JOSH Sims has revealed why relegation-threatened Ross County were always confident they could beat Rangers as he called on his team mates to build on a historic victory and secure their cinch Premiership survival.
Second bottom County stunned their treble-chasing opponents at the Global Energy Stadium on Sunday when they came from 1-0 down to win 3-2 and record their first triumph over the Ibrox club in their entire 95 year existence.
However, winger Sims, who set up Simon Murray for the hosts’ opening goal early in the second-half and then scored their third, revealed that they had been positive they could get a result despite their lowly league position.
He explained their impressive home record under interim manager Don Cowie had given them belief - and recalled how that was bolstered when the game plan the former Scotland internationalist had devised “rattled” their rivals.
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“It was almost a free hit type of game,” said the Englishman as he looked back on the result yesterday. “Nobody expected us to take anything from the game.
“But in the changing room we believed we could do it, especially in that first half. We had some big chances and we were gutted to go in 1-0 down at half-time.
“We took the game to Rangers. They are a brilliant team, but it took them by surprise. It was a disappointing way to concede, losing the goal we did. But we came out in the second half and took the game to them again. It was brilliant.
“The manager said before the game that we have been unbeaten here since he has taken over. He told us at half-time we need to continue that. We were 1-0 down and he said: ‘Let’s stay unbeaten’.
“Even in the first half we had the better chances. We gave them their goal (Jack Baldwin put the ball into his own net), but we had two or three big chances.
“We continued to do what we had been doing. The way we scored and the timing of our goals kind of took them by surprise. They were kind of rattled, it felt like. They got the penalty late on and it was always going to be a bombardment at the end. To hold on was brilliant.”
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Sims added: “We had a game plan. Credit to the manager, all week long we have been working on how to defend against them and counter attack them. They have strengths all over the pitch, so it is difficult to have a game plan.
“But, credit to the players, we put it out there. We stuck to the game plan and it clearly worked. I thought we were brilliant from the first minute and we deserved our win. We worked on it all week and it is a good feeling when you go out and implement the game plan.”
The surprise win over Rangers means that County are now just a point behind third bottom St Johnstone in the Premiership table with five matches remaining and Sims is confident they can avoid the play-off final if they continued to perform as well.
“Other teams will be looking at this result and they will be gutted that we took the three points,” he said. “That could have been a draw or a win, but to get the three points was brilliant.
“If we can do it against Rangers we can do it against anybody in this league. We have to take that belief into the remaining games. We just need to build from it. It should do us some good.
“St Johnstone and the teams above us will be looking at this result and thinking we are on the up. They wouldn’t have expected us to take anything from this game so it is really good for us.”
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