By all accounts, the to-ings and fro-ings in this season’s Championship are going to be as cut-throat as Sweeney Todd’s razor blade collection.
“Any team can compete in this league,” said Michael Tidser after helping feisty Morton into a share of top spot in the table with a spirited victory which ended Ross County’s unbeaten start to the campaign.
County, who came down from the Premiership last year, were installed as title favourites by the bookies. But what do the bookies know?
They came unstuck at good old Cappielow as Tidser and his team-mates put in a fine performance of energy, organisation and roll-up-the-sleeves endeavour.
There was a fair bit of classy, clinical execution too as both Tidser and Bob McHugh scored two cracking goals to turn the match on its head during a lively second half.
“The Championship is like this, it’s nip-and-tuck and it’s great stuff,” added Tidser whose raking drive against his old club to level the match was right out of the top drawer.
“This is a tough league and every week will be a battle. I know teams don’t like coming here. It’s a tight pitch, it can be quite dry and it’s hard to play here. We want to make this a bit of a fortress and make it as difficult as we can for the teams that visit.”
County certainly found it tricky despite forging a lead on 58 minutes when Don Cowie poked in his first goal for the club.
Morton responded with vigour, though, and Tidser’s bolt from the blue just two minutes later roused the spirits before McHugh got on the end of a flick into the box to hoik a fine finish into the net with 12 minutes to go.
“It’s always nice to contribute and the manager wants me to get forward a bit more and have a go,” added Tidser. “Under previous managers it was maybe a bit rigid (in the formation) but now I’ve got a bit more license to get forward and I’m reaping the rewards.
“It’s early days in the season. I’ve been up the top before in my career and I’ve been down at the bottom too so I know how things can change. But this has set the bench mark for us.”
County welcomed Liam Fontaine back into the starting line-up after a five week lay-off with an arm injury but the Morton double-whammy was another sore one for the defender to take.
“We know what this league is all about and plenty of us have played in it,” said the 32-year-old. “We need to be more clinical. We have to be ruthless, put teams away early and make sure what happened here doesn’t happen again.”
In this league, anything can happen, though ...
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