Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Hughes tells County players to use Hibs win as a springboard
ROSS County manager John Hughes admits he is hoping a surprise victory at Hibernian is the start of a change in the Dingwall club’s fortunes.
County climbed off the bottom of the Premiership table at Hamilton’s expense after goals either side of the break from Harry Paton and Oli Shaw handed them their first league win in 13 outings.
Paton’s strike after 25 minutes also ended a 571-minute goal drought for County.
Hughes said: “To come here and take their scalp with an honest hardworking performance is great.
“And I felt we played some wonderful stuff in the first half.
“I’m just delighted for the boys but it’s only one win. We are not getting carried away.
“We are where we are for a reason and we are a work in progress.
“It has to give them confidence (being off the bottom) but I’m saying to them that we are keeping our feet on the ground. It’s only a game. We’ve come here and did our business but we are not looking too far in front.
“We will enjoy it and we will go again against St Johnstone on Saturday, which will be a whole different ball game.
“But surely that must give us a wee lift. It gives me a wee lift seeing the hard work and what I’ve got here in this team. Hopefully we can build on this.”
Hibs boss Jack Ross admitted it was a bad day at the office for his team as they lost at home for only the second time in the league.
He said: “We were a little bit off all aspects of our game, our energy levels, our creative spark; we just looked off it.
“The start of the game was encouraging but I think we got spooked by losing the goal and lost our way a bit.
“In the second half it looked like one of those nights for us in terms of scoring.”