Ross County can put on better Celtic display says Stuart Kettlewell
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Stuart Kettlewell says Ross County cannot just be happy to be coming up against the Scottish champions when they welcome Celtic to Dingwall tomorrow.
After spending a year out of the top flight, there was a novelty element to hosting the country’s biggest clubs again last season, but perhaps that attitude was evident in the Staggies’ results.
Against Celtic and Rangers, County conceded a total of 20 goals over six games, scoring just once and losing every time.
The eventual champions proved particularly tricky to play against, with the closest match being decided by a three-goal margin.
Kettlewell says his side must not wilt under the spotlight of playing Celtic.
In fact, he has specifically targeted matches against teams in the top half of the table last season as an area for improvement – and victory over Motherwell on the opening day of the season was a strong first step towards achieving that ambition.
So now he is aiming for more evidence of that progress against what could well be the biggest test Ross County are likely to face all season.
“We are not here to make up the numbers,” Kettlewell insisted.
“One task I set out at the start of the season was to perform better against the top half of the table.
“Our record against the teams at the bottom was very good but where we came up short was losing too many goals and points against teams in the top half.
“It is something we are looking to address.
“We played Motherwell in the first game because they were third last season and we ticked a box there.
“We now play the reigning champions who took several goals off us last season so it would be naive of me to say I would be happy to keep playing the way we have against Celtic.
“We have to do better across the board on the three games we played last season.”
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