McIntyre happy to win ugly
Ross County manager Jim McIntyre has told his players they can increase their chances of getting off the bottom of the Scottish Premiership table if they do the ugly side of the game better.
County can send Motherwell bottom on Monday night if they beat Aberdeen at home and some recent displays have given McIntyre encouragement.
County's only defeat in their last four matches came against Celtic - although it was a 5-0 home thrashing - and the recently-appointed manager appears to be making a difference.
McIntyre said: "What we have tried to do is build up confidence levels and the sure fire way of doing that is by getting results.
"The players are constantly encouraged to express themselves and do what they do well but at the same time stay concentrated and remain organised and do the ugly side of the game better than what we have been doing.
"That's a key message we have been giving to them because it's hard enough winning games at this level without giving the opposition a helping hand."
County lost 3-0 against Aberdeen six weeks ago and McIntyre senses a determination to atone for that reverse when Derek McInnes' side visit Dingwall.
The Dons lost 3-0 themselves at Hamilton a week later and slipped out of the top six in their free weekend.
McIntyre said: "Any time you come up against a team that turned you over heavily, you are desperate to do better against them and that should be the case.
"I think Derek's built a fantastic squad there which gives them great options to vary the way they play. They are always a threat, they have good pace in their side.
"They are carrying on the work he did last year but, as was proven against Hamilton, any team in this league is capable of getting beat, and that's what we will be looking to do.
"We have players who can hurt teams and if we do the ugly side of the game we will always have a chance of winning matches."
McIntyre is without Uros Celcer (hamstring), Tim Dreesen (back) and Rocco Quinn (hip).
Steven Saunders has recovered from an ankle injury but might not be ready to feature.
Meanwhile, Barry Robson admits Aberdeen will have to shelve their gung-ho tactics if they want to win more trophies.
Last season's League Cup winners claimed a semi-final slot in this year's competition by beating Hamilton last Wednesday with a narrow 1-0 victory.
But it was a marked change to the cavalier display against Accies three weeks ago which saw Derek McInnes' back-four brutally exposed in a 3-0 defeat at New Douglas Park.
Robson believes the Dons can retain the trophy they won last year at Celtic Park with a penalty shoot-out win over Inverness - but only if they give their defence more protection.
Speaking ahead of Monday's Scottish Premiership trip to Ross County, the veteran midfielder told RedTV: "We went back to basics at bit on Wednesday night.
"Before some of the recent performances, some of the games were a bit like a basketball game, we would attack, then they would attack and then we would attack again. That is not want the manager wants.
"We have to be a bit more controlled. That is what we have to get back to.
"We have a lot of pace in the team and a lot of boys want to break forward and, whilst we want to play attractive attacking football, you need to keep the back door shut first and foremost. We were getting a little bit carried away.
"The manager has done well to get us organised again. We identified what was wrong and tidied things up a bit.
"Sometimes though you go through a few games here and there where you lose a few goals and maybe your back players lose a bit of confidence but we were still scoring goals and winning games through this point.
"We are now starting to move along and function and starting to play quite well again and there is hopefully a lot to look forward to in the months ahead, including the semi-final."
Source: PA
