Keith Watson has vowed to silence “mouthy” Brian Graham and ensure it’s Ross County fans who have something to shout about in this week’s Premiership play-off final.
The Staggies skipper insists his side have no fear heading into the pressure pot against red hot Partick Thistle with their top flight lives on the line. Thistle have lost just one of 17 games under Kris Doolan and struck 16 goals in four play-off games so far with 20-goal Brian Graham leading the charge. The 6ft 2in striker is renowned for noising up opponents and claimed Thistle were looking to win promotion back to the Premiership to “shove two fingers up” those who “shafted” the Jags when they were demoted to the third tier after covid struck.
But centre half Watson, who played with the 6ft 2in hitman at County and Dundee United, knows what to expect. He said: “I know Brian well and get on with him really well. He knows what I’m about and I know what he’s about. It will be a good battle, when you are on that pitch friends go out the window.
“It’s all about getting the wins. He’s not the quietest. He’s quite aggressive and quite mouthy, but I’ve dealt with him before in games and in training so I know what he’s all about.
“I know a few of the Partick boys as well so I know it’s going to be a difficult game. They have been flying recently, but we are going into it confident and fancying our chances.
“It will be two tough games, but we have two games to keep ourselves in the league and we will be going to do that.”
County’s 3-1 defeat at Kilmarnock on Sunday condemned them to the play-off nerve-shredder which starts with Thursday’s first leg at Firhill.
But while Thistle have huge momentum in their favour Watson believes Malky Mackay’s side are also on good form having won two and drawn one of their five post-split fixtures.
He said: “Going into the split we were four points adrift and maybe a lot of people wrote us off a wee bit. We just keep on fighting. We don’t know when we are down and we don’t know when we are beaten. We showed that against St Johnstone when we were 2-0 down and we came back.
“There is plenty fight and effort in the team. We’ve just got to make sure we take that into the last two games and show the same effort and fight we have shown to get back involved again.
“We’ve got a few days to prepare and do our work on Partick. We will be going into the game raring to go.
“They’re on a decent run because they have had to win games to get to the final. The boys know what’s at stake. We need to try and keep as upbeat as we can, we can’t dwell on it too much. Anything can happen, and we want to make sure we stay in this league.”
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