McManus wary of former teammates

Ross County attacker Declan McManus says the Staggies need to make sure Dunfermline Athletic's season catalyst does not come at their expense.

The Pars lie in seventh place in the Scottish Championship table, and run the risk of falling into no-man's land between the promotion and relegation play-off spots.

McManus left East End Park to sign for County in the summer, so he knows how frustrated Dunfermline are likely to be.

"I think they've got a very good squad there that's probably underachieving a little bit just now," he said.

"Obviously I played with most of them, I know how good they can be.

"But I think it's this league, it's very tough no matter how good your squad is, you can struggle from week to week.

"I think that's shown by how good our squad is, and yet in the last couple of weeks we've not gotten the results that we want.

"I don't think their club and their squad should be where they are, but I've seen it plenty of times, teams can kick on with one good result, so we'll be making sure on Saturday it's not us that gives them it."

The 24-year-old could have stayed at Dunfermline, but he chose to make the move up to Dingwall instead.

He says that he enjoyed his time in Fife, but he has no regrets about his decision.

"I had a really good year there, I got most of the player of the year awards and stuff like that. I really, really enjoyed my time there.

"It was my choice to leave Dunfermline, purely on the basis that I felt like this was a good opportunity for me to go and test myself – not so much at a bigger club, but a club that are really striving to do something and get back to the Premiership.

"I think it's proved to be a bigger challenge for me, I'm not going to play every week, it's a better squad and a stronger squad.

"At the time I felt like I wanted to go and test myself again, and that's what I've done."

This afternoon's match will be the first time County have returned to play at the Global Energy Stadium since losing their unbeaten record at home to Dundee United two weeks ago.

The Staggies had gone nine games unbeaten in Dingwall across all competitions this season, winning eight of them.

And McManus says that Ross County are out to right that wrong today.

"I feel like we're striving to go and win the title, and kind of do as well as possible in all the cups that we're in as well.

"So I think you need to make your own patch a fortress, I feel like that's a big part of what we wanted to achieve.

"We want to make it a very hard place to come, we want to make it a place where nobody wants to be travelling up here, and nobody ever looks forward to a game.

"I think a couple of weeks ago was a difficult one to take, but it's something we can go this Saturday and put right, get the three points and get back above them in the league.

"Then we can look forward to next Saturday against Alloa, and then we've got Ayr United in a few weeks. So this is a big few games coming up starting today."