Ross County assistant manager Richie Brittain didn’t try to hide his frustration after watching his Premiership players be pegged back from 3-0 up by League One Montrose in the Betfred Cup.
The Staggies needed penalties to beat Angus outfit at Links Park, meaning they only picked up two points instead of three in their group stage opener.
Brittain said: “It’s disappointing after being three goals up. We can’t explain it.
“As a Premiership team, being three goals up that should be enough, so we’re disappointed.
“Possibly we might take positives from scoring the penalties – but it should never have got to that stage – three goals up away from home, we should be good enough to see the game out.
“Credit to Montrose they came back and made it a fight and they got three goals from doing that – peg us back. But we’re bitterly disappointed with the outcome, to be three goals up and be pegged back.”
Brittain said the Staggies players had been left in no doubt about his feelings on them giving up a three-goal lead.
He said: “We told the players a home truths. It’s not going to be accepted by the manager, by the coaching staff, by the club to come to these venues – and I’m not being disrespectful to Montrose because they did well – and let that happen. It’s not good enough.”
The County assistant was able to take a degree of comfort from the away team’s attacking play in the early going at Links Park, saying: “Some of our forward play to get in front was good. I suppose a couple of positives are strikers getting goals, but we’re bitterly disappointed with the overall outcomes.
“Oli Shaw and Regan Charles-Cook got their first goals, it’s down to them to kick on from here. The gauntlet has been laid down to every player in the dressing room after the game and it’s up to them to take up that challenge and run with it.
“It’s good for them to break their goal duck, but there’s lots to work on going forward. We’ll learn from this performance and take heed of what happened and work hard towards the next game against Arbroath.
“We know what squad we’ve got and we know the players we’ve got and the personalities in the dressing room, so this hasn’t told us anything about the squad that we don’t already know.
“We’ve trained hard and we’ve played 10 Premiership games up to this point, so there was no excuse for anybody lacking fitness. We’re bitterly disappointed with the outcome.”
