Yan Dhanda can be the man for Ross County recovery
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YAN Dhanda insists he is ready to be the creative spark as Ross County battle to escape the Premiership danger zone.
The former Liverpool and England youth midfielder has had to be patient in Dingwall since committing to the club on leaving Swansea City in the summer.
Since starting three of the Staggies’ four League Cup group qualifiers, Dhanda has earned a place in the match-day 11 only four times in the league.
Brought in as an attacking midfield replacement for Motherwell-bound Blair Spittal, there have been flashes of flair and technical ability from the 23-year-old without him quite doing enough to convince manager Malky Mackay to give him the jersey regularly.
With Ross Callachan now injured and out until after the Qatar World Cup finals, though, opportunity knocks for a player of undoubted ability, who made more than 50 appearances for the Swans in England’s Championship.
After arguably his best County display yet in Sunday’s 2-1 defeat to Hearts, Dhanda made a plea for greater involvement in critical times for the bottom-placed team.
The pacey attacker set up Jordan White’s opening goal and, earlier, played a big part in the move which led to Jordy Hiwula’s disallowed finish.
Reflecting on his own display, Dhanda said: “I hope the Hearts performance does push me forward and lay down a marker for more involvement.
“Like any player, I’m desperate to play my part for the team and I always know, when I’m on the pitch, I always know I’m going to create for the team. I showed I could do that against Hearts. Hopefully, I’ve done well enough to keep playing football now.”
Dhanda is more convinced than ever that County can play their way out of Premiership trouble.
“The biggest thing is we’ve dominated against one of the best teams in the league in that second half,” he stressed.
“We can definitely take a huge amount of encouragement from that.
“There’s no time to dwell on it – we have to look at the positives.
“We dominated against a team that is playing in Europe this season and we’ll look to take that into next weekend’s game against St Mirren.
“We showed on Sunday that when we actually try and play football we are very capable of dominating matches. We had our chances, and it just gives us all the more belief in ourselves.
“When we get the ball on the floor and try to play we can cause any team problems.”
