Hughes hails players’ ‘courage’ after County move out of the bottom two
DUNDEE UTD 0
ROSS COUNTY 2
White 24, Iacovitti 28
John Hughes hailed his "courageous" Ross County side after they moved out of the Premiership bottom two.
First-half goals from striker Jordan White and defender Alex Iacovitti took the Highland club into 10th place with a 2-0 win at Tannadice. With two league games remaining, they are one point above Kilmarnock and three ahead of bottom side Hamilton, whom they host on Wednesday week before they take on Motherwell on the final day.
A delighted Hughes said: "The word I'm using is courage. You have to stand up and be courageous. We made two or three changes to freshen it up. We're asking guys like Michael Gardyne and Iain Vigurs to keep going and going to the end.
"All credit to these guys who know what Ross County is all about, they are giving it everything they've got and even the substitutes have a massive part to play. I hope we've timed it right. It's going to go right down to the wire. It's in our hands, I'm not interested in what's going on elsewhere.
"We've given ourselves a chance and that's hopefully a big step towards staying in the league. But we're playing against a Hamilton team off the back of a good win and know how to stay in the league. It's not going to be easy.”
United failed to build on their 3-0 win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie in the Scottish Cup last week. Manager Micky Mellon admitted it was a "frustrating afternoon" but was reluctant to suggest next week's semifinal against Hibernian at Hampden was a distraction. He said: "I have been asked about that and it would be easy for me to stand here now and say it was a distraction.”