Talking points from the Premiership weekend

Ross County are not doomed yet

This was most definitely Ross County’s most important match of the season to date.  Had they lost against Motherwell, a nine-point deficit would surely have been too much of a challenge to overcome for a side who went into this fixture with only two league wins.

It was make-or-break and it showed for the first 15 minutes.  Each team was set up in bog-standard formations, County with 4-4-2 and Motherwell 4-5-1. Ian Baraclough went with height and strength up front in John Sutton, with Lee Erwin wasted on the left, while Jim McIntyre opted for Craig Curran’s tireless running to complement Liam Boyce’s finesse.  Direct balls bypassed the centre of midfield as each team wanted to use the flanks to provide service for their forwards.

There was precious little quality in the centre of the pitch, with Motherwell’s captain Keith Lasley - a player who many consider has his best years behind him - partnered with natural centre-back Simon Ramsden.  It wasn’t a pairing conducive to quality playmaking and they were matched by Ross County’s Jackson Irvine and Martin Woods.  Irvine and Woods continue to be McIntyre’s first-choice midfielders to the bemusement of many: in theory, Irvine’s energy marries well to Woods’s attempts at dictating play, but together they have rarely protected the space in front of the defence well enough and the latter has been criticised for being too slow on the ball and for slack passes.  In reality, Lasley and Ramsden against Irvine and Woods was probably the most low-rent midfield battle in the league this season and it made for a poor game on a technical level.  With Filip Kiss yet again dropped to the bench and Ruben Palazuelos falling out of the match squad without any explanation, the incumbent partnership simply had to produce to keep County’s hopes of avoiding relegation realistic.

They did, or at least Woods did; he combined with debutant winger Raffaelle De Vita to score a sumptuous volley outside the box for his first goal of the season.  Having scored the goal he looked a more confident player and County looked the better out of the two teams.  Motherwell looked threatening through Conor Grant and by Fraser Kerr beating Irvine in the air at every Motherwell corner kick, yet without getting their full-backs forward in a system that relies so much on quality from those positions, they never truly tested Mark Brown in open play.

County went into half-time with the lead and continued to take the game to their visitors in the second half, with Curran’s doggedness not allowing Motherwell to play from the back and Michael Gardyne winning every duel on the right flank.  Grant’s free-kick was the game’s second moment of quality, but Motherwell weren’t level for long with County scoring two more goals: De Vita had his second assist for a deep free-kick to Paul Quinn at the far post, before he got on to the end of a teasing cross over Craig Reid’s head to smash a near-post volley past George Long.  Kerr had the beating of Irvine at another corner to make the score 3-2, but in open play County generally looked the team best equipped to win.

The result means Motherwell have recorded six defeats and a draw from their last seven matches.  They still have a three point cushion over Ross County but it remains to be seen whether Baraclough can shape a strong enough team with his new signings.  With Paul Lawson and Iain Vigurs having been unavailable for so long, the centre of midfield badly misses a player who can dictate proceedings.  With Sutton up front they will always have a player who can score goals against the run of play, but banking on Motherwell securing points from games in which they might not deserve them from is a risky business.

For Ross County, they now have a run of fixtures from which they can realistically gather some momentum going into the league split.  They still have a lot of work to do to escape relegation, but with another match against Motherwell and two against St Mirren to play, they have given themselves something to play for.  Expectations have to be tempered, however: despite the quality of the goals scored against Motherwell, the performance overall was far from perfect and against stronger opposition they might not have fared so well.  Questions remain over the Woods-Irvine axis when there is arguably better pedigree elsewhere in the squad; if they are paired again in a flat four against Patrick Thistle on Saturday then they will likely not get away with the amount of space they continue to leave behind them.

In any event, it looks like the struggle among the bottom three clubs is likely to continue until the very end of the season. JAM

McLean fits in seamlessly
After the close of the January transfer window, Narey's Toepoker posed the question of where Kenny McLean would fit in for Aberdeen. I saw him playing central/left of Peter Pawlett in midfield with Jonny Hayes and Niall McGinn as wingers and Adam Rooney as striker.

Sunday afternoon at New Douglas Park saw the first time that Derek McInnes got to play that very line-up and formation. The result? Arguably Aberdeen's best performance of the season so far.  Aberdeen were two up inside the first 10 minutes, through close-range efforts from Andy Considine and Ryan Jack, and they had a further two perfectly good goals disallowed - Rooney's strike off the underside of the crossbar bounced a foot over the goal-line but wasn't allowed, while David Goodwillie was incorrectly adjudged to be offside despite Eamonn Brophy playing him several yards on - before McGinn finally finished it with a third.

Between those two disallowed goals, Aberdeen also had a penalty claim denied as referee Willie Collum instead decided to award a free-kick against Rooney for allowing himself to be wrestled to the ground by Hamilton's Jesus Garcia Tena. (Tena would later be sent off by Collum after committing a third... sorry, second bookable offence of the afternoon.)

Overall, it was a superb performance from the Dons, who were utterly dominant in the match.  By contrast, Accies have gained only two points from seven games since the departure of Alex Neil, and on this latest evidence it looks unlikely that they will be turning their fortunes around any time soon. MI





The Deila-bus keeps on going
There's something ominous about Celtic's current form.  Since being held at home by Ross County just after Christmas, they've been brushing opponents aside with relative ease.  Those sort of two-nil and three-nil wins are the results of champions, to be honest.

St. Johnstone at least put up a better fight than many of their peers have done recently, though many would have feared the worst after Leigh Griffiths opened the scoring in the first minute.  The Perth Saints were as stuffy as ever, but were overwhelmed in midfield in the early stages; Gary Mackay-Steven and Stuart Armstrong spent so much time playing central that it was like the visitors had five central midfield players, and so they were utterly dominant.  And of course Emilio Izaguirre and Adam Matthews provide more than enough attacking width.

Whether by accident or design, Tommy Wright managed to counteract this when he lost Murray Davidson to a calf injury in the first half.  He gambled on introducing striker Chris Kane and switching Michael O'Halloran to the left flank.  O'Halloran and Lee Croft got a fair bit of joy going forward, and by pegging back the Celtic full-backs they took considerable pressure off their own defence.

Not that this completely stopped Celtic in their tracks; some lovely linkup play and some rather woeful defending from Tam Scobbie led to a goal for Stefan Johansen which should have killed the game off...yet, remarkably, it was the home side who were pushing hardest at the end; after O'Halloran got one back, only some great goalkeeping from Craig Gordon denied them a point.

Some of this was clearly down to tiredness.  Ronny Deila has Celtic playing a high-tempo game right now, with and without the ball.  He also hasn't rotated this squad much at all in recent weeks, even with a Europa League tie on Thursday to look forward to.  It's a mark of respect to St Johnstone that he threw on another defender in the dying minutes - even if that was Efe Ambrose.

So, in conclusion, it was another ominous win for Celtic.  But this match may have exposed one or two chinks in their armour. LS





United held back by hapless defending
The SFA are currently consulting supporters about lifting the ban on alcohol in football grounds.  Presumably this is to help fans who have to watch their team lose to Kilmarnock thanks to a last minute goal.  As if it’s not hard enough being a Dundee United fan just now...

If we’ve not quite had a four horse title race this season, at least we've had three teams closer behind than usual.  Aberdeen have had the strongest looking squad of the three, and John Hughes has worked wonders with what he’s got at his disposal in Inverness.  But United had so much quality in attack that they looked as capable of keeping up with Celtic as anyone.

Unfortunately the realities of modern football and the double edged sword of being a well run club resulted in the January departures of Stuart Armstrong and Gary Mackay-Steven to Celtic, not only significantly weakening their own team, but adding much needed depth to their rivals.

After being able to rely on a strong attack to cover up their defensive deficiencies for the first half of the season, the Arabs will be hoping that Saturday wasn’t a portent of things to come. Having lost much of their attacking threat, they will have to defend a whole lot better than this if they’re to keep up with Aberdeen and Inverness, never mind Celtic. IM

McGowan makes Dundee tick

Whilst Dundee-Partick was certainly the least exciting of Saturday's matches, the twitter comments from journalists at the match made it sound like World Paint Drying Championships levels of tedium, when in fact there were plenty of chances at both ends.  These are the same journalists who spent the week criticizing the failure of Scottish football's leaders to talk up the game.  Oh, the irony...

A point was the very least Partick Thistle deserved.  Handicapped at home by the horrendous condition of the Firhill pitch, the surface at Dens was at least of enough quality that they could pass it around.  But too often this season have the Jags lost matches they should have drawn or won.  On this occasion, the sucker punch came with almost the last kick of the game, with Gary Harkins laying on a tap-in for Paul McGowan.  I've lost count of the number of times this season that Dundee fans have pointed out my claim at the start of the campaign that Harkins and McGowan can't play together.

McGowan has flown under the radar this season, but he has been integral to Dundee's top six push.  He seems to be operating much deeper than he did during his best seasons at St. Mirren, but arguably with even more effectiveness.  He's such a neat and tidy passer, and he always looks for the ball, even when the opposition have it.  His willingness to harass opponents and put a foot in make him a very good all-round midfield player.  In fact, all that has been missing this season is goals - Saturday's winner was his first for the club.

Gowser's excellent attitude on the pitch remains remarkably juxtaposed with his problems off it, which one suspects are the reason why he hasn't gone on to bigger and better things.  He was lucky to avoid jail in December 2013 after being convicted of two charges of assaulting a police officer; incredibly, in November 2014 he was charged with the same offence again.  He stands trial on 26 March; Dundee will hope to have clinched their top six spot by then. LS

ICT hang on when they should have been out of sight
ICT's win at St Mirren was their fourth straight away league victory, equalling their best ever top flight streak.  2015 has started brilliantly for the Highlanders who have won seven and drawn one of their eight games so far this year.

With the departure of Billy Mckay to Wigan at the end of January, there has been added pressure on Marley Watkins to score the goals that will maintain Inverness's charge for a European place. Watkins has impressed in his new role up front.  He might not be as clinical as Mckay but he still looks a very useful asset in the forward role and in the last few weeks he, along with the rest of the side, have continued as if nothing has changed.

Against St Mirren a familiar pattern from recent weeks emerged. Inverness dominated the first half of the game, showcasing some crisp, incisive passing that had the home side chasing shadows. Greg Tansey was at the heart of the action and fired them into the lead after good link up play down the left flank.  But despite their total dominance Inverness went in at the break only one up when, had they taken some of the glorious chances that came their way, they could easily have been four or five goals to the good.

In the second half, much like in recent games against Partick Thistle and Ross County, they found themselves on the back foot. Gary Teale hooked the ineffectual Yoann Arquin for youngster Lewis McLear and the change of system to a 4-5-1 gave the Buddies something of a foothold as there was much less space in the middle of the pitch for the likes of Nick Ross and Tansey to operate in.  Ryan Christie's goal came at a time where the game was very even.

Teale made another smart change, introducing Emmanuel Sonupe, who pegged Graeme Shinnie back and further curtailed ICT's attacking play.  When Jim Goodwin got a goal back it made for a nervous finish for the travelling support; in fact, Marc McAusland spurned two great chances to equalize.  That said, they created precious little from open play.

Whilst Inverness held on to secure another great win on the road their supporters will be keeping their fingers crossed that Watkins et al. can be more clinical in front of goal to allow them to breathe a bit easier in the weeks ahead. AS

Martin Ingram (MI) is our Aberdeen Correspondent.  Legend has it that he is the tallest man in the Red Army.  He writes regularly for Aberdeen fanzine The Red Final..

John A Maxwell (JAM) is co-editor of Tell Him He's Pele, the acclaimed website focused on Scottish lower league football.  He is an authority on all things Ross County.  Legend has it that the 'A' stands for 'awesome'.

Iain Meredith (IM) is technically a Rangers fan, but these days he tends to support them ironically.  He only agreed to help with this blog because now he can tell his wife that he's "only watching the game to help a friend out".

Lawrie Spence (LS) has ranted and spouted his ill-informed opinions on Narey's Toepoker since September 2007.  He has a life outside this blog.  Honestly.

Andrew Sutherland (AS) occasionally writes for When Saturday Comes.  He would never miss an ICT match unless he was offered a date with the lead singer of CHVRCHES...who he would then take to said ICT match.