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Messi moment inspired Staggies’ revival, says Mackay

By Jim Black

ROSS COUNTY manager Malky Mackay turned psychologist in a effort to reboot the Staggies’ season — and then sat back to enjoy watching his mind games have the desired effect.

Mackay revealed: ‘I showed the boys a picture of Lionel Messi before the game, with his head in his hands standing next to a Saudi Arabian player at the final whistle.

‘Then I clicked the picture and it is Messi holding the World Cup aloft, going from the whole of Argentina vilifying him in the space of four weeks to winning the World Cup.

‘Things change quickly in football and I said if we got this today we’re back — and it is all guns blazing. That’s what happened.

‘I’m really delighted for them and the fact that they kept a clean sheet as well.

‘I am happy for the players because they have been putting incredible effort in recently and the roll of the ball hasn’t gone their way.

‘We knew what was coming from Kilmarnock and it was important we stood up to it and played from there. We did that early on and that gave us confidence.

‘It gave us a foothold and it was great to see two of the new signings involved in the goal, Nohan (Kenneh) sets it up and Eamonn (Brophy) immediately looks like a forward who is at ease in our league.

‘To go and score and have the day he had alongside Jordan White, I was delighted for him.

‘We very much hope to get the bounce from this. I don’t think there is too much between the teams in this league.

‘Kilmarnock are a good team and have done well this season, running Celtic really close last Saturday, so I knew exactly what we had to stand up to and, if we didn’t, they would have beaten us.’

Counterpart Derek McInnes added: ‘I thought 3–0 was harsh on us in terms of territory and how competitive we were, but we lost poor goals.

‘Ross County have been struggling to score goals of late, and we anticipated them going with two up front and spoke about them being a threat on the counter attack.

‘I thought our response to going a goal down was good, to be honest.

‘We had plenty of shots and territory, but we’ve all been here long enough to know it’s what you do in the opposition box that matters.’

Football

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2023-01-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-01-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://mailonline.pressreader.com/article/283704073611253

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