Don Cowie wants his Ross County players ready to fight on Monday

Don Cowie will let his Ross County players feel sorry for themselves following their damaging 2-0 defeat at Kilmarnock but wants them ready to fight for survival on Monday.

In the first post-split fixture at Rugby Park, striker Bruce Anderson broke the deadlock with a back-post header and midfielder Liam Donnelly doubled the lead with a close-range strike.

With four fixtures remaining, Kilmarnock moved three points ahead of the Staggies who, with their fifth successive defeat, dropped into the relegation play-off spot ahead of a home game against Hearts next week.

Boss Cowie said: “The fact of the matter is we can get away from it. It’s in our own hands.

“We’ve got four games to go. There’s still got to be an honesty in terms of the run of form that we’re in and we’ve got to rectify that and put it to a stop.

“We’re at home next week against Hearts.

“We’ve got a long journey up the road now tonight. Time to feel sorry for ourselves in terms of where we are, with the results, then come Monday morning we need to have that clear mindset that we’re ready to perform next week.

“I think the fundamentals of being a Ross County player is that we have to earn everything and scrap for everything we get.

“We have done it plenty of times this year so we have references we can go back to when we know we can win games of football in this very competitive league.

“It’s not happening for us right now but prior to that we won three out of four games which shows we are capable when we do things right collectively and that will be my message.”

Derek McInnes’ side are nine points ahead of bottom side St Johnstone, who they play next week.

Assistant manager Paul Sheerin acknowledged the significance of the win against County as he looked forward to taking another step to safety next week against the Perth outfit.

Sheerin said: “I think it was pretty professional and disciplined. I thought as a unit we were relatively solid.

“Probably at times it wasn’t overly pretty.

“I thought we stood up to their physicality, certainly in the early part of the game, and once it settled, I thought we deserved the three points.

“The incentive has to just be safety for us as quickly as we can and then from that you go and you build and try and stay away from that play-off spot as well.

“There’s no getting away from that. I think everybody – maybe Motherwell with their win today should be okay – but everybody else is probably looking over their shoulder and we’ll have to be ready for that battle and do everything we can to get through that.

“And like we say, it’s been a good start today, a good three points to set us on our way and we just need to try and keep on now.”