Ross County winger Josh Mullin accepts the Staggies’ fine Premiership start thwarted his case for a recall during a recent spell out of the team.
Mullin was an excellent performer during County’s Championship-winning campaign last year, netting 14 goals and claiming 21 assists to help the Dingwall side win promotion to the top flight.
A spell out of the side this season coincided with County’s strongest run of form so far, in which the Staggies went four games unbeaten prior to Saturday’s humiliating 6-0 defeat to Celtic.
Mullin was back in the line-up for the Parkhead encounter, in his first start since a 3-0 loss to Aberdeen on August 31, but the 27-year-old is determined to help County return to form when they face Hibernian at Easter Road on Saturday.
Mullin said: “I had been playing up until the last international break. We came back and made a couple of changes, and got a couple or results which is credit to the boys.
“They had done excellent, so I couldn’t really go chapping anyone’s door.
“I’m not that type of person anyway, I’ll just get the head down and work hard.
“Saturday was my first start back in. I knew it was going to be tough, but I knew I was capable of going in and trying to do a job.
“I thought I did that until maybe the start of the second half when we started conceding some goals.
“It’s frustrating in a way, but at the same time it was good to get back into the starting line-up.
“We have got competition all over the place. We have seen that when boys have dropped out, boys have come in have replaced them and until Saturday we had been getting very reasonable results.
“Everybody has been pulling in the same direction, and it has been working for us so far.”
Given County’s success last term, Mullin insists the task of atoning for weekend’s heavy defeat to the Hoops is a new challenge for his side.
The former Livingston player added: “The squad we’ve got is used to winning. Looking at last season, we were always on a high.
“To concede six goals in one game, nobody wants to go through that in their career.
“We need to try and rectify it for the rest of the season. We know this is the opposition we face now, so we will be looking to not let that happen again.”
Mullin feels upcoming games against Hibs and Rangers mark an ideal chance for County to show they can compete on the big stage, adding: “These are the games we wanted when we were looking to win the Championship.”
“It’s important we don’t let these occasions bypass us, like we did on Saturday when we conceded six goals. Hopefully we can rectify what happened and put something right in these bigger games coming up.
