Dundee United stars chipping in for hotel bill proves desire

Ryan Dow (centre) heads home Dundee Uniteds third goal. Picture: SNS

The 29-year-old defender said the gesture showed the type of desire needed to get the team out of their present predicament.

Dixon said: “We have a fine system at the club and we offered the chairman to pay a chunk of the cost of the hotel out of our kitty to get us up here the night before the game. By doing that along with the club it shows our desire and will to get out of this situation.”

The full-back was also delighted with the desire shown on the park in an impressive 3-0 win, with goals coming from skipper Paul Paton, Billy McKay and substitute Ryan Dow. The win closed the gap on 11th-placed Kilmarnock to eight points with a game in hand.

He said: “It was a great fighting performance from the guys. Exactly what the manager was looking for before the match and the boys produced.

“It is very pleasing to come up to Dingwall and come away with a 3-0 win because I’ve been here plenty of times in my career and it is not an easy place to come.”

Although encouraged by the win, Dixon added: “We’ve just been taking each game as it comes, the old cliché, which is all we can do.

“We need to fully focus on the next match and get what we can out of it. We did that today and got the three points.”

Teenage full-back Christopher McLaughlin was one of the few successes in a County performance in which too many of their key players had an off day. The 19-year-old, who joined County from Dundee United in the summer, caught the eye on his debut appearance.

He said: “It was great for me to make my debut but I would have liked the result to have been better.

“It was a disappointing result today, everybody is down, but we will just have to pick our heads up and look forward to Tuesday night’s match at Kilmarnock.”

McLaughlin, who has played regularly for County’s youth development side this season, looks a real prospect on this showing.

He said: “I played with Dundee United full-time for two years in youth development before Stuart Kettlewell brought me up here.

“I’ve worked hard and got my debut today. Hopefully there are many more games to come.”

The youngster picked up the home club’s man-of-the-match award but he is not getting too carried away with cup final places up for grabs.

McLaughlin added: “I would love to get involved in the cup final, but hopefully I’ve done well enough to get in the frame for Tuesday night.

“If I get in the squad and play well, maybe I could start looking forward to it. But I’ll just take it one game at a time.”