Keith Watson keen to highlight Ross County’s form as they fight for survival

Keith Watson is adamant relegation-threatened Ross County can take heart from their own recent form as they bid to topple free-scoring Championship promotion hopefuls Partick Thistle in this week’s Premiership play-off.

The Staggies must defeat the Jags over two legs to survive in the top flight for a fifth consecutive season after defeat in their final match at Kilmarnock on Sunday consigned them to 11th place.

Much has been made of the fact Partick have scored an impressive 16 goals in their four play-off matches so far against Queen’s Park and Ayr.

But Watson was keen to point out that his own side have been in good enough form to move off the foot of the Premiership table over the past month despite being four points adrift and seemingly doomed to bottom spot with five games to play.

“They are obviously on a decent run, because they have had to win games to get to the final,” the County captain said when asked whether Partick’s momentum might give them an edge.

“But going into the split we were four points adrift at the bottom and we just fell short on the last day, so I don’t think we are on poor form by any means.

“We have been picking up results recently, it’s not as if we have not been playing very well.

“The boys know what’s at stake. We need to try and keep as upbeat as we can, we can’t dwell on (finishing second bottom) too much.

“Anything can happen, and we want to make sure we stay in this league.

Although he admits Sunday’s 3-1 defeat at Killie was “a sore one”, Watson believes the form and “fight” his team have shown recently will stand them in good stead for the play-offs, with the first leg at Firhill this Thursday.

“Going into the split we were four points adrift, and maybe a lot of people wrote us off a wee bit,” said the Staggies defender.

“But we just keep on fighting. We don’t know when we are down and we don’t know when we are beaten.

“We showed that against St Johnstone when we were 2-0 down and we came back (to draw 3-3 last Wednesday).

“There is plenty fight and effort in the team. We’ve just got to make sure we take that into the last two games and show the same effort and fight we have shown to get back involved again.

“We’ve got a few days to prepare and do our work on Partick. The boys are disappointed, but we are not down. We have got two games to stay in the league.

“We will be going into that first leg on Thursday really looking forward to it. We’ve got two games to save our season, and we will be giving it everything we’ve got.”