How a previously winless side managed to win their first game of the season 5-0 away from home

On Wednesday evening, Ross County travelled to Dundee for what was supposed to be a confirmation of what everyone suspected: Malky Mackay's side were worst team in the league and at 9.35pm they would already have one foot in the Scottish Championship after a defeat which would leave them seven points adrift after only 11 games. They were also winless in the league and boasted the worst defensive record.

Ross Callachan (left) celebrates with Regan Charles-Cook after the latter notched Ross County's fifth goal on the night. Picture: SNS

Therefore, Scottish football was collectively astonished when County went to Dens Park and completely tore the hosts to shreds, racing into a 4-0 first-half lead en route to a 5-0 victory.

So how did this happen? Well, the reasons are fourfold…

County's approach

The visitors lined up in a 4-2-3-1 with Regan Charles-Cook and Joseph Hungbo as their wingers. Though the pair hadn't done enough to help their side win a game until midweek, they had been earning some positive reviews from both County and opposition supporters, who've been consistently alarmed by the pair's speed and directness.

Against Dundee, the gameplan was based around going direct to the aforementioned duo and getting the opposition turning back towards their own goal. This was clever on two fronts: it based their own approach around getting two in-form players on the ball as often as possible, which paid off spectacularly with the Charles-Cook and Hungbo scoring three goals between them, and it forced Dundee' s full-backs into consistently having possession, often under pressure.

Fans of Dundee have complained at length for the need of an upgrade at the full-back positions, even going back to the Championship season. Cammy Kerr and Jordan Marshall suffered torturous evenings. Their use of the ball was uninspiring and wayward to say the least. They often knocked it back to the goalkeeper (see goal No.2) or aimlessly floated a pass up the wing and into the final third, where it would inevitably come straight back. Kerr was lustily booed at one point in the first half for such a pass, while Marshall completed a measly 38 per cent of his progressive pass attempts.

County's pressing

The two Dundee full-backs simply didn't have the technique or the poise to play their way out of pressure, which was another facet of County's approach. They were aggressive in getting after their hosts, especially in the wider areas. Two of the five goals came from Dundee throw-ins, including Adam Legzdins' shocker for the second where his attempted clearance was blocked by Jordan White, as the away side looked to make things as uncomfortable as possible all over the park.

This worked in the midfield also. Adam is Dundee's talisman in the centre but he didn't get a moment's peace and ended the game with more fouls than incisive passes. McGhee, supposed to provide the legs to allow Adam to dictate, was completely anonymous. Neither played well, but respect must be shown to Jordan Tillson and Harry Paton for doing their best to throw them off.

Harry Clarke

The undoubted star man on the evening. Clarke was superb at charging down the right flank all game. The only goal where he didn't play a significant role in the build-up was Legzdins’ error for the second. Even the third goal, a world-class free-kick from Hungbo, came about because Clarke won the foul.

Brought in on loan from Arsenal, Clarke has been a stand-out so far this season, which is mightily impressive as the rest of County's defence has largely been a shambles to this point. He's both their best right-back and best centre-back. If only they could clone him.

Dundee's line-up

Part of the reason Clarke played so well was the space he was granted by Dundee to repeatedly rampage forward and affect the game in the home side's half.

Dundee boss James McPake decided to try and fit his three most potent attacking players into the same starting XI, so Leigh Griffiths played centrally and was flanked by Jason Cummings cutting in from the right and Paul McMullan stationed on the left. Starting Cummings, a penalty box striker, on the flank isn't typically best practice, so he was placed on the opposite side from his stronger left foot so he could cut inside and go for goal. This wasn't as much of a problem as he was going against against a similar square peg in Connor Randall, though he did ball-watch for County's fourth, allowing Randall a free run where he would notch an assist, but it was certainly a massive problem on the other flank where McMullan, again drifting inside to impact with his stronger foot, routinely failed to get anywhere near Clarke.

This is perhaps why McPake sacrificed McMullan after 38 minutes, though the chants of "you don't know what you're doing" became rather apt when Danny Mullen was thrown on instead in the exact same role, with Dundee keeping the shape which was working so badly for them. As you can probably guess, he wasn’t any better at slowing down Clarke.

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