Winter break is no holiday, insists Ross County midfielder and Canada international Victor Loturi
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Victor Loturi insists the winter break is no holiday for Ross County's players, who will be putting in the hard yards in a bid to move back up the Scottish Premiership table in the second half of the season.
The Staggies signed off before the break with a 3-0 defeat to Aberdeen, leaving the Dingwall outfit sitting second bottom of the table.
It was a reminder of how quickly things can turn around, as just a few weeks ago County were on the brink of the top six after a strong start to life under Derek Adams – which itself was an uptick in fortune after a less than stellar start to the campaign.
Loturi, though, is adamant County are good enough to rise back up the standings before the top flight splits, and he intends on giving 100 per cent even without matches over the next two weeks to make that aim a reality.
"We'll have a little bit of time off, but then we have to come back in and get back to work to try and move up the league," Loturi explained.
"It's not that the break is coming at a good or a bad time for us, we just have to reset and go again.
"We just want to build up and get as high in the table as we can. We're still aiming for the top six, because we really feel the team is capable of that.
"We back ourselves, and we're just going to keep working hard from here."
Aberdeen have proven to be a thorn in County's side this season.
When both teams were in need of a result going into their clash at Pittodrie earlier in the season, the Dons ran out 4-0 winners in one of the low points under former boss Malky Mackay.
Days later, Aberdeen then knocked County out of the League Cup, and on Tuesday afternoon the Staggies barely laid a glove on their foes.
"The way we started the game, after the first five minutes I thought we were on the front foot," Loturi said.
"They obviously scored two goals that were pretty preventable, so we have to clean that up. It was disappointing.
"We get into good areas, we just have to be a bit sharper in the final third.
"If we clean up the silly goals we're losing, I think we'll be fine.
"Aberdeen are obviously a good team, but we back ourselves as well and we'll look forward from here."
