Ross County ready to relish in underdog story as Staggies plot rise back up Championship table, insists ex-Motherwell midfielder Dean Cornelius
Ross County midfielder Dean Cornelius admits everyone else in the Championship will be rooting for them to fail – but insists the Staggies squad are ready to use that as motivation to push back up the league table.
Having set out their stall strongly in the summer, making clear their aims to challenge for the Championship title, County did not start the campaign well on the pitch.
Now, 11 matches in, they are still second-bottom with just a single win to their name.
However, there have been signs of some improvement under manager Tony Docherty, and Cornelius says everyone in Dingwall is focused on turning things around as quickly as possible.
“This isn’t the position we want to be in, ideally we would be winning games every week, but that’s not the way it’s going at the moment,” the 24-year-old stressed.
“The only thing you can do is stay positive. If you’re negative, and you take that on to the pitch, it’s never going to change. We have to believe in ourselves, trust in each other and believe that chances will come – and take them when they do. That’s when results will start to change.
“At times I think results haven’t backed up our performances. There have been times where we’ve been below par, we’re honest enough to admit that as a group because we would like to believe we’re one of the stronger squads in the league, but there have been times we have performed well.
“It’s a different kind of pressure now from what we started the season with. We started with the expectation of being one of the better teams in the league, and a lot of people in the media had us as favourites for the title.
“Now we’re looking at a different kind of challenge where people almost want us to fail, and I think we can relish in that.
“It’s going to be an underdog story if we can pick up form now and come from where we are to rise up the league, but with our squad I believe we can do it and it’s only a matter of time.”
County go into the weekend knowing that opponents Dunfermline have added six points to their tally in the last week.
Going up against a side who will be high on confidence could suit the Staggies though, according to Cornelius, who is determined to put in a good display at home in Dingwall.
“They are a team who will be on a high off the back of two wins in-a-row,” he added.
“I think that’s good for us. We can relish the challenge and go into the game with no fear because we have nothing to lose.
“We’re coming off a tough result to take when we thought we played well, but there were positives to take and if we can carry that forward into Saturday the result will take care of itself.
“Away from home this season we have looked a lot more solid, but we just need to try and scrub up a bit on our home form and make Dingwall more of a fortress, a place people don’t want to come to.
“Being so far north, people have a bit of a journey to get here, so we need to start games on the front foot so that teams can’t settle in. Hopefully we do that on Saturday.”