Hearts defeat means nothing, warns Ross County boss

Jim McIntyre was impressed by Hearts display in the defeat against St Johnstone. Picture: SNS

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Ross County boss Jim McIntyre is not fooled by Hearts' defeat to St Johnstone last week as he prepares for the trip to Tynecastle on Saturday.

The Jambos lost 1-0 at McDiarmid Park while the Staggies were boosted by a goalless draw against Rangers at Ibrox.

McIntyre, however, expects no less a test against a side who remain second behind Celtic at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership table.

The County manager said: “If you analyse last week’s performance Hearts could have won two games with the amount of chances they had.

“Sometimes you get games like that in football where the opposition take their chance and you miss five or six.

“They faced an inspired goalkeeper in Zander Clark last week who had a great game but they certainly played well.

“We went through footage and their performance was very good.

“Tynecastle has a fantastic atmosphere, it is a great place to go and play your football.

“The crowd is right on top of you and like going to any big ground, you want to turn that crowd against the home team by getting off to a good start and getting that first goal and that is our aim.”

The Highlanders will be without forward Alex Schalk for the next two matches due to a knee injury sustained at Ibrox.

Striker Liam Boyce is set to return to the squad after missing the Rangers game with a back spasm and defender Jay McEveley is back from suspension.

McIntyre is hoping to build on the encouraging performance against the Light Blues.

He said: “I thought we defended well but there is no doubt that we got a bit of luck when Rangers missed a couple of chances.

“From our point of view, it was more a case of we were in the right areas but switched off for some of those chances.

“We want to be more of an attacking threat. There is no doubt about that, that is the one thing that we did better last season using that system.

“But I think the players deserved great credit for their work rate and going an extra mile to help each other out.”

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