Scott Boyd has spent the last two seasons playing for Ross County in the SPFL Premiership.

He knows better than to judge this campaign after only its first two weeks.

The Dingwall side have been slow starters to this campaign, dragging themselves through three matches without picking up a point. Boyd, though, has learned the value of patience during the past two seasons and that has allowed him to remain calm ahead of a trek to Tannadice to take on Dundee United today.

Indeed it would seem easy to panic as other teams grasp early points and County's 10 new men grapple with the task of settling in a new country and league, yet experience - and the knowledge that County finished fifth and seventh in their last two seasons, respectively - have soothed any agitation which Boyd may otherwise have felt.

"When you look at it, it's only the second week of the season," said the 28-year-old, now with over 200 County appearances to his name. "I know there have been disappointing results so far and we'd have liked to get a few points on the board with two home games, but it wasn't to be. There are a lot of new boys in at the club, but we're not using that as an excuse. We just move on. We've got Dundee United on Saturday so we have a chance to get some points behind us.

"It's a long season. There will be ups and downs. We had a similar start to the campaign last year so it is nothing to worry about. The boys are under no illusions - we don't want to get off to a slow start and leave it for too long. We're definitely well aware of how tight the league is and know we have to get points on the board as quickly as possible. The play-off this year is obviously likely to be treacherous, given the teams in the league below. You saw what happened at the end of last season.

"It's something no team wants to be involved in, but it's not something we're even thinking of just now. It's a long campaign and we have proven we can cope. We've got aims to try and push the club on again and that's hopefully what we'll do."

United are also in need of some momentum this afternoon, having come to a screeching halt at Celtic Park just seven days ago. The Tayside club were thumped 6-1 by the Scottish champions last weekend and are now desperate to redeem themselves at home to County.

"After that 6-1 defeat from Celtic we all just want to get back out there to play again," said Keith Watson, the United full-back and one of those still smarting from the result. "We felt as if we had started the season really well and we were flying going into the Parkhead game. Also, we felt solid defensively so to go there and concede six was really bad form our point of view and it's something we really can't let happen again.

"We were a bit shocked because we believed we could go there and take something out of that game. We had two good victories behind us and we were thinking: 'This could finally be the time we get a win here'. The way we defended set-pieces meant we were never going to win that match and we need to sort that out for the Ross County game."