Ross County defender Sean Kelly feels the Staggies’ early season form shows they are not dwelling on life in the Championship.
The Staggies jumped to second in the table, two points adrift of leaders Ayr United, following last weekend’s impressive 5-1 victory over Dundee United at Tannadice.
County are on their travels once again on Saturday when they face Partick Thistle, who suffered relegation from the Premiership last season along with the Dingwall side.
Kelly experienced the drop with St Mirren in 2015 before enduring a difficult season with the Buddies which saw them win just three of their opening 18 league matches, before a strong finish to the campaign saw them finish sixth in the Championship.
Kelly feels the Staggies have made a quick adjustment to the second-tier, and the 24-year-old said: “The good start is especially important when you are a team, like us and Partick Thistle, that has come down.
“Sometimes it can be hard, I’ve had it before when you come down and before you know it you are chasing your tail and nearer the bottom than the top because you’ve not really adapted to the league.
“I think we have started well, although we would like to be a position above where we are now. We’ve still got to be reasonably content with our start.
“It’s going to be a hard game on Saturday. Thistle have kept a few of their players from last season, and they probably feel most of their players should still be playing in the Premiership.
“At home, they need to come out quick. I would imagine it will be a similarly fast start to the game at Tannadice and I think we just need to see that out.
“Hopefully we can see that out and start fast ourselves, and a similar result would obviously be lovely.”
Thistle have made an inconsistent start to the season but have a 100% home record in the league so far, however Kelly believes playing on the road could suit Stuart Kettlewell and Steven Ferguson’s men.
Kelly added: “The managers have spoken about how it’s going to be hard when teams sit in. Sometimes if we can maybe let them have the ball – I know it sounds stupid – but it invites them out a bit, they can get a bit more confidence.
“We can break and exploit more space and I think that worked well at the weekend.
“Even when it looks as if we are maybe on the backfoot and defending, we can be at our strongest on the counter and we can break at speed.
“Sometimes we can lull teams into feeling comfortable with the ball but really, you can have them where you want them and before you know it you have the ball and break on them.”
