STEPHEN KELLY is confident Ross County have the character and the quality to preserve their Premiership place this term as the Staggies fight for their top flight future.

County host fellow strugglers Motherwell on Wednesday evening aiming to give themselves a bit of breathing space at the foot of the table and build some momentum under new boss John Hughes.

Kelly missed the defeat to Rangers at the weekend as his parent club ran out 5-0 winners thanks to goals from Ryan Kent, Filip Helander, Joe Aribo, Ryan Jack and Connor Goldson.

But the midfielder is sure the County squad have what it takes to move up the Premiership standings in the coming weeks and avoid an anxious finish to the campaign.

Kelly told Herald and Times Sport: “For everybody at the club now, the priority obviously is to try and stay up.

“We showed some good signs in recent weeks with the results against Hibs and Aberdeen and, for me personally, I want to keep playing as well as I can. Do well in training and impress the manager and see where that takes me.

 

 

“If you look at the squad as a whole, I am not saying we were underachieving but I don’t think we deserved to be in the position that we were in.

“A lot of mistakes put is there but I think recently we have shown signs like we should have been doing in the first half of the season.

READ: John Hughes hopes Ross County learn lessons from Rangers masterclass

"The biggest thing for us at the moment is trying to find a bit of consistency. It was up, down, up, down and getting good results and bad results.

“If we can get a few good results on the bounce that would be massive in terms of moving up the league.”