Noah Chilvers is convinced the Premiership is yet to see the best of revamped Ross County.
The Highlanders were head and shoulders above struggling St Johnstone for most of the first half and it took a deflected goal and then two sublime free-kick strikes from Nicky Clark to create the visitors’ 3-1 lead.
With three minutes of ordinary time remaining, Alex Samuel’s header and then a 97th minute equaliser from Akil Wright salvaged a point.
On another day, it could have been comfortable for the Staggies, with Chilvers among the shining lights in another strong showing.
The 23-year-old, snapped up for a fee from Colchester United in the summer, showed finesse, aggression and pace in midfield, but blamed himself for the loss of the second goal.
Chilvers said: “From myself, there’s a lot more to come.
“I’m reasonably happy with my performances in the two games I’ve started, but there’s a lot more to come from me and a lot more to come from us as a group.
“You can see in bits of play between us midfielders where we’re really getting to know each other, linking with the strikers.
“I can see a lot more coming out in us the more we play with each other.
“Since I’ve come in, the management has been patient with me to get me up to match speed.
“I feel like I’ve positively affected the two games I’ve started.
“I’m disappointed in my role before the free-kick for their second goal – I just got caught on the ball. That can’t happen in those areas.
“But I think I’ve been positive and forward-thinking with the ball in both games. I’ll try to continue to do that.
“We’ve got a lot of players who can mix it up and do both sides of the game.
How Staggies can ‘really hurt teams’
“Today, we got a bit of success towards the end from going a bit longer. Before that, we were trying to play a bit more football.
“I think that shows we have different aspects of our game we can use to really hurt teams.
“That’s something we can mix throughout the season, depending on the opposition.”
Failure to turn dominance into Staggies victory
Despite the scoreline, the circumstances of the Saints goals were no poor reflection on the County back three.
In man of the match Wright and the excellent Kacper Lopata and Ryan Leak, the Dingwall team has a formidable defensive unit, as they showed in recent games against Aberdeen and Dundee.
For most of the first half, Saints couldn’t compete as the rock solid rearguard gave a platform for Chilvers and other attack-minded players to dominate.
The attacking midfielder added: “We were completely in control of the game. We had chances we should have taken at 1-0 to make it two and three.
“That would have killed the game, but we let them back into it.
“They seemed determined to slow the game down, even at 1-0 down.
“We need to try and not let that affect us, affect our tempo, and keep it high, which we didn’t do at times.
“That allowed their gameplan to work.
“The goal before half-time was a sucker punch after completely dominating.
“The second half I thought was more of the same, dominating the ball and dominating the game.
“It was just a few moments of sloppiness, including from myself for the second goal, but I don’t think it was a foul.
We showed great spirit and that will stand us in good stead.” Ross County midfielder Noah Chilvers
“It was two moments of quality from them to score the free-kicks, but then great character from us to fight back.
“Even in games where you’ve dominated, it’s no good if you come away with nothing.
“If we couldn’t take three, a point was what we needed.
“We showed great spirit and that will stand us in good stead.
“Last week, it felt really good to create the 2-0 lead and then hold onto it.
“On the other side of the coin, coming back to 3-3 is a good feeling as well.
“In some ways it feels like a win, but it didn’t seem like that in the changing room. You’d have thought we’d lost the game.
“Given how dominant we were, the lads felt like we should have taken three points.”
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