White feeling the love from his family of Rangers fans

THE relentless beeping of Jordan White’s mobile phone pointed towards a result felt way beyond the Highlands. The striker’s bullet header may have lifted Ross County off the foot of the Premiership table but it also raised the prospect of Rangers now winning the title at Celtic Park on March 21. Given the 29-year-old’s footballing leanings growing up in the West of Scotland, he could scarcely have concocted a more appealing outcome to the night.

‘I’ve got a lot of happy people in my family,’ he smiled. ‘I grew up that way, and it is what it is.

‘I’m here at Ross County and I’ve got a job to do here. That’s my main focus.

‘I’ll try and keep my feet on the ground and concentrate on us. At the end of the day, we are not out of the water yet and that’s my main aim. Hopefully, we can back it up again on Saturday.’

Sunday’s result extended County’s happy habit of bloodying the noses of the bigger sides in the league.

Since John Hughes took charge, they’ve already defeated Aberdeen and Hibs — the downside being earlier losses to fellow strugglers such as Kilmarnock and Hamilton. As welcome as the seismic win over Celtic was, then, White feels that it is imperative his team now replicate that performance in the succession of six-pointers they will face.

‘First and foremost, it’s a massive three points, which gets us off the bottom of the table,’ he reflected. ‘I don’t think anyone gave us a chance going into the game.

‘To get the three points is really good.

‘The gaffer told us every game is going to be a cup final. We have set the benchmark for the last nine games. We have got this victory and now we’ve got to go and back that up.

‘It’s no good just beating Celtic and then not doing it anywhere else. We will enjoy it but we’ve still got a long way to go.

‘It’s the old cliche of taking one game at a time, but that’s the way it is.

‘We are not out of the water yet, but this gives us a really good platform.’

While the destiny of the title was known long before Celtic’s latest implosion, it would take a brave man to wager on who will occupy the bottom two spaces after 38 games.

With just four points now separating Motherwell, County, Kilmarnock and Hamilton, the implications of every victory or defeat for those involved are simply colossal.

‘We beat Hamilton, who went four points behind us, but they went on a good run and we found ourselves bottom of the league,’ White recalled.

‘It’s not somewhere we want to be, so to get straight back off there is pleasing.

‘We’ve got a game in hand on Kilmarnock as well.’

If County can’t kick on from this latest win, you suspect they never will.

White was still a Motherwell player when the team won at Celtic Park in the Betfred Cup under Stuart Kettlewell in November but detects a desire among the squad to ensure there is no repeat of the costly slump that followed that triumph.

‘I wasn’t here the first time we beat Celtic, but we have beaten them twice this season,’ he said.

‘We’ve got to take a lot of heart from that. Yes, they might not be firing on all cylinders, but they are still Celtic and they are still a good team.

‘We defended really well. We were more disciplined in the way we played and we soaked up the pressure.

‘They had more of the ball, but when the chance came, we took it, thankfully.’

Two goals in three games since moving up from Fir Park is a fine return for a player who has been thrust into a struggling side.

White (below) sees more than enough in the squad he has joined to believe that, come the end of the campaign in May, they won’t reflect on Sunday’s famous victory as some kind of flash in the pan. He just insists they all have to stay together. ‘Since I have come here, I’ve felt every game I’m going to get a chance,’ he said.

‘It might only be one chance, but I just need to concentrate and make sure I hit the target and give myself the best opportunity of scoring. ‘We are talking about me, but we’ve got Oli (Shaw) and Billy (Mckay) as well. ‘We have got good strikers here.

‘We are going to need everybody until the end of the season. It’s a collective effort.

‘I’m delighted to get on the scoresheet, but we are going to need everybody.’