Ross County winger is back and ready to show ‘brilliant ball mastery’, according to boss Tony Docherty

The 23-year-old, who impressed when on loan at Ayr United last season, has made just 26 first-team appearances for the Highlanders since signing from St Mirren in June 2023.

Malky Mackay was the County boss who signed Henderson, who had just helped Caley Thistle reach the Scottish Cup final against Celtic as a Championship side (a 3-1 loss).

Mackay described Henderson as “an exciting young talent”, but he played just seven times under the head coach before Don Cowie took over as the boss.

In total, in his debut Dingwall season, he scored one goal in 15 appearances.

The wide player, son of ex-County midfielder Darren, spent the entire 2024-25 campaign at Championship side Ayr, while County fought and failed in their quest to stay in the Premiership.

He looked sharp for Scott Brown’s Honest Men, scoring 14 goals while showing flair on either wing.

Only two of Henderson’s games this season have come under Tony Docherty, who replaced Cowie on September 3.

Henderson’s had ‘chance to reset’

However, he’s recovered from a hamstring injury and the manager likes what he sees from him as his ninth-placed team seeks to overtake a Queen’s Park side just above them in Friday’s BBC Scotland match.

He said: “Jay went out of the team three weeks ago, and there were elements of his game that I think he was a wee bit frustrated with.

“In the last couple of days, I’ve seen a real hunger and positivity about him. That can happen when a player goes out injured, because it gives them a chance to reset.

“He’s a real positive for us on the training pitch at the moment. He’s giving us a lot of positivity, and he will certainly be considered for Friday night.

“I think he can play out wide or through the middle.

“He’s a really talented footballer, so when he’s out wide you see the quality of his cross, and I watched loads of him at Ayr last year so when he plays centrally he can be a real goal threat.

“He’s got really good technique, brilliant ball mastery, so it’s just about putting it all together.”

Docherty outlines Spiders’ threats

County assistant boss Callum Davidson was in charge of Queen’s Park until Marchand their current boss Sean Crighton has brought in several new faces since then.

One player the Staggies must keep an eye on is forward Josh Fowler, who has 13 goals from just 16 appearances, including a brace in the 2-1 win at Dingwall in September.

Docherty, whose team lost 3-0 to Morton last week, says their opponents’ fightback in a 4-3 defeat against leaders St Johnstone has been noted.

He said: “They’ve changed a wee bit since Callum was there, but Josh Fowler scored a good goal up here and he’s one we will need to watch.

“They’ve got other decent players as well, like Aidan Connolly, but it’s important that we know what we’re coming up against.

“I think we should have won against them up here, so we will look at the strengths they’ve got and also look at ways we can execute a gameplan over them.

“Queen’s Park were 3-0 down at half-time against St Johnstone last week and they changed their shape and formation to get back in the game (losing 4-3). That showed a spirit.

“We know all about them and we have watched them. They have strengths in the forward areas that we need to be very aware of, but they also have weaknesses that we can hopefully exploit.”

Eight injured after Reid’s setback

On the injured list for County are Connor Randall, Ross Docherty, Jamie Lindsay, Miller Thomson, Sean Mackie, Noah Chilvers and Andrew MacLeod.

And defender Josh Reid, who had hamstring surgery this summer, suffered a fresh hamstring injury in training this week.

The 23-year-old suffered his injury when on loan at Partick Thistle and had made it into the matchday squad in the past two weeks. No timescale is yet known for his recovery.

[Source: Press and Journal]