Connor Randall believes memories of Ross County’s stunning escape from relegation last season will stand them in good stead as they battle to secure their cinch Premiership survival once again.
The Staggies finished second bottom last term and then trailed Championship side Partick Thistle 3-0 on aggregate with just 20 minutes left of their two-legged play-off final, but they mounted a sensational late fightback to draw 3-3 and then win on penalties.
As things stand, County are heading for the relegation play-off again, but they are just a point behind faltering St Johnstone.
Randall feels the scare they endured in last year’s play-offs can be the driving force that helps elevate them out of the bottom two over the remaining seven games of the regulation campaign.
“We couldn’t have been any closer to going down last year so obviously for the lads that were involved, we’ve shown we can come out of that, and we also know how much we don’t want to be in that position again,” said the 28-year-old former Liverpool player.
READ MORE: Warnock believes Aberdeen must sign proven SPFL players this summer
“Everyone who was here last year knows we don’t want to be going through that again so we’ll be doing everything we can to keep ourselves above that position so hopefully we can put in the performances that take us where we want to be.”
County face a hazardous trip to fourth-placed Kilmarnock on Saturday but they have lost only two of their last six matches and are buoyed by memories of a 1-0 victory in their last visit to Rugby Park back in September.
“It’s obviously a tough game,” said Randall. “They’ve shown this season what a good side they are with where they are in the league.
“They’re a well-organised side who have got some players who can cause any team issues and it’s a tough place to go, their (plastic) pitch is not the easiest to play on.
“But we believe that if we perform to our best level, we can take all three points. We’ve been there already this season and won, so we know we can do that as a group. We’ll be looking to do it again on Saturday.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here