Staggies head for safety as Saints feel the pain
ROSS COUNTY put more daylight between themselves and bottom side Dundee United by claiming their first away win for five months since beating Hibernian at Easter Road.
They also increased the pressure on the Tangerines ahead of their home match against the Leith men today by widening the gap between 11th and 12th spots to five points.
And with fellow strugglers Kilmarnock losing at Pittodrie to see their lead over their Highland rivals reduced to a single point, it was a good day all round for the Staggies in the quest for Premiership survival without the added stress of a play-off.
Their success in Perth ended a three-match losing sequence for County, while St Johnstone — rapidly emerging as the only other team likely to become embroiled in the relegation dogfight — have not won since mid February when they beat Dundee United 2-1 away.
Perhaps more worrying for manager Callum Davidson is the statistics that Saints are without a home win in eight, stretching back to November. The situation may not be as bad as last season when Saints avoided relegation only by dint of a play-off victory over Inverness Caley Thistle.
But Davidson stressed: ‘We are in a relegation battle and we need to stick together and ensure that we are fighting and scrapping.’
The Saints players need to look no further than their opponents yesterday for a lesson in desire and commitment after Staggies skipper Alex Iacovitti spent much of the second half staunching the flow of blood from a nose injury after refusing to come off.
‘He just kept stuffing toilet paper up his nose and getting on with it — and I’ll take that attitude all day long,’ said boss Malky Mackay.
‘Simon Murray has also shown willingness to be a team player despite having to bide his time and after putting the afterburners on for his goal he continued to run hard and he and Jordan (White) were a real handful.
‘As far as team performance was concerned, it was exactly what I challenged them to be on the back of last Sunday’s match against Celtic.
‘I wanted to see the same sort of performance and to a man they were really at it. That’s what we are going to need in our last seven games.’
Goals from Murray and David Cancola either side of half-time secured the points.
County began encouragingly and with barely one minute on the clock, Victor Loturi fed a pass to Josh Sims whose cross from the right presented Eamonn Brophy with a partial chance which he headed wide.
Saints responded in the fourth minute when Liam Gordon headed David Wotherspoon’s free-kick close enough to the target to cause a frisson of fear in County’s rearguard.
But, with Sims also prominent wide in attack, County were a shade more enterprising and Brophy moved purposefully on to a cross from his aforementioned team-mate in the 18th minute and did well to produce a shot across the face of goal but just wide of the far post.
There was a sting in the tail for Brophy and County, though, when he went down awkwardly while executing his shot and appeared to suffer muscle damage in the process, forcing Mackay to substitute him with Murray.
In the event, Brophy’s injury turned out to be a blessing in disguise of sorts, given what transpired almost on the stroke of half-time.
With arguably their most dangerous player sidelined, County turned to White to hopefully form a productive partnership with Murray but the striker’s header missed the target completely when Sims delivered another tempting cross. But White was forgiven his profligacy after Ross Laidlaw had saved County from going a goal down when he stuck out a foot to block an effort from Drey Wright.
With the match about to enter first-half stoppage time, White flicked on a long clearance from Laidlaw into Murray’s path and the latter responded by losing his marker before unleashing a powerful shot from the edge of the penalty box to fire County in front.
The visitors could hardly have timed their second goal better when they increased their lead four minutes after the restart.
Teenage defender Dylan Smith steered George Harmon’s corner kick into Concola’s path and he finished the move with a right-foot effort from the centre of the box.
White was soon through one on one with Remi Matthews with the ball at his feet but took an inordinate amount of time to decide his next course of action to the extent that the keeper was able to emerge clutching the ball.
It was just as well for White, then, that Phillips hit the woodwork from long range with four minutes remaining rather than finding the net to spark a late onslaught by the home side.
ST JOHNSTONE (3-1-4-2): Matthews; McGowan, Gordon (Mitchell 54), Brown (McLennan 54); Phillips; Wright, Wotherspoon (MacPherson 74), Hallberg (Bair 79), Montgomery; May, Rudden (Murphy 54).
Subs (not used): Sinclair, Gallacher, Carey, Moreland. Booked: MacPherson, Phillips.
ROSS COUNTY (3-5-2): Laidlaw; Randall, Smith, Iacovitti; Sims (Edwards 74), Loturi, Cancola (Watson 83), Kenneh, Harmon; White, Brophy (Murray 18, Stones 83). Subs (not used): Munro, Samuel, Hiwula, MacPhee, Williamson.
Booked: Kenneh, Iacovitti, Stones.
Referee: Alan Muir. Attendance: 2,900.