Blair Spittal confident Ross County can take something against Rangers at Ibrox
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BLAIR Spittal says Ross County’s performance against Celtic gives him confidence they can take something against Rangers tomorrow night.
The Staggies went toe-to-toe with the champions for over an hour and created a number of chances to score in the 3–0 defeat.
Only an inspired substitution of Odsenne Edouard, who scored twice in three minutes during the second half killed the game off for Celtic.
Since being knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Ayr United, Spittal says it has resulted in players upping their game and producing good performances against Hearts and for an hour against Celtic.
He believes a similar performance against Rangers will result in reward.
“Against Ayr United we were too slow in our play and didn’t test them enough,” he said.
“But we carried a real threat in the Hearts game and took that into Celtic.
“It is difficult at places like Celtic. But we stood up and stuck to the task.
“The game against Rangers is going to be just as tough.
“We will have to pick ourselves up and go again.
“Rangers are a good side, but we are now going there with confidence.”
Spittal was Ross County’s best player at Celtic Park linking up well with winger Josh Mullin unlocking the Celtic defence with a number of passes and forcing Fraser Forster to produce several saves.
He was pleased County were able to ask questions of Celtic’s defence but disappointed they couldn’t find the net.
“I thought we were disciplined in the positions we were up in,” he said.
“I thought we did that in the first half especially.
“We didn’t create half chances, they were really good chances.
“But we should have done better.
“Even when you give away a goal at a set-piece you have to dust yourselves down and take heart from the performance.
“We came and put up a fight and we’ll take that into Wednesday night.”
Spittal gave credit to the Premiership’s top scorer Edouard for changing the game in Celtic’s favour saying they were punished by him for not taking their chances.
“He is a fantastic player and you can’t give him a half-yard,” he said.
“It was individual brilliance for the third goal but before that maybe we could have done a bit more to stop the second.”
