ROSS COUNTY may have nothing to show for their opening two Scottish Premiership games, but defender Alex Iacovitti is confident his team will come good.
The Highlanders were defeated 3-1 by Celtic on Saturday as Ange Postecoglou's side left it late to strike twice and take all three points.
The defeat for County follows on from their opening day loss against Hearts at Tynecastle, but Iacovitti insists he and his teammates are full of confidence.
He said: “It’s so frustrating. It wasn’t a wonder goal that carved us open. It’s a set-piece that comes from our own free-kick. We caused our own issues for the goals but there’s positives to take. It was a sucker punch, a cheap goal.
"We’ve played some good stuff and the frustrating thing is that we’ve nothing to show for it. We need to be more resilient.
"To lose a set-piece goal in the last ten minutes is really disappointing. The football we’re playing has shown that everyone’s gelled well and we’re ready to go again on Saturday.
"We’ve played two top sides in Hearts and Celtic and that’s an indication of how far we’ve come. The gaffer says it’s not about the badge on the opposition shirts, it’s who you’re playing against.
"We know the Old Firm have a load of money but we believe we’re as good as anyone in the league. They’ve got top-class players but we can challenge anyone on our day."
County did not start well last season either, but after a slow beginning, they ended up in the top six and narrowly missed out on European football.
With this in mind there is no sense of panic in Dingwall.
Iacovitti continued: “We work hard behind the scenes. The gaffer knows what he’s talking about and we spend so many hours having meetings and preparing.
“We’ve got games coming up we should be taking points from. Last season we had a tough start but after the first nine or ten games we gelled together and got some results that got us into the top six. But that was then and it’s up to us to kick on now.
“The new faces we have are 100 per cent better than the boys we had last season. They came in in time for our pre-season in Italy, so they’d plenty of time to get to know everyone on and of the pitch. They’re switched on.”
