Jim McIntyre praises Ross County after hard-earned win against Aberdeen

Ross County manager Jim McIntyre was delighted with his side's 2-1 home victory in an all-action encounter with Aberdeen.

A late winner from substitute Ryan Dow sealed the points and earned County a top-six spot in the Premiership, after Liam Boyce's opener was cancelled out by Niall McGinn's strike.

The hosts were coming off a goalless draw at Dundee last week, and this time got full reward for their endeavour.

McIntyre said: ''The first half was excellent. I think we continued on where we left off against Dundee in terms of the way we were playing. (Aberdeen goalkeeper) Joe Lewis has had three unbelievable saves in the first half, so it was really pleasing we were still going about our business, trying to create opportunities.''

The County boss admitted his side were under the cosh after the break.

He added: ''We knew we weren't going to have it all our own way. I thought Aberdeen were the better team in the second half, they hemmed us in at times when we had to defend stoutly.''

McIntyre also felt his decision to throw on another striker paid dividends.

''We made a brave substitution when it was 1-1,'' he said. ''We just felt Alex Schalk's pace over the top could cause problems rather than sticking on another midfielder. It would have been easy to try and take what we had got. But we decided to go for it, and luckily for us it paid off. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.''

The win stretched County's unbeaten run to six matches, after four previous draws and a win.

McIntyre felt his side should have picked up more points over the period.

He said: ''The one thing we were pleased about was how we were playing. We weren't pleased about how many points we'd picked up within that previous five games, and we recognised the importance of picking up three points, especially here in Dingwall. I don't think we've had a big result this season. We've had a couple of decent draws against decent sides, but a big result for me is beating one of the top sides. There's no doubt Aberdeen are a top side. We had to defend really well in the second half, but from Scott Fox's point of view everything was from distance. He's not had any real glaring saves he's had to make.''

On Kenny van der Weg's sending-off in the 82nd minute, for bringing down Jonny Hayes, McIntyre said: My view is Kenny has tried to professionally foul, and that's good play on his part, but I think the distance between the ball and the man has obviously been the deciding factor.''

Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes felt his side deserved more from their performance.

He said: ''I thought it was a game where I'd be disappointed to take just one point. The first half was pretty even, although we pinned them in for long spells. We were disappointed to to go in 1-0 down because a lot of our play was decent. I thought the response from our players in the second half was excellent. Box to box we were far the better side, but games are decided by what happens in the box. We were too wasteful, with just Niall's goal to count for us - a great, calm finish.''

McInnes was left to rue what might have been, and added: ''We should be talking about the response from our players, which was excellent, but we're bemoaning the fact we couldn't find a way through for the second goal. And with one set-play to defend with 10 men, we don't see it off. I feel a bit mugged off that we haven't been able to deal with that. There were positives from our performance, individually, but we know we can do better - and need to do better next time around.''