Home   Sport   Article

Self-belief never once wavered for Ross County striker


By Andrew Henderson

Easier access to your trusted, local news. Subscribe to a digital package and support local news publishing.



Click here to sign up to our free newsletters!

Billy Mckay says he always kept the faith that he would start hitting the back of the net on a regular basis again for Ross County.

Picture - Ken Macpherson, Inverness. Scottish Cup 3rd Round. Ross County(1) v Inverness CT(3). 02.04.21. Ross County's Billy McKay celebrates his goal.
Picture - Ken Macpherson, Inverness. Scottish Cup 3rd Round. Ross County(1) v Inverness CT(3). 02.04.21. Ross County's Billy McKay celebrates his goal.

The Northern Ireland international has been the Staggies’ main source of goals over the last couple of years, reaching the 20-goal milestone as they won promotion from the Championship in 2018/19.

Although Ross Stewart stole more of the headlines last season, Mckay kept up with him at the top of the club’s scoring charts, ending up as joint-top scorer on 11 goals.

The current campaign threatened to break that run, as Mckay only scored once in the league and once in the Betfred Cup group stages before February.

Since then though, he has scored five in six games – including the wins over Hamilton and Kilmarnock.

Restored to the starting line-up on a regular basis by John Hughes, he has repaid his manager’s faith – and hopes to continue his rich vein of form in the post-split fixtures.

“It’s hard for managers, if strikers are not scoring then they do change it up,” Mckay acknowledged.

“If you look back at my career, I’ve always had a little spell where I don’t score – even at Inverness when I was probably having my best time for goals.

“I think it was my last season before I moved to Wigan, I think I went nine or 10 games without a goal. It was actually the gaffer who kept playing me, and I ended up scoring nine in 10 and moving to Wigan.

“Now it’s quite easy for managers to change it with so many good options, so that’s what has tended to happen.

“When I haven’t scored here in the last couple of seasons, I’ve been taken out which then makes it hard to get my rhythm.

“You look at it last season, I did the same thing.

“I got back in the team and scored goals, and went on a run. I always believe that if I play, I’ll score, and that the goal that will kick me on is just around the corner.”

Last time out Mckay once again found the net in a disappointing loss to Caley Thistle, but he says that is behind County now with all eyes looking forward to Kilmarnock on Saturday.

“The performance wasn’t as bad as the result,” he said.

“You obviously want to be winning games of football, and right now it doesn’t matter how we’re playing, it’s just about getting results.

“We’ve got five massive games to come, starting with Kilmarnock, so we’ll put the derby to bed.

“We’ve played Kilmarnock a couple of times now, and the last time we got a good result against them. We’re confident that we can do it again.”


Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.



This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies - Learn More