Ross County manager Jim McIntyre has challenged captain Richard Brittain to earn his place back in the side following Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at home to Motherwell.
McIntyre, who was appointed as Derek Adams’ successor last week, left midfielder Brittain on the bench for the game against the Steelmen.
The former Queen of the South manager praised the performance of stand-in captain Rocco Quinn, but insists the switch is not a fixed one.
McIntyre said: “It’s not a permanent change, not at all. Richard is the captain without a shadow of doubt. We had to pick a team we felt could win the game.
“Richard will have a big part to play here, as will all the other ones who didn’t play. Nobody is an automatic pick and the opportunity is there for everybody to impress and get in the team.
“If players don’t get in I expect them to respond in the proper manner.
“Rocco has good experience. He’s a talker on the park. That was the reason he was in the team.
“I wouldn’t have picked him as captain if I didn’t think he was up to the job. I thought he did particularly well on Saturday.
“But it would be wrong to just single Rocco out because he was named as captain. I thought Jackson Irvine also did really well.”
McIntyre took plenty positives from Saturday’s performance despite his team falling to a sixth straight Premiership defeat against Stuart McCall’s side, and praised the application of his squad.
He added: “There was a lot of pleasing stuff on Saturday. I thought we threatened the goal quite a bit and made some decent opportunities. We had a lot of good play and the statistics back that up.
“It is just about making sure the players carry on and keep being brave in possession and go and take people on. We’ve got to attack teams if we want to win matches and I thought we did that quite well.
“We were only cut open once and the rest of their efforts were from distance but, ultimately, we’ve lost the match. But there were lots of positives considering the short space of time we’ve been here.
“The players have been excellent – the training has been really sharp. They are giving their all and as a manager that’s all I can ask.
“I can always work on things they can do better and highlight that to the players, but the level of effort has to be a given.”