Ross County manager Malky Mackay says the respective league positions add no extra pressure to today’s Premiership encounter with Livingston.
David Martindale’s men make the trip to Dingwall looking to follow up an impressive 3-0 win at St Johnstone last weekend.
That result moved the 10th placed Lions four points ahead of the bottom-placed Staggies, with the opportunity to further detach the Dingwall men with another victory today.
County have yet to record a win from their opening nine matches, but Mackay insists the league table provides no added incentive for his side to end that sequence.
Mackay said: “I’m certainly not thinking of that at all, I’m thinking of Livingston coming here and knowing it is going to be a tough game. I know the club reasonably well and they had a terrific result last week.
“I watched the game and the goals were interesting to say the least. It was a great win for them.
“I’d imagine they’re coming here really buoyed, but I don’t think they’ll be taking us lightly, just as we won’t take them lightly.
“It is the next team on the card and one more game for us. We need to make sure we try to win it.”
Mackay says this week’s focus has been on how to execute his gameplan against Livi, however he remains wary of the threats posed by the West Lothian outfit.
He added: “The style is the biggest thing for me. Do we play to a plan? That’s something we are trying to work on together in terms of what strengths the opposition have and what strengths we could have against them.
“That’s getting into the details of the job when we do opposition analysis and how a team play, and what their patterns are, how they hurt teams. We look at how we combat that and how we hurt them.
“It is boiling that down into training sessions and teaching sessions in the days before a game.
“They then have to go and do it on the pitch and it is difficult because you then have 11 players against you at that point who are trying to stop that from happening.”
Defenders closing in on return to action
Mackay is hopeful of having full backs Connor Randall (ankle) and Jake Vokins (metatarsal fracture) in contention within the next fortnight following long-term absences.
Defender Coll Donaldson has not featured since the 3-0 defeat to Hibernian on August 8, with a combination of a groin problem and illness keeping him sidelined.
Mackay says Donaldson remains part of his plans despite centre halves Harry Clarke and Jack Baldwin having since been brought in.
He added: “Coll has had a wee groin tweak from a bounce game we played against Inverness. He just felt a wee tightness in that, and then he was ill last weekend.
“He’s still part of everything that’s here. He trains every day and trains really well and is one of the voices in the dressing room.
“He’s absolutely part of my squad, despite the fact he hasn’t played for the last few weeks.”
