Ross County manager Don Cowie calls hard-fought Scottish Premiership win over Kilmarnock the Staggies’ ‘best three points of the season’
Ross County manager Don Cowie called the club’s win over Kilmarnock their best three points of the season.
It was not because the Staggies were playing free-flowing football and dominating the scoreboard, though, rather the exact opposite.
Killie started the brighter of the two sides in Dingwall, and Jordan Amissah was called into action to produce a double-save to deny Marley Watkins.
A nice flick over the top of the visiting defence around 10 minutes before half time saw Kieran Phillips play in Jordan White though, and the ball eventually found its way back to Phillips who forced in at close range.
Kilmarnock would apply even more pressure after the restart, and Amissah was needed to preserve County’s lead a handful of times.
In the end though, County held on for the win – and in fact it was only VAR that prevented them from recording a more comfortable victory, ruling out Nohan Kenneh’s goal for a foul by Alex Samuel in the build up.
“It’s a big three points,” Cowie stressed.
“That’s three wins in our last four games, and it’s probably our best three points of the season because we weren’t at our best.
“We were disappointed on Wednesday with the way we performed off the back of two really good games.
“There was a lot of frustration from our fans, and rightly so, so it was important to react in a positive manner.
“Sometimes you come on the wrong side of it, and I’m sure Derek will be disappointed. On another day, they would have taken some of their opportunities, but luckily for us they didn’t.
“At this stage of the season it doesn’t really matter how you win. We got another clean sheet, so I’m delighted.
“To get three points today puts us on the same total we had for the whole of last season, and now we have nine games to really add to that.”
Two players were the focus of particular conversation after the full-time whistle: Jordan Amissah, who was voted the sponsors’ man of the match in the stadium; and Alex Samuel, who was making his first appearance since picking up a serious injury in mid-December.
“In the first half Jordan had a great double save, and I spoke at half time about how big that was for us,” Cowie continued.
“We got the goal not long after that, and it was a difficult game in challenging conditions.
“Kilmarnock put us under a lot of pressure in the first half, but we kept a clean sheet and a lot of that is down to big Jordan.
“It has been frustrating for Alex, because I thought he was looking really strong when he got his injury.
“He has been out for the best part of three months, but I felt at that stage of the game Alex could create something out of nothing, which he did.
“We thought that (ruled out second goal) had eased the nerves in the stadium, but it wasn’t to be, and I’m delighted for him to be back involved.”
