ROSS County’s flying winger Mark Corcoran hopes to keep his place in the team for tomorrow’s match at Kirkcaldy after an inspired display against St Mirren in the Scottish Cup on Saturday.
The former St Mirren and Hamilton player has had to be content with a place on the bench for most of the season. But on Saturday Corcoran came in from the cold and turned in a five-star display against his former club after being given a rare starting berth.
Corcoran told the Ross-shire Journal, "It was a good game to play in — I thought I did quite well. The gaffer changed the format because of the way St Mirren play — they like to pass the ball about a lot. It took me a while to settle into the game because I had not played for a while. But I thought I got better and stronger as the game went on."
Corcoran revealed he had been working away behind the scenes whilst waiting for his chance. He explained, "I have been working hard on my fitness with Stuart Balmer. I’ve been doing extra runs so I would be ready when my chance came.
"It was good to test myself against that standard of opposition. I think all the players enjoyed it, especially as we did so well."
It was Corcoran’s 40-yard run which earned County a penalty deep into injury time. He said, "I tried to get myself a one-on-one with David Van Zanten for most of the match but there wasn’t much space to run with other battles going on all over the park. But later in the game spaces started to open up.
"It wasn’t until the final minute Scotty Morrison played me in and I won the penalty, unfortunately we didn’t manage to convert it."
Looking ahead to the replay, Corcoran said, "The boys look at the St Mirren game as a bonus. We want to do well in all competitions but at the moment we are focussing on the league. Saturday’s game against Raith Rovers is more important by a mile.
"All the boys just want to keep on winning. We are in a good position and everyone is fighting to stay there."
Looking ahead to County’s busy schedule of eight games in 25 days, Corcoran said, "It’s hard on the legs but the boys would rather be playing than training. When you are doing so well you can’t wait for the next game. We have a lot of games in February but I’m sure the boys are relishing them all."
He added, "It’s quite hard to get your chance when the team is doing well. But hopefully I did enough to keep my place."
County manager Derek Adams was delighted with his side’s display against St Mirren. He said, "The conditions were difficult to start with but it was a very good performance. I thought we passed the ball very well and more importantly stopped them from playing. We were able to nick the ball and play from there. It was an all-round good performance from the team."
Adams explained his change of formation for the cup tie. He said, "We had to combat them and cause them problems at the same time. Corcoran and Craig came in because they have good pace and we played McMenamin up front with Vigurs sitting in the hole. It worked very well. We created a lot of chances and were unlucky not to have scored in open play.
"We play them again on Tuesday night, which should be another good cup tie at Victoria Park. We didn’t want a replay but we’ve got to get on with it."
Looking towards Saturday’s match against Raith Rovers. Adams said, "They have changed their format. The players that were on loan from Hearts have drifted back but they have taken in the likes of Damien Casalinuovo and Pat Clarke.
"We are looking forward to it."
Adams revealed Johnny Flynn is back in training but Marc Fitzpatrick has suffered another set-back and will be out for a further few weeks.
Preparing for the club’s heavy schedule, Adams said, "We’ve got 20-plus players who can deal with that but you have to think, do you chop and change or do you keep the same team, that’s the dilemma you have.
"But we will just take one game at a time — it has to be, there is no way you can look further ahead. We have to go to Kirkcaldy and try to gather three points on Saturday."
