Ross County manager Jim McIntyre is keen to emulate the consistency shown by today’s opponents St Johnstone in consistently making the Premiership top six.
Saints make the trip to Dingwall today sitting two points ahead of the sixth-placed Staggies, with both sides looking to overtake Motherwell to finish fourth.
The Perth men have finished in the upper half of the table five years on the bounce and McIntyre hopes his Staggies can build on this season’s success by consolidating as a top-six club.
McIntyre said: “They have been fantastic over a number of seasons. I used them in my comments at the start of the season about being a model of consistency – a club that is one for us to look at in terms of what they’ve done and how they’ve gone about it.
“They’ve been consistent in everything they’ve done, in not making wholesale changes in their squads but two or three additions in the summer, and trusting the players they have.
“They have done a lot of things well, winning the Scottish Cup two years ago as well, and reaching the latter stages in other cups.”
The Staggies will set a club record if they finish fourth this season and got their post-split fixtures off to a fine start with an impressive 1-1 draw against Celtic at Parkhead last weekend.
With Motherwell and Saints both winning their respective matches, McIntyre knows how tight the race to secure fourth will be and he added: “I’ve said from the start, once the top six is confirmed, fourth is the target. It is a mini-league between us, Motherwell and St Johnstone. We have the catch-up to do, being a few points behind.
“It’s up to us to make sure we try to win those head-to-heads especially. A lot will come down to those games.
“As both Motherwell and St Johnstone showed last weekend, all of the games are winnable and we turned in a really strong performance against Celtic, although we didn’t win.
“So, it shows teams are competing hard for it. There are not going to be any end-of-season type games.”
McIntyre is able to call upon captain Andrew Davies and midfielder Martin Woods after suspension but defender Richard Foster could be sidelined for the rest of the season after undergoing a groin operation.
