Defender says Ross County traps came off against Celtic in vital Premiership win
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Alex Iacovitti was delighted to see that Ross County’s traps were effective against Celtic as the Staggies claimed a 1–0 win.
The 23-year-old was one of the most vocal players on the pitch, regularly marshalling his team-mates with cries of “higher” before the deadlock was broken.
Those triggered pressing moves all over the park, and was clearly something that was premeditated after perfecting it on the training pitch.
“We knew Celtic like to play, so we set a few traps for certain players when they got the ball,” Iacovitti explained.
“Certain lads knew when to press them and when not to press them, so when it was time to go, it was my job to be that vocal person and tell the lads to get after them.
“Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t – we were still against a world-class team in Celtic.
“We knew that when we give it our all on the press we could nick a goal, or get something from a set piece, and it came off on Sunday.”
A set piece was exactly how County won the game, with Jordan White meeting Harry Paton’s free kick to head into the net.
The result saw the Staggies move up the league table from bottom to 10th, outside either relegation place.
Other results went County’s way over the weekend, and earning a clean sheet against the defending champions was a nice bonus, but Iacovitti is well aware the hard work does not stop now.
“We went 1–0 up and we sat back a bit, maybe inviting them on a little bit.
“Maybe we need to be a little bit braver, but we got the three points,” he said.
“That is what we needed, and a clean sheet is massive.
“We haven’t had one of those in ages, so it was overdue – so it’s a great feeling. It’s not easy, so doing it against Celtic was good.
“We needed that after a few iffy results, hopefully we can go on a run now.
“We had a gameplan, and I thought we executed that really well, so we just need to build on that now.”
