Ross County captain Andrew Davies was thrilled to mark the start of Owen Coyle’s reign as Staggies manager with Saturday’s 2-0 victory at Kilmarnock.
First-half goals from Craig Curran and a first for the club for Kenny van der Weg saw County triumph for the first time since their opening-day win at Dundee on August 5.
Coyle was brought in as County’s new manager on Thursday to replace Jim McIntyre, who was sacked earlier in the week, and defender Davies was pleased to end a whirlwind week on a high.
Davies said: “The new manager has come in and first and foremost wants us to work hard, get on the ball as much as we can and just be confident.
“He has been in England and he has done really well. Football moves quickly, so we’ve just got to move on and understand what he wants from us, and just try and apply it.
“We did that and it’s just fantastic to win a game of football as the confidence has been down – it has been a tough start to the season.
“Hopefully it can give us the momentum to go into the next two home games and kick on.”
Davies, who joined from Bradford City in 2015, expressed his sympathy for McIntyre and assistant Billy Dodds, who were sacked by chairman Roy MacGregor following a poor start which brought only one win from their opening seven league games.
Davies added: “It has been tough. I had a lot of respect for Jim and Billy and what they did here. They brought me here and we had a fantastic time. We won the cup and have achieved a lot at the club.
“Finishing sixth and seventh for this club is really good. I thought they were very successful, it was just a bit unfortunate things didn’t go our way at the beginning of the season.
“When they went it was a shock to the system. The players were all pulling for Jim and Billy, we just couldn’t quite get those results.
“I’ve always said we’ve got to be realistic. We’ve played some fantastic teams, like Hibs, Rangers, Celtic and Aberdeen. They are top teams.
“It’s really unfortunate what has happened but they will be fine. They will go and find another job and be successful. They can walk away with their heads held high. We’ve just got to move on.”
