Stuart Kettlewell, win or lose tonight, wants Rangers to leave Dingwall dreading their next visit.
Old Firm clubs tend to travel in luxury to the Highlands, with overnight stays plush coaches and sometimes even short-haul flights easing the strain.
But the County co-manager, pictured, still feels geography, the midweek billing and the reception the Highlanders grant the big guns can go a long way.
Rangers have won on the road this season, but never handsomely or in the emphatic manner they have at Ibrox.
Kettlewell insists Ross County, at the very least, must make their presence felt and “ make contact” throughout the 90 minutes to add to the general unpleasantness for Steven Gerrard’s side amid their packed schedule.
That was something the Staggies simply didn’t do on the pitch at Celtic Park 10 days ago.
Kettlewell said: “People talk about it being a free hit, playing against the Old Firm, with nobody expecting you to take anything from it.
“Rangers are in a rich vein of form, but we have to make our ground as uncomfortable as we can for teams to come and play.
“We need to get the crowd behind us, the atmosphere working in our favour. Playing against the big teams with a full stadium here can be a real advantage to us.
“When we’re competitive and match up all over the pitch, that’s when we feel we get the opportunity to play and score goals, as we did at the weekend.
“What we don’t want to do is stand back and admire Rangers. We felt we did that at Parkhead.
“Nobody will fancy us to take anything from the game, but that’s where we have to take huge confidence from what we did in the last spell against Hibs on Saturday.
“We need to try to build on that because it’s a big week for us.
“We have an eye on going down to play Hamilton on Saturday as well.
“We’re trying to get as strong a team on the pitch, to be as effective as we can in both games, as opposed to putting all our eggs into one basket for one of them.”
Rangers’ hard-fought wins away from home are a source of encouragement for County who, at the very least, want to let the visitors know they have been in a contest.
