Ross County manager Malky Mackay says changes against Livingston were enforced – and not a show of disrespect towards the Scottish Cup.
Mackay made six changes from the side which defeated Motherwell in midweek, with Jordan Tillson suspended and David Cancola injured. Youngsters Matthew Wright and Adam Mackinnon were both cup-tied from their prior loan spell with Brora Rangers.
Although Ash Maynard-Brewer, Alex Iacovitti, Regan Charles-Cook, Joseph Hungbo and Jack Baldwin were among the substitutes, Mackay revealed none of them were fit enough to feature in the 1-0 defeat.
Mackay said: “To be absolutely clear, the team was absolutely no disrespect to the Scottish Cup or Livingston.
“What we played was what we had left.
“Six of the nine on the bench were not fit to come on the pitch. We had two players left, which was Jordan White and Harry Paton and they both came on.
“We took some heavy hits on Tuesday evening. We also had a suspension, and our two boys who came back from being on loan at Brora Rangers had already played in the cup.
“We counted what was fit, available and standing in the morning, because we lost one on Friday in training.
“There were a couple where it was play against Livingston, and risk being out for six weeks.
“We had 14 we could play, so I filled the bench with the rest of them to make it look as if it was viable.
“It was no excuse – because we were beaten fair and square.
“We will give them another four or five days to see if they are available for the middle of the week. But there are certainly a few who won’t be available for that either.”
Ayo Obileye’s early penalty settled the tie, punishing a slow start from the Staggies.
Mackay was pleased with the reaction of his side, but bemoaned a succession of gilt-edged chances passed up in the second half.
He added: “We started really poorly in the first 20 minutes. I wasn’t happy with that.
“We tweaked the shape slightly and came into it again in the last 15 minutes of the first half.
“My challenge in the second half was to really step on and be brave in the second half. We can’t miss two glaring headers like that if we want to win games. It was two glaring errors.
“We knew exactly how Livingston were going to be, and we had to match that.”