Ross County boss sees basement clash as 'just another game'

Ross County manager Malky Mackay has played down the importance of Wednesday’s match with St Johnstone, saying the bottom-of-the-table clash is just like any other fixture.

County travel to Perth just one point ahead of the Saints, with Mackay’s side having enjoyed an upturn in form at the same time as Callum Davidson’s side have struggled for results.

With both teams having played 18 games and the winter break coming up, it could be a significant fixture in the relegation fight but Mackay refuses to frame it as anything other than a routine league match.

He said: “I don’t look at it in any different way to any other game.

“We approach the St Johnstone game looking at them purely as a team, how they are playing at the moment, what their squad is going to look like and how we are going to play against each other.

“I know we are going to play a team who won both cup competitions last year and who have the same manager, who is a good manager. So we go to Perth knowing it is going to be tough game.

“It is not any different to approaching any other game that we play.”

St Johnstone are currently struggling with selection as well, with Davidson revealing that he now had four players out with Covid-related absences. That, plus the turnover in players mean that the draw between the sides on opening day can’t be used as any sort of marker for this game.

“We will really discard that altogether,” Mackay said.

“We will look very different. It was my first game in charge here in terms of the league and the team looks completely different now to it did then.

“Both of us will look on the last three or four weeks of form, who we are playing, how are we playing and the squads we have got at the moment so that game will not really come into it.”