Don Cowie urges Ross County to be ‘ruthless and clinical’ to end winless run

Don Cowie has called on Ross County to be more ruthless as they eye their first William Hill Premiership win of the season at home to Dundee.

The Staggies have taken just two points and scored one goal in their four league matches so far, with their manager ruing the fact they have missed penalties at key points in their two home games, including the 1-0 defeat against Aberdeen in their last fixture before the international break.

“We were really disappointed with the result and performance against Rangers (a 6-0 defeat) and we worked really hard during the week leading up to Aberdeen to make sure we got back to playing as a team collectively,” said Cowie.

“I saw lots of positives in that game. You hope you’re going to score the penalty but at the same time, that’s two home games where we have missed penalties at 0-0.

“Goals are important and can change games, so we need to be more ruthless and more clinical when these opportunities come around.”

County’s cause this term has not been helped by the fact Simon Murray, who scored 23 goals for them last season, now plays for Saturday’s opponents Dundee.

“We all appreciate what Simon did for us as a club, especially last season, but at the same time Ross County was really good for Simon,” said Cowie. “I think he would speak really positively about his time here. It’s no secret that he wasn’t desperate to leave us, it was more for family reasons.

“The club were patient in terms of helping him and it was up to a club to come up with the right figure for that to happen, and fair play to Dundee, they managed to do that.

“Dundee is where he lives, it’s where he’s from, so he’s delighted with the move he’s got and he’s started the season really well on the back of a great ending to last year.

“Dundee are a really good team, they had an excellent season last year and they’ve followed that on with a really strong start. Tony (Docherty) has done a fantastic job since he went in there. They’ve obviously recruited well, signing really good players, including Simon.”