Jim McIntyre has every faith in his Ross County players’ ability to bounce back from January’s double disappointment in the league and embrace one of the toughest spells of the season.
The Staggies manager knows tomorrow’s trip to face a wounded Rangers is only the start of an intense spell of league and cup action against four of the top five clubs in the country.
But while he believes the Ibrox hosts will be especially dangerous after taking a midweek mauling from Hearts, McIntyre expects an archetypal County response.
In defeats away to Kilmarnock on Saturday and at home to Motherwell on Tuesday, costly mistakes leeched six points from the Dingwall club’s push for a top-six Premiership place.
They now sit just three points above the dreaded relegation play-off position but just one behind sixth-placed Motherwell in a remarkably tight league table.
County’s Ibrox visit is prelude to a Scottish Cup showdown with Aberdeen at Dingwall, before further league tests against St Johnstone, the Dons and Hearts.
Mark Warburton’s team took a 4-1 battering from their Edinburgh rivals but McIntyre warned: “We’ve had some good results over the last couple of seasons against the bigger sides – and we’re going to need that again.
“We want to finish in that top six. There’s a point in it and it’s all there to play for all of the teams in the bottom half of the table – from sixth down the way.
“It is so tight and it is all about who of the group is going to finish with a strong run-in. They are the ones who will make it.
“Losing heavily to Hearts – who I thought played fantastically – Rangers will be hurting badly and looking to bounce back, especially at Ibrox.
“You’re always wary of a team which has taken a sore result like that, but we’ve just got to concentrate on ourselves. We know what we’re good at.
“We’ve got to make sure that we’re dogged and make sure we stop leaking the types of goal that we’ve been gifting teams. If we do that, we’re always a threat to the opposition.”
The County manager’s exasperation at the momentary lapses costing the team dearly is all the more acute given the belief he has in the squad assembled at the club.
He said: “The one thing I have is complete faith in the players. Every individual makes mistakes. None more so than ourselves on the touchline.
“But it is about how you react to it, how you bounce back from it.
“From that side of things, I’m confident I have a group of players who always show that character to bounce back.”
