County ignoring Neilson’s mind games
● Ferguson happy to ‘let Robbie keep talking’ as Dingwall men home in on title
Steven Ferguson yesterday hailed Ross County’s mental strength after calmly shrugging off attempts at mind games from Dundee United manager Robbie Neilson.
The Tannadice boss has spoken on repeated occasions of County cracking under the pressure and intensity of the Championship title run-in.
Althoughinjury-stricken,comanager Ferguson believes the Dingwall squad has risen superbly to both the physical and psychological demands of navigating a frenetic spell of high-intensity action.
Dunfermline’s visit tonight will mark County’s eighth game in exactly a month, while Friday night’s dramatic home draw against United was their third outing in six days.
The late leveller from Jamie Lindsay summed up the mood of cool defiance, keeping the Staggies five points ahead with a game in hand.
Afterwards, a shell-shocked Neilson claimed County failing to win the league now would amount to “one of the greatest disasters you will ever see”.
Ferguson responded: “We’ll let Robbie keep talking!
“Again, we’ve said it before, we can’t influence what other people say. We’ll just let them keep talking.
“We read the press and see what’s said – and none of it has come from us. We’ll just keep focusing on ourselves and a massive game against Dunfermline
0 Jamie Lindsay’s late equaliser against Dundee United summed up Ross County’s defiance. tomorrow, a team that’s picked up a lot in the last two or three months.
“They had a change in manager and, in the time since he’s settled in, they’ve gone on a decent run. They will still very much have an eye on getting into the play-offs. They are definitely looking up, rather than down. It’s a really important game for them as well.”
Ferguson knows that if United fail to beat Ayr United on Friday, County could be champions by the weekend with two
wins against Dunfermline and Partick. But he has full trust in the County players to continue the “one game at a time” mantra and focus that has served them so well.
He stressed: “You have to remember, the league made us play a game midweek of a cup final. They then made us play the game against Caley Thistle where we had a game on the Friday – three games in six days.
“Dundee United benefit from it because they don’t have the games. We tried to fight it and lost. But regarding that mental side of it, we feel our players have handled everything extremely well.
“We also feel they’ve handled the physical side really well. We look forward to the Dunfermline game and it will be four games in 10 days. That’s
a lot of games at the best of times, but especially given the amount of games we’ve got.
“But again, this is a group of players we trust impeccably to do what’s needed.”
Ferguson and co-manager Stuart Kettlewell will have the same squad to choose from tonight, with midfield linchpin Ross Draper still on crutches with a knee injury.
Meanwhile, County keeper Scott Fox believes his side’s success on the home front has provided the bedrock for their progress this season.
The Championship leaders have lost only once in Dingwall throughout the entire campaign – and are out to protect that record tonight.
County have won all three clashes with the Pars this season but Fox, pictured, stressed: “Dunfermline will have the bit between their teeth after losing a two-goal lead at the weekend.
“We know it is going to be difficult against them, especially with Stevie Crawford in charge now – he’s turned them into a different animal to play against. Our games against them have all been difficult anyway but, at the same time, we’ve managed to get results when we’ve required them. We’re just looking to try to take another step forwards tomorrow.
“We’ve only lost once here at home which shows what it has been like. Teams don’t like coming here and we seem to like playing here. We’ve obviously scored a few last-minute goals here as well, which just goes to show how the crowd have got behind us to keep going.”
Head coach Stevie Crawford admits Dunfermline will have to go all out for victory tonight if they are to cling on to their dreams of a tilt at promotion.
The Pars had hauled themselves into the top four with a remarkable run of five straight victories but have been unable to maintain momentum in recent weeks and have now not won in their past three matches.
The recent defeat to Ayr and Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Partick Thistle, having been two goals ahead, leave them now six points adrift of fourth place.
After three defeats to Ross County so far this season, the Fifers will need a marked improvement to reignite their push for a play-off place.
But Crawford confesses that, with only five games remaining, a point is of little use to the East End Park men in the Highlands.
He said: “The way results have gone in recent weeks we know we’re now in a position where, although Ross County are trying to win the league, we have to go up there and try to win all three points.
“They’re a team pushing for the championship, so that alone will let our boys know what we’re going to be up against.
“We’ve got to go for it. If we’re going to catch Ayr United or Inverness, we’ve got to go up there with the mentality that we’re going to win the game.”