Ross County manager Jim McIntyre reckons today’s opponents Raith Rovers will be determined not to let a change in manager prevent them from another Premiership promotion push this season.
The Kirkcaldy side reached the play-offs last season after finishing fourth in the Championship but the Fifers fell to a 2-1 aggregate defeat by Hibernian.
Raith have since lost manager Ray McKinnon to Dundee United, with former Kilmarnock Gary Locke coming in as his replacement.
Locke has signed Kevin McHattie and Chris Johnston from his former club, while he added further top-flight experience to his squad this week with the additions of Rudi Skacel and former Aberdeen forward Declan McManus, who joined on loan from Fleetwood Town.
McIntyre expects Raith will want to show they are capable of competing with Premiership opposition when they travel to Dingwall for today’s Betfred Cup tie and he said: “Raith will probably consider themselves promotion candidates – and rightly so.
“Ray McKinnon did a great job and Gary is obviously going to take that mantle on now.
“He’s assembling a good squad to add to the players who finished very well last season – he’s signed a couple from the Premiership.
“They’ve added that Premiership quality to the squad, so I know how difficult a game it will be. They’ve got players who have played at a higher level and a number I’ve worked with as well.
“They’ve got pace in their side and they can score goals, so we know we’re going to be in a tough match.
“Being the home side, we want to make sure we put them under a lot of pressure and win the match.”
With two weeks to go until the start of Premiership action, McIntyre acknowledges his side is still short of the required match sharpness and he added: “General fitness is good, match fitness isn’t – and that will just come with the more games we play.
“We’re in decent shape and where we expect to be at this time in the season with having another three games before the league campaign begins.
“In the group games, I don’t think any team is up to speed yet. We’ve just got to try and get there as quickly as we can.
“It is competitive football and games we need to try to win.”
