Jim McIntyre Confident Ross County Can Win Derby And Ensure League Cup Progress
Ross County boss Jim McIntyre has backed his Staggies to shake off their Tynecastle surrender and battle past Inverness.
Ross County boss Jim McIntyre has backed his Staggies to shake off their Tynecastle surrender and battle past Inverness.
The Dingwall men failed to put up a fight as they were beaten 2-0 by Hearts in Gorgie on Saturday.
But manager McIntyre refused to press the panic button and instead put the defeat down to a bad day.
And he believes County now have the perfect pick-me up, with McIntyre insisting his side will have no trouble rediscovering their aggression when they face Highland rivals Caley Thistle in Tuesday night's League Cup quarter-final clash at the Caledonian Stadium.
McIntyre said: Saturday was one of those days when nothing went right for us. We gave the ball away far too much and didn't win enough of those battles.
But that is the first time I've had to say that this season. The boys have been fantastic, so we'll just write it off and move on to what is a great game for us to try and bounce back.
It is always intense in a derby. We'll have to play with an intensity from the get-go, something we've done particularly well this season.
But I'm confident the boys will get back to that kind of performance.''
John Hughes' William Hill Scottish Cup winners made history last season when they became the first side from north of the Great Glen to lift a major trophy.
McIntyre would love to see his side match that feat but he is refusing to get too far ahead of himself just yet.
Any time you've got a chance to get to a semi-final of a national cup competition then you realise it's a massive game,'' he said.
We will be pouring everything into this to try and make sure we are the victors.
You just have to look at Aberdeen, St Johnstone and Inverness, who are all recent cup winners, to see that these tournaments offer the best chance of silverware for provincial clubs like us.
But we can't look that far ahead yet. We cannot think about winning cups yet, we can only think about winning this match and getting ourselves into the semi-finals.''