County look to close out race for title

Ross County can put themselves into a title-clinching position by winning at Ayr United tonight.

Victory would mean that Dundee United, who sit six points behind with only three games left of the season, would have to see off Inverness Caledonian Thistle tomorrow to keep their slim hopes of catching County alive.

County head into the game having played out a goalless draw last weekend with bottom-of-the table Partick Thistle and co-manager Stuart Kettlewell said after what was their 47th game of the season: “A bit of fatigue set in. That wasn’t really surprising when you consider the run of games we have been on, but the players gave everything they had against Thistle.

“It had become a game that was important not to lose and we managed to achieve that. Everyone talks about us having a big squad but we’ve been using the same players recently due to the injuries we have.

“But we’ll look to win against Ayr and see what happens.”

Ayr, who were themselves in title contention for a large part of the season, are now looking to confirm a spot in the end of season play-offs and boss Ian Mccall said: “Making the play-offs would be a tremendous achievement for a club the size of Ayr and we are almost there.

“We have had three cracking games against County this season but only have a draw to show for our efforts. We could easily have won two of those games, so we have nothing to be fearful of.”