First team
Match Preview | Motherwell (A)
14/02/2025
Ross County are back on their travels this weekend after a weekend off due to Scottish Cup clashes taking centre stage. This weekend sees Don’s players travel south to face Motherwell on Saturday with a 3:00 PM kick off.
From the Dugout with Don Cowie
A week off might seem like bliss for some football managers. A few days to rest, or a chance to work on some specifics on the training pitch for a longer period of time without disruptions.
Not for Don Cowie though.
He wants his players to be competing as bast they can, every single week – and that means remaining in cup competitions until the latter stages.
The Ross County manager said: “Honestly, I wasn’t happy, no.
“I would have rather we were still in the cup and had a game to keep that continuity of playing every week.
“On the flip it did give us time to train and work on things – but we gave the players the weekend off to reset and rest ahead of what is a really important run of games coming up for us.”
Ross County’s next fixtures heavily involve teams who are near them in the table, within touching distance of being caught.
The mark of importance on these clashes isn’t something the County gaffer is looking to play down.
He added: “Its going to have a big effect – it’s going to shape where we want to go and where we will end up.
“We’ve spoken about it, we’ve had a tough spell over the last couple of weeks, in terms of playing the Old Firm and Hibs so it’s been difficult.
“We now go into a spell where we’re playing still really challenging games, but ones where we’ve been really competitive in so far this season, and picked up the majority of our points against.”
As alluded to before, Don will make sure his squad are ready for these fixtures, and despite them being labelled as ‘easier’ that won’t impact the approach.
Don finalised: “The games are running out, so you know how important each game is, it scary really to think that we only have 13 matches to go.
Its important that we don’t let each drift by, we have to grab it and go and make an impression in each game.”
Ross County
As the manager mentioned, it has been a tough period for the club having to face both the big Glasgow sides in such quick succession.
Prior to that, the form has been good, so these results should not de-rail any previous confidence that was gathering and growing for the Ross County players.
Entering into this clash in 11th spot – a positive result would be imperative in ensuring that Ross County can pull themselves away from that dreaded play-off position.
Before a defeat to Rangers, Ross County had won their last three away matches on the spin.
Motherwell
Without a permanent manager in place, we could see a slightly different Motherwell side than which we got used to this season.
Following the departure of former Staggie Stuart Kettlewell as manager, Stevie Frail is in interim charge of the Steelmen.
The Fir Park side currently sit in sixth place in the table but haven’t won in their last five matches.
Previous Encounters
The Staggies have had only positive results when facing Motherwell this season.
We opened the campaign at Fir Park in a tight 0-0 draw, then defeated then Stuart Kettlewell’s side 2-1 in Dingwall with Ronan Hale and Josh Nisbet grabbing goals.
Pre-match thoughts of Jordan Amissah and Don Cowie
Memorable Match
Familiar Faces
Former manager Derek Adams played for both Motherwell and Ross County, as did former club captain Iain Vigurs.
Current Staggie Jordan White had a spell in Lanarkshire.
Blair Spittal, Jermaine Hylton, and Jim O’Brien all played for both sides.
Tickets
Press the man icon in the top right of your screen and log-in your account via that route if original way doesn’t seem to be working.
Customer number can be found on old Motherwell ticket e-mails, or in your apple wallet by pressing the ‘I’ button on tickets used for previous matches at Fir Park.
Ross County fans will be situated in the Tommy McLean – Upper.
Refereeing Team
Referee: Iain Snedden
AR1: Calum Spence
AR2: Gordon McCabe
VAR: Andrew Dallas
AVAR: Sean Carr
