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This article appeared in The Ross-shire Journal on Friday 23 September and it was written by Alasdair Fraser.
Paul Kinnaird has spoken out about the pressures Ross County players are experiencing in striving to meet local expectation.
Kinnaird, last Saturday's goal-scoring hero with a dream free-kick finish, believes his team mates are handling the burdens placed on them, but gave voice to a player's perspective on the drive to promotion to Division One.
The experienced 33-year-old - with over 300 Premier League appearances behind him - said: "I can't praise the players enough. I don't think people realise the expectation up here and the pressures placed on all of us to do well.
"Certainly, it's like nothing I've ever experienced at second division level. It is more what you would expect at a bigger club.
"The fans, the chairman, everyone expects us to do well week-in, week-out. That is only right because we have a lot of very good players here, but I don't think many people are taking into account how tough it is for us.
"We are working really hard to bring success to the club and I sometimes feel that this is overlooked. The players are training hard and a lot of them are travelling all the time, from Glasgow and wherever else, spending a lot of time on the road and on the training pitch.
"I just hope the fans can appreciate that and stick behind us. They don't make much noise up here, but that's just the sort of people they are, but when we have a crowd of 2,800 as we did against Clyde you expect more of a racket."
Kinnaird admits he was making a point to the Ross County fans on Saturday after taking abuse from a small section earlier in the season.
He said: "I have had a bit of stick since coming here. People expect so much of me because I've played at such a high standard.
"Although they are right to demand the best, I think that they should recognise that it is a team game. I think that they do know that I can play and in fairness I haven't always produced it.
"Today was no different - I've been out injured for five weeks with a hamstring problem and I'm not producing my best because I'm still not 100 per cent fit yet."
The striker lit up Victoria Park with the sort of spectacular free kick Manchester United's David Beckham has made his own at Old Trafford.
And veteran Kinnaird, the dressing room joker with the Dingwall club, wasted no time in throwing in a Beckham reference after his first goal of the season.
He said: "I was delighted with the goal. It's great when you watch players like David Beckham take free kicks. You think that you would love to score goals like that.
"Luckily, I put it in the top corner and it was great for the team, the fans and Ross County after the bad run we have had."
KInnaird is now convinced that this victory will enable County to bury the whole Mark Hateley episode.
The first County player to open up on the issue, Kinnaird stressed: "To give Mark Hateley his due, he is a really nice fellow, but it never really happened for him here.
"I think that we expected the Mark Hateley of Rangers at the age of 31 or 32 and I don't think he was that player.
"But I would certainly say that it was not a case of Neale Cooper losing his bottle as Mark claimed afterwards.
"The gaffer has tonnes of bottle - he wouldn't be bringing in players like Hateley if he didn't.
"But you live by the sword and you die by the sword and what Hateley is saying is his opinion. We all know the manager's opinion and the players know theirs."
A relieved Neale Cooper, who has been without six first team players, said after the Clyde game: "We rode our luck a little today and Clyde were a good side, well-organised.
"We actually played better losing to Alloa in the Challenge Cup than we did in winning today. But the main thing was getting that victory after three successive defeats.
"I sympathised with John Fraser for his sending-off, because there was no aggression in it, but the referee saw it his way and I won't argue.
"Paul Kinnaird's goal was unbelievable - he is one of the best set-piece takers I have ever seen."