Malky Mackay insists a moment of slackness cost Ross County dearly in their 1-0 loss to Kilmarnock.
The Staggies went down to Danny Armstrong’s first half goal, in a result which keeps them bottom of the Premiership table.
Mackay bemoaned his side’s inability to clear their lines in the build up to the move which saw Jordan Jones release Armstrong through on goal, with County goalkeeper Ross Laidlaw also slipping as he went to close down the former Staggies winger.
Mackay said: “I wouldn’t say it was a slow start. In the first 10 or 15 minutes we actually weren’t bad.
“We then lost Ross Callachan – probably my most influential player.
“I look at the goal again, and it’s not good the way we lost it. We gave the ball back to them three times and then unfortunately, my goalkeeper, who has been terrific for me, slipped because he’s picking it up.
“He still gets up, and nearly gets to it. It’s one of those where we will look at the goal on Tuesday morning and there will be five different people being told that if they did something different that’s not a goal.”
After weathering a spell of pressure from the home side, County went on to create a number of chances but failed to find a breakthrough.
Jordy Hiwula, Jordan White and Yan Dhanda were all denied by fine saves from Killie goalkeeper Zach Hemming.
Mackay took encouragement from the opportunities the Dingwall outfit were able to fashion.
He added: “After the goal they definitely came into it, and that’s when we were under the cosh for a period. I thought we dug our way back out of that again for the last 10 or 15 minutes of the first half, and that’s where we had the three chances.
“To finish the way we did in the first half, I was pleased and buoyed. I said to them ‘let’s go for the second half.’
“I thought we were terrific in the second half. We showed real character. To come here and create the amount of chances we did, I can’t ask for any more than that.
“We’ve obviously got to be more clinical. That’s clearly without doubt.
“But if we were coming away from that having not created anything, I would hold my hands up.
“Maybe they were taking me too literal because I told them to make the goalkeeper make saves – and he made about five.”
Killie boss Derek McInnes was pleased to gain revenge on the Staggies, who triumphed by the same scoreline through a late Owura Edwards strike when the sides met at Victoria Park in August.
Although Ross Callachan had been dismissed by that point, McInnes felt the midfielder and defender Jack Baldwin should have been shown red cards earlier in the match.
Both players went on to receive retrospective bans from the Scottish FA.
The former Aberdeen manager said: “There was a lot of satisfaction from that win because we felt really angry at ourselves and frustrated with some of the decisions up at County last time.
“We lost a late winner. It was a sore one to take, a long journey back and a tough few days after that.
“County should’ve been down to nine men, we were angry about that and we mentioned it.
“It’s only by winning today that we started to feel a bit better about that result.
“We showed good moments in the first half and showed real togetherness and steeliness which does no harm for the players – seeing games out at Premiership level.”
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