Ross County striker says away days build togetherness
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Billy Mckay says Ross County will try to turn their longest trip of the season into a positive.
The Staggies had planned to stay in Kilmarnock overnight, but that was thrown into doubt as East Ayrshire was placed into tier four of the Scottish Government’s pandemic framework.
That could leave them facing a 400-mile round trip and more than eight hours on a bus tomorrow to play a match.
Travel is nothing new for County, long journeys every other week have to be factored in when signing for the club and the players get used to them over time.
Mckay though says the Staggies are more proactive than that, using so much time on the team bus to build team spirit as much as possible.
“It is a long trip but a lot of us have been doing it for a long time now,” the forward said.
“It is nothing new to us and we will never use that as an excuse. We buy into that when we sign here.
“It is something we use as a tool against teams we come up against, and use it for the togetherness we get from travelling down there.
“Most of the time the guys are playing cards and having a joke. It is fine, no one complains. We get on with it and look forward to the game.
Ross County’s squad will travel to Rugby Park with a renewed confidence in front of goal.
The final two matches of their Betfred Cup group were seen as an opportunity to get the ball rolling again and they certainly delivered.
County claimed six points and seven goals – coming from six different scorers – to spread the feeling throughout the side.
As a striker, it is Mckay’s job to score, but he knows that when they are flying in from all over the pitch it helps everyone.
“It is great when the defenders and wide men get on their scoresheet as well – it takes a bit of pressure of the strikers,” he said.
“If we are scoring from all over the place it makes us a much bigger threat on a Saturday.”
