Ross County boss Don Cowie was full of praise for his players after the Staggies made history by beating Kilmarnock 1-0 at Rugby Park to record a third straight away victory in the top flight for the first time ever.
In a poor game that lacked quality, County grabbed a well-worked late winner as Noah Chilvers’ cut-back found George Harmon, who coolly slotted home.
County had not won away from home in 15 months before their 3-0 win over Dundee on Boxing Day and they backed up that result with a hard-fought 2-1 victory against Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Thursday.
Cowie said: “It’s pretty special for the boys. It was well documented that our away form had been really poor over the last 15 months.
“It was up to me, the staff and the players to create a game plan for playing away from home and then it’s up to the players to go and execute that and they’ve done it unbelievably well in the last three away games, getting three wins. It’s absolutely huge for us.
“The strength of us is the unity and the togetherness. I don’t think we fell on the right side of the computer this year in terms of the fixtures with three games away from home in 11 days over the festive period, with the amount of travelling that we have to do.
“And what you can do is feel aggrieved by that or you roll your sleeves up and come together and that’s what we’ve done.
“It’s amazing how football changes. We won’t get carried away, we’ll keep working hard, keep improving and keep trying to pick up points.”
Killie boss Derek McInnes, meanwhile, admitted that it was a flat performance from his side as they failed to back up the impressive recent home victories over Hearts, Aberdeen and St Mirren in a defeat that dents their hopes of reaching the top six.
He said: “To be a top six team, you actually need to demonstrate that you’re a top six team. You need to act like it.
“Despite our adversities, and we’ve got a few injuries at the minute, you’ve still got to carry yourselves, behave and perform like you’re a top six team.
“In the last three home matches we’ve looked like a proper team. You have to be honest today and say we never got anywhere near that. Sometimes it happens.
“Our home form in the last three years has been strong, and those types of performances have been at a minimum, but it’s disappointing we’ve not taken something from the game.
“The players have worked hard enough. There is no doubt that the scheduling puts emphasis on a strong squad and it tests your resilience a bit.
“Even with some freshness, we looked flat throughout.”
