MALKY MACKAY insists the loss of Tony Watt is unlikely to damage Motherwell’s drive for European football.
The Ross County manager is as much impressed by Fir Park manager Graham Alexander’s squad-building as he is an admirer of the Premiership’s current top goalscorer.
Nine-goal Watt hit Well’s winner when Ross County visited in September, but looked set to complete a cash move to Dundee United last night after previously agreeing a pre-contract with the Tannadice club.
Mackay certainly wasn’t cracking open the champagne at news of his imminent departure.
The former Scottish FA performance director said: “Tony is someone who has scored a number of goals.
"He's the top goalscorer in the division, so that's an obvious loss for the club.
"What it does mean is that other players get to step up.
"I have to say that Kaiyne Woolery and Kevin Van Veen have been terrific this season, and they showed in the last game, when Watt was on the bench, that they're in a way of playing.
"Graham has got a team going there and it's not a one-man band.
"Obviously if you lose your number one striker, as a whole, you've got to look at that and say that's slightly debilitating.
"But I'm sure that Graham will be saying to his players that it's time for other people to step up to the plate, or he will go and do some business.
"There's still a couple of weeks left to bring someone in, but it's not easy to bring in a goalscorer - and it's certainly not easy to do it in January.
“We're all in the same boat with that.
"For Tuesday night, all that I’m looking at is that we've got a tough team coming up, a team that are on the crest of a wave over the last couple of months and have been very confident.
"It will be a tough one for us on Tuesday night, but I'm really looking forward to it.
“Other than that, I don’t really look into Tony Watt’s move too much and I really don't care to be honest.
"I know that we're not taking them lightly.
"If you look at where they are in the league and where we are in the league, we've got a tough task on our hands.
"We've got to make sure we win our battles all over the pitch, and if we do that we've got a chance.
"Down at Fir Park, it was a very good performance on the day, so that's the way we'll look at it and approach it."
Mackay, having guided his team through a difficult start to the season, finished the pre-winter break spell with a run of four wins and three draws from 10 games.
That was enough to lift County to third bottom place, two points above Dundee and four ahead of bottom side St Johnstone.
Clearly, he is looking to build on that form having seen his team clamber back into the pack in mid to lower-table.
Mackay said: “They know they've just got to concentrate on the fixture right in front of their nose – the detail of what the team we're going to play's strengths are and what their weaknesses are.
"We were in a good run of form in the 10 games going into Christmas, so we've got to rise to that challenge again.
"The challenge was to get into the pack, which they did admirably, and now we've got to make sure we kick on from that."
County are without club captain Keith Watson (calf) and deputy Jack Baldwin through suspension, but central defender Alex Iacovitti is fit and available again.
Also joining the squad is Southampton loanee Kayne Ramsay, a right-sided defender who Mackay sees as ideal replacement for lost Arsenal loanee Harry Clarke now at HIbs.
Ramsay, who is 21, started a Premier League match against Manchester City in December 2018, before loans at Shrewsbury and Crewe up until Christmas.
Mackay added: “We looked for something similar as soon as we found out from Arsenal that Harry wouldn’t be staying with us.
“That was actually a few weeks before.
“There were two we were looking at in that area, that same photo-fit - that power and pace Harry has.
“Kayne has been out on loan as well a couple of times and he played for Soyuthampton’s first team against Manchester City.
“You don’t do that unless you have potential.
“We’ve talked about the importance of character before and we had good soundings.
“It means they come in and settle quickly, there’s no histrionics or high-maintenance issues. They just get on with it.
“They are boys who have been at big clubs, but also out in the muck and nettles of lower league football, against men.
“That means they come in and hit the ground running in the first couple of days.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here