Ross County co-manager Steven Ferguson says his players must deal with being viewed as a scalp by other teams in the Championship.
The Staggies, who were demoted to the second tier at the end of last season after six successive campaigns in the top flight, were beaten 2-1 by Morton at Cappielow on Saturday.
The result was the first blip of the season for the team viewed by many as favourites to claim the Championship title.
Ferguson accepts his side must be ready for teams raising their game when they come up against them.
He said: “Are we a target for other teams this season? Definitely.
“I genuinely think that will be the case but that is a flag we are going to have to carry and learn to deal with it.
“We didn’t manage to deal with it at Morton but there were positives we could take from the game.
“We are early in the season and we are going to come up against different types of opposition every week.
“Going to Morton was a challenge we were looking forward to.
“We didn’t get the result we wanted, which was disappointing, but that can happen in football. The game epitomised what this league is going to be like.
“Teams are going to make it as difficult as possible and they will see it as a scalp if they can take points off us.
“We have to learn to manage games better, especially when we get in front.
“We have a home game against Falkirk to look forward to now to see if we can get the three points.”
Ferguson, meanwhile, was pleased to welcome defender Liam Fontaine back to the starting line-up at Cappielow.
The former Hibernian player had been sidelined since the middle of July after breaking a bone in his arm during a Betfred Cup match against Dundee United.
The return of Fontaine was a boost for the Staggies with fellow defenders Marcus Fraser and Keith Watson unable to feature against Morton after picking up injuries in the 3-2 Betfred Cup defeat at Hibernian.
Ferguson added: “It was good to get Liam back on the pitch.
“We took a few heavy knocks against Hibernian and we had to make a few changes.
“One of those was bringing Liam back into the team and the fact he got through the game was a big positive.”
