Ross County striker Alex Schalk hopes some of the pressure has been lifted from the shoulders of the Staggies players after they ended a winless run that had gone to 13 matches.
Schalk scored twice as County beat Dundee 4-1 at Dens Park to close the gap at the bottom of the Premiership to three points thanks to their first victory since November 4.
The Dutchman’s brace followed the double he scored against Aberdeen in midweek
He said: “We arrived at Dundee with a lot of pressure on our shoulders as it was a must-win game.
“I’m also pleased to help out the team by scoring two goals, too, but we played very well, dominated both halves, and Davis Keillor-Dunn was excellent on the wing. We were solid throughout and this is a massive boost for us.
“We have a weekend off which is a pity as we want to keep going on this run but we can build on this and go into the Hearts game with confidence.
“We have been unlucky with some referee mistakes and some games where we have to blame ourselves, but we were due a win. The boys did brilliantly to perform under that pressure.”
Schalk knows ending the wait for a win was crucial and concedes trying to play under the pressure of failing to win week after week had been taxing on the County players.
However, having finally got back to winning ways he is keen to build on Saturday’s impressive display.
He said: “It is hard to go through a run like we have. We have kept grafting and stuck together through those times as we know we have a good squad and some good new signings in as well.
“We are going to have to fight for our chances to play and that’s why playing in a win feels so good.
“David N’Gog is brilliant. We seem to have a connection on the pitch in training and we tried it out against Dundee and it worked well. He is a class player but did a lot of the dirty work as well.
“I like to play off players like him and Craig Curran by playing in behind and I’ve got four goals thanks to that in the last two games.”
