Malky Mackay keen to keep Ross County's momentum going after seeing Staggies rise from bottom of Scottish Premiership table into possible battle for top six
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Malky Mackay says Ross County must do their best to maintain the momentum they have built up in the Premiership over the last few months.
The situation in Dingwall is a far cry from where it was a few months ago, and last weekend’s victory away at Dundee was a reminder of the progress that has been made at the Global Energy Stadium.
On County’s first trip to Dens Park this season, Mackay was under increasing pressure with the Staggies sitting at the bottom of the table yet to win their first league game of the season.
That night changed everything, though, with a supremely impressive 5–0 win closing the gap at the bottom. Fast forward to last week, and a 2–1 win saw County move clear of the drop zone.
Hectic fixture lists can work for or against teams, but County have used pile-ups either side of the winter break to put a lot of points on board, and Mackay says the challenge is now to keep that going until the end of the season.
“The players had to get to know each other being a brand new group that was thrown together, and I had to get to know how they play, their strengths,” he reflected.
“This isn’t making excuses, but in that first period there was a huge turnover of players where we had to bring enough players in to get a squad together, and then the whole club gets hit by Covid.
“We lost two weeks, so we never got going in the League Cup. It really was quite a period. Then we’ve gone on a run where we were doing okay, but weren’t picking up points.
“When you’re four points adrift, everyone was looking at us thinking we were going down, there was no way we were staying up, but we gradually started to look like a team that could hurt the opposition as well, and we need to keep that going.
“The interesting thing is the progress in players’ mentality – being able to go a goal down, be calm, and click into how we play.
"Seeing them build in confidence, playing Celtic and Rangers in the last six weeks and taking both of them to the last few minutes, we've got to keep that momentum going."
