Ross County still believe they can turn form around against Livingston, says co-manager Ferguson
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Steven Ferguson says Ross County believe they can put three points on the board against Livingston tonight and end their poor run of form.
The Staggies have not won in their last seven league matches despite some encouraging performances in recent weeks, and lost 4–1 and 4–0 against Livingston earlier in the season.
On the flip side, nobody in the Premiership is in better form than the Lions, who have won all of their last four matches.
Ferguson's co-manager Stuart Kettlewell spoke of his disappointment that the County players seemed to accept defeat against Kilmarnock last Saturday, but Ferguson says a win would jump-start their confidence.
"Football players are all built on confidence, anybody that tells you any different to that is not telling you the truth," Ferguson insisted.
"Your confidence when you don't win games takes knocks, and when you're not quite managing to achieve what you want to achieve then confidence again gets knocked.
"We're all in the game because we believe we can do well, and we can turn that negative vibe. The only way you turn that into a positive vibe is by winning games of football.
"It's only us as a group that can change our run of fortune and results, we're not looking for any favours from anybody else because we know we won't get favours from anybody else.
"The only way that we change the negative vibe is by winning games of football, that's the most important thing.
"It doesn't matter how you win it, it doesn't matter how you get over that line, but we need to win a game of football, and we have an opportunity to do that tonight."
Livi's form sees them comfortably sitting in the top half of the table, and if they can sustain that they could be in contention for European football by the end of the season.
For Ferguson, their success is stemmed in a strong identity, and that will not make it easy for the Staggies tonight.
"Livingston have had some fantastic results," he admitted.
"They have a proper identity and they play to their strengths, and anybody would be crazy not to if they had that identity.
"We've been on the end of two big defeats, two heavy defeats, and we can't make it a third one, it's as simple as that.
"We have to change the pattern of the games we have played against Livingston this season. We have to do something different to make sure we're not making the same mistakes and get punished like we have been in the past.
"It's not going to be easy, but that's the task, so that's what we'll try and do. We don't shirk away from what the responsibility is, we need to make sure that we win."
Ferguson's task will be made slightly easier by the news that Harry Paton has recovered from an ankle infection that has limited his recent participation.
Richard Foster is also expected to shake off a hamstring knock, meaning County will have the same pool of players available as they had going into Kilmarnock.
Ross Stewart, Michael Gardyne and Joe Chalmers are all still sidelined, while Tom Grivosti might not play again this season as he needs an operation to repair a ligament in his foot.
