COUNTY ON A REVIVAL
Staggies battle back to sink Saints
ROSS COUNTY are a perplexing, interesting team. Anyone who watched them in the opening league game of the season at Tynecastle would surely concede that there have been few better 45-minute displays of football in the Premiership since.
Mind you, they still went on to lose that one. And in the aftermath, the campaign has descended into a bit of a mess results-wise.
Yet, you sense there is still something there. Something building. Something easily capable of turning this term into more than just a grim battle against relegation. Just like last season.
Having gone in 2-1 down at the interval after Jordan White’s opener had been cancelled out by Ryan Strain and Mark O’Hara, County showed clear flashes of what was also evident in Gorgie that afternoon back in July.
Owura Edwards was flying, the interplay was good, there was danger in the air. Two goals within four minutes from Jordan Tillson and George Harmon got them in front and it looked, for a while, as though they may well score more.
Yet, they ended up having to dig in and hold on for just their third Premiership win of the campaign and had goalkeeper Ross Laidlaw, at fault over Strain’s strike from a free-kick, to thank for the victory following an 85th-minute save from Alex Greive when a ricochet had put the St Mirren substitute clean through.
It was certainly a well-timed result for Malky Mackay’s side. They’d gone into the encounter with just one win from their last nine fixtures in all competitions and have two tough away games at Hibs and Celtic before the break for the World Cup.
Maybe the patchiness in their performances is purely down to having to rebuild a team every summer on a restrictive budget. Maybe they will come good like last term. Mackay is certainly bullish after seeing County climb off the bottom of the table despite losing captain Jack Baldwin through injury midway through the first half.
‘Again, it’s a new group of players trying to get to grips with the intensity of the Premiership,’ he said. ‘People don’t realise the intensity of this league, and the fact that anybody can beat anybody.
‘It’s a really exciting league for the layman. Maybe not so much for us managers. I have guys starting to understand how I want us to play.
‘The midfield area, in a lot of games, is a tough place to be. It’s 100 miles an hour. For boys coming from other parts of the world, some from England and boys coming from Canada, it’s different.
‘They have a lot of technique but there is an intensity. The relentless nature of these games, going right to the last minute and balls being thrown in with seven or eight men in the box.
‘I’m delighted they had the calmness of mind, with two minutes to go, to go up into the top left-hand corner and keep the ball up there. That’s them showing a bit of nous and understanding that we need to calm pressure against a team desperate to get back into it.
‘I hate picking people out, but I thought Jordan Tillson and Yan Dhanda in midfield were terrific.’
From finishing calmly, County started strongly with White opening the scoring on 10 minutes. A Harmon corner from the left made its way to Victor Loturi. He fired a low ball in and White was in acres of space to convert from close in.
Eyes went to linesman Gordon Crawford for a flag and then referee John Beaton for a VAR check, but nothing came. The goal was good. Within three minutes, though, the home side conceded and set the tone for a real rollercoaster of a game. Baldwin conceded a free-kick around 22 yards out with a foul on Jonah Ayunga and Strain delivered a beautiful, bending effort from the set-piece to make it 1-1.
It was a lovely goal — but questions have to be asked of Laidlaw after getting what looked like a full hand on the ball.
From that point onwards, the game went into a bit of a slump. County were probably the more inventive of the two sides leading up to the half-time interval without really creating clear-cut chances.
Having said that, White came close to scoring his second of the game just before the half hour when a netbound flick from a header into the area from Keith Watson smacked off Curtis Main with the Saints forward knowing very little about it.
Sure enough, with things not quite going their way, County conceded deep into time added on at the end of the first 45.
An Ethan Erhahon corner was cleared by Tillson and O’Hara instinctively tried his luck with a looping header. The ball hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced over the goal-line before Ayunga followed in to make sure.
If Tillson felt any regret over his role in that goal, he made amends with a 56th-minute leveller.
Edwards’ cross came off White’s head and made its way to Tillson at the edge of the area. His low shot with the left foot was as accurate as it was venomous and whizzed low into the net.
Not bad for a geezer whose last goal came three years ago, in November 2019, for Exeter against West Ham United’s Under-21s in the EFL Trophy.
If Tillson can get on the scoresheet, anyone can — and full-back Harmon took his lead from the midfielder by earning County the win in with a first goal for the club since arriving in the summer.
Edwards beat Marcus Fraser, and slung over an inviting cross. The onrushing Harmon got his head on it flush, it took a bounce and then seemed to take an eternity to squeeze between goalkeeper Trevor Carson and his right-hand post before going in.
That’s 17 goals conceded in their last six away games. More of that and it might be Saints’ campaign that ends up going south.
ROSS COUNTY (4-2-3-1): Laidlaw; Johnson, Baldwin (Watson 26), Iacovitti, Harmon; Loturi (Cancola 73), Tillson; Hiwula (Akio 82), Dhanda, Edwards (Samuel 82); White. Subs (not used): Eastwood, Olaigbe, Munro, Smith. Booked: Loturi.
ST MIRREN (3-5-2): Carson; Gogic (Greive 62), Gallagher, Dunne; Strain, Baccus, Erhahon (Tanser 62), O’Hara, Fraser (Kiltie 78); Ayunga, Main (Brophy 73). Subs (not used): Urminsky, Shaughnessy, Flynn, Henderson, Kenny. Booked: O’Hara, Ayunga, Main. Referee: John Beaton.
Attendance: 3,589.