Australia A-League superstar internationalist gets full clearance for Ross County switch
Don Cowie is eyeing next month’s visit of Dundee as the moment to unleash Aussie international talent Josh Nisbet on the Scottish Premiership.
The Ross County manager was thrilled to learn just minutes before meeting the media yesterday that the A-League and superstar had got visa clearance to jet in from Down Under.
He will fly from New South Wales to the UK in the next few days, but Cowie is pencilling in the first game back after the September international break for his debut.
Attacking midfielder Nisbet opted to leave Central Coast Mariners in July with a view to securing a top-flight club in Europe.
It followed a hugely successful season in which he helped his side to win a treble, while also winning the Johnny Warren Medal for the best player in the A-League campaign.
Nisbet also made his international breakthrough in March this year, playing in two World Cup qualifiers.
Having already described the 25-year-old’s likely arrival as a major coup for County, against competition from a host of clubs, Cowie is delighted to have confirmation of completed paperwork and biometric testing.
But he believes Nisbet will need a period of acclimatisation and adaptation before making his first bow, most likely in mid-September against the Dark Blues.
The Staggies’ manager, who is yet to confirm the length of Nisbet’s deal, said: “The deal for Josh has progressed really well over the last few days.
“The visa has been granted today and now it is a case of getting him over from Australia.
“Over the next 24-48 hours we’ll be planning in terms of getting him over to Scotland.
“He has been working on his own recently, but had international football while we were on our close season break, so he was still playing and part of a squad.
“In terms of our schedule, we have an international break coming up in two weeks, giving him time to settle in and get used to things, get up to speed.
“Then, after that, he’s ready to hit the ground running.”
County’s solid Premiership start of two draws had brought them to 10 games unbeaten since the last four matches of last season.
The momentum suffered on Saturday, though, as League Two Spartans shocked the top-flight visitors in Edinburgh.
Cowie says he and his players have “taken ownership” of the embarrassing setback and are ready to relaunch their campaign away to Rangers at Hampden Park on Saturday.
He added: “Full credit to Spartans, they deserved the victory.
“In terms of ourselves, we’re disappointed. It wasn’t through lack of effort, but we lacked real quality and creativity as a group.
“It was an opportunity for us to get to the quarter-finals of the cup - and we fell short.
“We’ve had time to get the frustration out, and when we came in on Monday it was a case of having a conversation about it.
“Not just forgetting about it, but recognising where we went wrong before we then focus on Rangers.
“We let ourselves down, in terms of not winning a football match we should win.
“We all recognise that, but at the same time we are not going to let it come away from what we are trying to achieve, and what we have done so far.
“It’s one game, but we’ve got to learn from it and move forward.
“It’s not a case of just brushing it under the carpet. We’ve got to take ownership of the result, but at the same time we’ve got to move forward.
“We’ve got a very difficult game this week.”