‘Foursome can fire us up the table’ says Ross County manager Malky Mackay
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
MALKY Mackay is convinced Ross County’s assembled fire-power can set them apart from six or seven Premiership clubs this season.
With a settled foursome of Simon Murray, Jordan White, Eamonn Brophy and Alex Samuel competing for places, the Staggies manager feels the weaponry up front is superior to a good number of rival outfits.
Avoiding a repeat relegation battle is priority number one for Mackay, who saw County muster only 13 goals in last season’s first 19 league matches. That rose to another 24 in the final 19 games after signing of Murray and Brophy in January and welcoming back fit-again Samuel.
“We’ve been scoring goals and took that into the Celtic league opener as well,” Mackay said.
“Teams in the Premiership can go through barren spells. They can defend all they want, but if they don’t score, it’s a case of ‘good luck.
“That was certainly evident last season as Kevin Van Veen just kept scoring more and more for Motherwell and they came away from that position of threat.
“When I look at our four forwards and put them up against forwards from the other six or seven clubs, then I’ve got to be happy.
“We’re a team that looks as if we can score goals. There’s a balance, always, in making sure you also defend properly, which we’ll strive for, but I’m not sure there will be many teams this year who better Celtic by seven corners to one in the first half at Parkhead. We take plenty of encouragement from that.”
County’s first home league test pits them against League Cup strugglers St Johnstone, who lost their opener 2-0 at home to Hearts.
“Steven MacLean is a good coach and they made it tough for a good Hearts team. I know the usual St Johnstone are coming here, but I’m buoyed and looking forward to it.”
