Owen Coyle praises two-goal Michael Gardyne as Ross County hold off Motherwell
It's now three wins from six for County under Coyle
Owen Coyle heaped praise on two-goal star Michael Gardyne as Ross County held off a Motherwell fightback to win 3-2 at the Global Energy Stadium.
Gardyne's brace and a goal from Davis Keillor-Dunn had County cruising at the break before goals from substitute Ryan Bowman and Louis Moult made it a tense finish.
Home manager Coyle was thrilled that Gardyne followed up his goal in the 2-1 loss at Aberdeen with a fine double.
He said: “Anyone who watches my teams will know that I always play with wide players.
“I want to win games but I want to offer a type of football that excites and people want to watch by passing and moving.
“We will have some way to go to develop that, but there are some nice early signs because we have one or two players who are capable of passing and moving the way we want.
“Michael and Davis Keillor-Dunn were terrific and what I want, from the likes of Ross Draper and Jim O'Brien, is to have goal threats from the middle of the park as well.
“It was nice for Michael to weigh in with his two goals after getting one last week at Aberdeen. I always tell players that you get a run of goals. Hopefully he can keep that up.”
He added: “There is still a lot to come from us that I feel can make us better and we will try to add our own flavour and personnel to help this squad along but these boys are giving us everything.”
Motherwell assistant boss Keith Lasley took press duties due to manager Stephen Robinson being banned.
Lasley said: “We almost got out of it and nicked a draw and we probably should have with the chances we had.
“But when we defended the way we did in terms of our set-plays and not dealing with them, in this division you will have a hard time winning football matches.
“That is something we have done really well until this point but we never dealt with the set-plays. If you are 3-0 down against anyone in this division then you will struggle and we just couldn't pull it back in the end.
“The boys who came on made an impact and there will be positives when we look back at the game, but we got beat, so myself and the manager are not in a positive mood because we don't like losing."