George Harmon is mobbed by team-matesSNS
Andrew Petrie
BBC Sport Scotland

George Harmon's 86th-minute strike gave "bare bones" Ross County their third win in four Scottish Premiership games as they beat Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.

Just a few weeks ago, Don Cowie's side were down at the bottom with St Johnstone, but they are now 10 points clear of 12th place after their fine run lifted them clear.

Despite having seven players missing with injury, the visitors had the better of it in the first half with only a fine flying save from Robby McCrorie denying County captain Connor Randall when he curled one towards the top corner.

The second-half was more of a non-event until Noah Chilvers picked out an unmarked Harmon in the box, where the left-back swept home to send the travelling fans - who had made the 400-mile round trip - into raptures.

Kilmarnock did have spells where they kept County pinned back in their own box, but Jordan Amissah in the visiting goal had very little to do throughout.

"We were in a really poor run away from home," Cowie said. "It was about us coming together, the staff and the players, to correct that. We've done it very well.

"It gives us belief and confidence. We know what we've got in the group. We're at the bare bones - we've got seven players out injured - but we've rallied together."

County now rise up to ninth, leapfrogging Kilmarnock who drop to 10th.

Are County now top-six challengers?

When County lost to St Mirren a little over two weeks ago, they dropped to 11th, one point above St Johnstone.

They were real contenders for relegation, and not many would have argued with it.

Just four games later, they're suddenly knocking on the door of the top six - just two points off sixth-placed St Mirren - and have left their Perth rivals in the dust.

Of course, there is a long way to go and Cowie and his staff won't be counting their chickens for a long time yet, but this little run of form has made automatic relegation look unlikely.

They now have won three Premiership away games in a row for the very first time in the club's existence. Not only an impressive stat, but a historic one.

Rugby Park scaled by visitors once again

It was Ayrshire's finest, Robert Burns, who wrote "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry".

That was the case for Derek McInnes, with Innes Cameron brought on to add some freshness to the front line and give Marley Watkins and company a rest.

That lasted for five minutes, with the striker going down with a hamstring injury. On came Watkins, who came off again after the hour mark, running on empty.

That was the case for plenty of the Kilmarnock players, despite the four changes. They barely laid a glove on County in the first half, with not a single shot on target.

That has been the problem too often this season. They have failed to score in eight of their 22 games and rarely looked threatening today.

Kilmarnock have been able to come back after going behind this season, winning twice on such occasions, but that has not happened at home.

Rugby Park has become pregnable and McInnes can no longer rely on good home form to keep them away from danger.

What they said

Ross County manager Don Cowie: "Going into the game, and at half-time, we told the group to do the difficult things, stand up to Kilmarnock - we did that.

"We could have been tidier in the final third, but we got one moment of quality.

"It was a really good passage of play, Noah Chilvers shows good composure, and George Harmon arrives right on the spot with a great finish.

Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes: "We looked a bit blunt in terms of our attacking threat.

"At the very least we should be getting a 0-0 and bemoaning the fact that we need to do better in attack.

"We didn't have any real control of the game at any point, and County looked a bit brighter than us early on."

Related topics