Ross County midfielder Michael Gardyne believes his former Dundee United team-mate Ryan Dow is ready to shine after two years in the injury doldrums.
Jim McIntyre’s September signing is finally free of the complex lower stomach and groin problem that plagued his final season with the relegated Tannadice club.
Gardyne, who shared a dressing-room with Dow under former managers Peter Houston and Jackie McNamara, is convinced County’s gamble to sign the 25-year-old will prove a masterstroke.
The Dingwall men need a lift after six matches without a win and a recent dearth of goals, and also have former Rangers, Cardiff City and Scotland midfielder Chris Burke pressing for a place.
Gardyne has played every game this season, embracing his responsibility as County’s main creator, but the 30-year-old welcomes the additional competition for places and said: “Ryan is a really good player. He’s close now in terms of fitness after playing a couple of 90 minutes for the under-20s.
“He’s looked sharper since he’s been here and the supporters should be excited.
“We also have Chris Burke now and it’s brilliant to have players like that at the club.
“I am one of the creators in the team and that’s what I want to do, what I want to be known as. But it is great to have these players in. Look at the experience of Chris Burke – what a career he has had.
“Ryan has had a bit of bad luck with injuries but he’s come back and is playing really well.
“It adds competition which is great and lifts training even higher. That’s what we want with the position the club is in. We’re trying to get further than we have before and to bring in players of that calibre is brilliant.”
County journey to Firhill to face Partick today seeking a first win since August 20 but Gardyne is not reading too much into the statistics.
The poor run masked positive displays in the draws away to Rangers and Hearts, with the last two defeats by St Johnstone and Aberdeen the most disappointing for the County player, who added: “Those results haven’t been what we wanted but training has been really good.
“We did the video analysis at the start of the week and then training on Tuesday and Wednesday was really high tempo.
“We know what we’ve got to do and it’s a big game. We got the two good results away to Hearts and Rangers and then we didn’t capitalise on them in the home game after that, which was disappointing.
“We know it’s an important spell. We have four games coming up in the space of a couple of weeks and it’s a chance to get points on the board.”
