CURRAN CLAIMS MORE IS TO COME AS COUNTY CLICK TOGETHER
FOR a team that took a soul-destroying 630 minutes of football to place points on the Premiership board last season, there was no underplaying the significance of this early, efficient first win of the campaign.
Then again, it was a very different Ross County team to the one that stayed pointless f r om seven matches through to late September last year.
In Saturday’s starting line-up, only Scott Boyd stood as a survivor from the cosmopolitan group that took the first home bow last season.
Survival has created a platform for progress on and off the field. While chairman Roy MacGregor this summer set about revamping and upgrading t he re - styled Global Energy Stadium, manager McIntyre was doing a similar job in recruitment.
Quickly incorporating a dozen new signings into what was an al r eady greatly-overhauled squad brings it’s own challenges, but what shone through on Saturday was j ust how advanced the process is.
Hamilton Accies’ early penalty miss proved pivotal, yes, but County’s solidity and assurance as a cohesive unit impressed as play turned decisively in their favour.
Encouragingly for the boisterous home crowd, they also looked like a team with more to come.
Craig Curran, who netted five times last season and created a fair few more, claimed both finishes as reward for his work-rate.
‘Despite the number of new signings, we’ve all basically had a full pre- season together and that has definitely helped,’ the 25-year-old said.
‘ We’re still gelling — there’s definitely more to come than we showed. If we are getting results when we aren’t yet at our top level, that’s a good sign.
‘There’s a great feeling about the place. Little changes have been made by the chairman and the facilities are fantastic.
‘We have to build on it on Tuesday at St Johnstone.’
One moment can change
a game and Hamilton, at least, will feel the thirdminute flashpoint on Saturday was pivotal.
Christian Nade was brought down in the box by goalkeeper Scott Fox. Ali Crawford struck his penalty well enough, but Fox saved to his left.
Less than seven minutes later, Curran had tucked away the opener after winning a corner through his own determined play.
From Raffaele de Vita’s delivery, a Jackson Irvine header fell to the forward who swiped in a closerange volley.
From there, the match changed greatly, with County mostly composed and in control before the second after 41 minutes.
Marcus Fraser worked a one-two with Irvine before cutting the ball back for the alert Curran to tap in.
Accies, so dominant against 10-man Partick the previous week, will feel one point from six after two matches is a poor return for their efforts — but the lack of a goal is significant.
For Nade, the 30-year-old Frenchman, the frustration was palpable.
‘We started very well and in the first 15 minutes we could have been in control of the game,’ he said. ‘But the smallest of details made a big impact on the game.
‘We missed the penalty, then Ross County got their chance and scored. It was a good chance for us and if we had scored it definitely would have changed the game.’