He said: "You don't really look at the league table until you come out of December and it's normally just short of the halfway stage and it starts to play out who's fighting for what.

"I'm confident the team will get better, and I'm confident – if we can make the changes in January I'm hoping to make – that with a fair run with injuries, we can do well this year.

"I really believe the potential of this team and the squad".

Unlike Aberdeen, County are still involved in the Betfred Cup and while Wednesday night's quarter-final trip to Livingston is a welcome distraction, manager Stuart Kettlewell stresses the league campaign is most important.

"The bread and butter is the league campaign," he commented. "The cup games take care of themselves. It did at Parkhead. We go to try to win the game of course, and we'll do the same again in midweek.

"The record we have to turn round has to be the league. There are some big games coming up in a short space of time.

"We had two more injuries today so we'll have a look at who's available to go again through the week and have a think about the games coming up because we are short of options at the minute".