggies fan, and they would bite your hand off for 10th.

But if you compare and contrast this season’s Ross County team to Stuart Kettlewell’s during the first half of the campaign last season, at least there is hope on the pitch that they can get points.

Last season, Ross County went through a dreadful run where they didn’t win from September until the end of December.

The results didn’t lie either – during that period Ross County were outplayed on the park, and there wasn’t a result during that bleak time where you could say they didn’t deserve to lose.

You look at this season’s team and despite not registering a win, at least they are competitive in most of the matches they have played.

Only a disastrous first half when they went 3–0 down to Hibernian could you say Ross County were outplayed.

The rest of the campaign, even in the 3–0 defeat at Celtic, the Staggies were competitive and had a chance of taking something out of the game.

But silly mistakes in defence are costing Ross County big time and leaving them with the heaviest goals against record so far.

The Staggies may have been entitled to a few free hits given their start to the campaign, with their first five games against last season’s top six. A decent draw against high flying Hearts followed.

But their last two home matches against St Mirren and Livingston were games where they should have targeted wins, or at worst, taken a point from each game.

They came away with nothing after defeats to teams many see as contenders for the drop.

In a season where chairman Roy MacGregor said the club needed to change their way of thinking in order to progress, it appears to be the same old story in a fight for survival.

Pressure has started to grow on Mackay given their home defeats to St Mirren and Livingston with fans starting to voice their discontent.

But what happens if Mackay left? Give John Hughes a shout and ask if he is busy? It is Mackay’s first season and he needs to be given more time to turn things around – at least one more transfer window for him to change things if the situation hasn’t improved by January.

It might be 10 games without a win, but to press the panic button calling for Mackay to go is not the answer.

The players have to respond to why they have only won three points this season. On the pitch, Ross County are not a bad team and they can score goals.

They just have to stop conceding so many goals.