Ross County captain Marcus Fraser believes loyalty to the players who won the Championship can help the Staggies on their top-flight return.

Goalkeeper Scott Fox opted to return to Partick Thistle and midfielder Jamie Lindsay was sold to Rotherham but County have largely had a stable summer.

Declan McManus was loaned to Falkirk to offer him regular football but managers Stuart Kettlewell and Steven Ferguson have otherwise kept their title-winning pool intact.

And former Celtic defender Fraser feels that will reap benefits ahead of the Ladbrokes Premiership opener against Hamilton on Saturday.

The 25-year-old said: "We have not lost too many players and kept the majority of the group together. You can see in pre-season we are all close, and that helps on the pitch as well as off the pitch. But more importantly on the pitch, we have partnerships all over.

"That definitely does help and hopefully we can show that on Saturday.

"The managers made it clear that, when we won the league,  they weren't just going to ship out the players who did really well for them and change the squad.

"They realised that you don't need to do that.  They signed well last season knowing that if we did win the league, the  players would be capable of playing in the Premiership.

"They have stuck to their word, credit to them, and I think we do have a good squad that is ready for it."