Ross County manager Malky Mackay is adamant the clarity of his relegation-threatened team’s situation this weekend means there will be no lingering hangover from the concession of a last-gasp equaliser against St Johnstone on Wednesday.
The Staggies fought back from 2-0 down to lead Saints 3-2 in the closing stages, but the Perth side hit back at the death to equalise.
Fortunately for County, the late goal did not significantly alter their overall predicament, as even if they had held on to win, their inferior goal difference means they would still require a victory away to 10th-placed Kilmarnock on Sunday to leapfrog their hosts and get out of the relegation play-off spot.
As it stands, the 11th-placed Staggies are two points behind Killie and know that they need a win at Rugby Park to secure their cinch Premiership survival and consign their opponents to a play-off against Championship promotion hopefuls Partick.
“I don’t think anything changed with winning and not winning on Wednesday,” said Mackay.
“For us to come out of the bottom two spots, we need to go down to Kilmarnock and win, and even if we’d won on Wednesday we’d have needed to do that anyway.
“We go there knowing exactly what we need to do.”
County still have the lingering threat of being dragged back into bottom place and automatically relegated but that would require an unlikely eight-goal swing in favour of Dundee United, who are away to in-form Motherwell.
