JACKSON IRVINE believes Jim McIntyre should be considered a contender for manager of the year if Ross County can finish in the top four of the Ladbrokes Premiership and also win the League Cup. A year on from scrapping to avoid relegation, the Highland side have featured predominantly in the top half of the table this season and will also look to lift their first ever major trophy when they take on Hibernian in the League Cup final next month. On top of that they also have a William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final to come at home to Dundee United.

It has been quite a transformation in fortunes and Irvine hopes that, should they achieve all those goals, McIntyre gets the recognition his players believe he would richly deserve. “It’s not just top six, we want to finish in the top four,” said the Australian. “That’s where we want to be. To finish fourth given the strength of this league and to win a trophy, that’s our target. I think the manager would be a shout for manager of the year if we could pull that off. And we’ve got a quarter-final in the other cup too which is also important to us. So we’re delighted.

“We feel that we’ve underachieved in the last few months considering the performances we’ve put in and the injuries we’ve had like losing [Liam] Boycey and Craig Curran. We want fourth. That’s where we’ve got our aim.

“If we had got a positive result against Hearts last week then we would only have been five points behind them. Unfortunately that game didn’t go our way but we’re firmly focused on getting fourth. I don’t think we’ve dropped below any lower than fifth or sixth in the table all season and that’s where we want to stay. It will be difficult as there are a lot of tough games coming up. We’re excited for the cup final but it’s full focus on the league for now.”

Few teams have enjoyed a 12 months like County and Irvine believes all plaudits are well-received. “It was Valentine’s Day last year against Motherwell when I think we got only our third win of that season. So in contrast it’s scary to think where we were and where we are now. When I say we’ve been underachieving you can’t almost believe it but that’s where we are now. Towards the end of last year we went on that amazing run of wins and people started to take us a bit more seriously. Throughout this season we’ve gained more and more respect.”

County put up a decent fight against Celtic last weekend only for goals from Leigh Griffiths and Dedryck Boyata either side of half-time to ultimately prove the difference.

“The timing of both goals knocked the stuffing out of us,” added Irvine. “We went there with a plan and it was similar to how we set up against them in the semi-final. When you go to Celtic Park you know they are always going to create chances and put you under pressure but I thought we dealt with it really well and were passing the ball around nicely. If we had made it to half-time at 0-0 anything could have happened but unfortunately we lost a goal on the stroke of half-time. We started the second half positively and then we lost a second goal which knocked the stuffing out of us. But we’re pleased with the way we set up to play there.

“We’ve scored among the most goals in the league and probably conceded among the most as well as we play attacking football. At the start of the season games at Celtic Park aren’t going to be the ones that define you. We’ve got a run of games coming up, a lot of them at home, where we’ll be looking to take a lot of points. To go to Celtic Park and play the way we did will only give us further confidence”.