Owen Coyle secured a victory in his first outing as Ross County manager, thanks to a comfortable 2-0 triumph against Kilmarnock.
The Staggies were fully deserving of the points against a woeful Killie side, with the Highlanders netting twice in the first-half through Craig Curran and Kenny van der Weg.
The victory was County’s first since their opening day triumph against Dundee, moving them four points clear of the bottom of the Premiership ahead of the upcoming international break.
Coyle made two changes for his first match, with Billy Mckay and Reghan Tumilty dropping out, and Jamie Lindsay and Davis Keillor-Dunn coming in, with the new Staggies manager deploying a 4-3-3 system.
The Staggies looked bright from the start and looked dangerous from a succession of early set-pieces, with Michael Gardyne first to threaten with a powerful low strike that Jamie MacDonald palmed around the post on 21 minutes.
Killie’s only first-half attempt of note came when Adam Frizzell flashed a powerful strike just over Scott Fox’s crossbar, with County continuing to probe, before getting the breakthrough their domination merited on 34 minutes. Keillor-Dunn angled a delightful cross into the box from the left, with Curran rising to nod past MacDonald.
County continued to control and they notched a second goal a minute before half-time, when van der Weg burst through and initially played in Curran, whose strike deflected back into the path of the advancing van der Weg to nip in ahead of MacDonald and prod home his first goal for the club.
Killie manager Lee McCulloch brought on experienced attacker Kris Boyd for Calum Waters at half-time in an attempt to find a way back into the game, however it was County who came closer to adding to the scoresheet, with efforts from Curran and Lindsay landing on the roof of the net.
County had furter attempts, with Gardyne having a shot blocked and O’Brien seeing an audacious attempt from the halfway line saved by MacDonald, however the Dingwall side’s grip on this completely one-sided game was never fully threatened by a dire Killie outfit.
