Ross County defender Grivosti not surprised at Shankland's ascent to the Scottish Premiership with Dundee United
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Tom Grivosti is looking forward to renewing acquaintances with Lawrence Shankland when Ross County and Dundee United meet this afternoon.
The Liverpudlian defender made his Staggies debut against Shankland, coming off the bench in a Championship match against the Scotland striker's former club, Ayr United.
On that occasion, Grivosti helped County see out a 2–1 win despite Shankland scoring to take his tally to 10 goals in nine matches at the time.
For the centre back, it was clear even then that Dundee United's talisman was destined for bigger things, but he is keeping the belief that County will come out on top at Tannadice.
“He’s a very good player who has done really well for himself and you knew he would be able to make the step up to play in the Premiership," Grivosti explained.
“With the amount of goals he scored he was always going to get there, it’s not a surprise.
“You can never say whether someone will go on to play for their country, you don’t give that much thought, but you could tell at Ayr he was a really good player.
“He’s just a natural goalscorer, he gets into the right positions and it all comes naturally, so we will have to watch him closely.
"He's done well for himself, but we did well against him in the Championship, so hopefully we can stop him and go and beat them.
“United haven’t been doing too great lately either so we have to go there believing we can get the win."
After spending the vast majority of the last year on the sidelines through injury, it is almost like starting again for Grivosti in the Ross County first team, so in some ways it is quite apt he could be facing off against Shankland again.
Yesterday marked one whole year since the unfortunate collision with Rangers forward Alfredo Morelos that put the 21-year-old on the shelf, but he returned to action against Hibernian two weeks ago, and was named in the starting line-up at Motherwell last weekend.
As time wore on and setbacks meant Grivosti was no closer to a full recovery, it would take an incredible amount of mental toughness to get back to the position he is in now.
Doubts inevitably crept in along the way, but the centre back
“It was definitely the toughest time of my career over the last year and I was at the stage of thinking about whether I’d get back and if I did, would I get back the same?" Grivosti had wondered.
“But I always had belief in myself that I could put the work in and everything would come together for me to get back to a level.
“The manager helped me massively because he kept in contact, telling me he has belief in me and what I can do for the club.
“It does enter your mind that they might not want you any more because you’re not playing, but he made it clear that wasn’t the case. He never let me think like that so that was huge.
“I think I had showed before my injury that I can play at this level, I had some good games. My season got cut short but that gave me the drive to come back and prove myself again.
“That’s what I need to do in the next few weeks, stay in the team, perform well and show everyone I can play at this level."
