Donaldson: County can follow Clarke’s lead
Ross County v Hibernian PREMIERSHIP
COLL DONALDSON reckons Ross County need to take a leaf out of Steve Clarke’s tactics book if they want to turn their stuttering season around.
The Staggies started the new term on fire, collecting seven points from the first nine available.
But since kicking off the campaign with back- to- back clean sheets as they registered wins against Motherwell and Hamilton, Stuart Kettlewell’s side have only managed one other Premiership victory.
The defender has watched how Clarke has transformed Scotland’s fortunes by making his team first and foremost hard to breakdown – and believes the same approach would do wonders for County.
He said: “It’s a big frustration. The gaffer mentioned it before the Betfred Cup game against Arbroath on Tuesday night that he was looking for a clean sheet so to concede again, albeit to a decent free- kick, was really disappointing.
“I look at how Scotland are performing right now under Steve Clarke. They are built from the back with some solid foundations and that’s definitely a model that we want to base ourselves on.
“We want other teams to have to work really hard if they are going to beat us so that Scotland blueprint is what we’re looking at.”
Donaldson will come up against a familiar face in Kevin Nisbet this weekend.
The Hibs striker is now being tipped for international honours but the prospect of facing the in- form frontman does not faze the Dingwall defender.
“I played against him twice last year,” he said.
“He’s a decent player and you could definitely see he was a Premiership player playing in the Championship at that stage.
“But I’m not worried about that at all. I spent three years in the Championship so now I’m at this level I just look forward to taking on guys likes your Nisbets, your Edouards and your Moreloses.
“There’s no fear, I just look forward to the challenge.”