Ross County manager Jim McIntyre is wary of a backlash from Hearts tonight in the Jambos’ efforts to revive their bid for a European place.
Hearts have suffered a dip in form, taking just a point from their last two league games against Caley Thistle and Partick Thistle, while last week’s 3-1 Scottish Cup defeat by rivals Hibernian has further intensified the pressure on head coach Ian Cathro.
Hearts are five points behind third-placed Rangers in their efforts to secure a place in the Europa League qualifying rounds for next season and McIntyre reckons they will be desperate to atone for recent results with a victory against his side at Tynecastle.
McIntyre said: “Of course there is an opportunity for us but obviously they will be looking at it as an opportunity to put previous results behind them by getting a good home win.
“Hearts are competing for that third spot. All of the teams have something to compete for. Throughout the table, everyone is trying to better their results or keep on getting good results.
“I haven’t seen it like this for a long time. I think the year Hibs went down they were in the top six and all they required was one win and they couldn’t get it. They ended up tumbling from sixth all the way down. That just shows the possibility. Of course that could happen.”
County themselves have found good fortune hard to come by recently, having lost their last three games to late goals, with the latest being Saturday’s 1-0 defeat by Aberdeen at Pittodrie.
McIntyre wants County to be more ruthless in their search of their first league victory in 2017 and he added: “At this stage of the season it is just about getting wins and points on the board. We know that in the last three games we’ve put so much into it and lost by the odd goal.
“In each of those games there have been opportunities for us to get ourselves ahead. We know we have to do that better. But in terms of the way we went about things against Aberdeen, I couldn’t be disappointed in the players. They gave everything.”
The Staggies have doubts over defenders Jay McEveley, who missed out against the Dons due to a knee injury, along with Paul Quinn, who came off at half-time with a hamstring injury.
McIntyre says he has the cover to cope should they miss out and he said: “Obviously, we want all our players available, and it’s not ideal having two central defenders as doubts, but we do have the cover there with Jason Naismith, Kenny van der Weg and Marcus Fraser able to play different roles.”
