Manager disappointed with Ross County defeat to Arbroath saying it is poorest performance since he took charge
Ross County manager Tony Docherty described their 3-0 defeat against Arbroath as their poorest performance since he has been in charge.
The defeat means Ross County are in eighth place in the Championship, only one point above the relegation zone and seven points behind the top four.
Speaking after the game to Ross County social media, Docherty said he did not see that manner of defeat coming at Arbroath.
He said: “I am really disappointed as that is the poorest performance that I have had from the team since I have come in.
“I didn’t see that coming in, we came into this game with seven points out of 12 with momentum behind us. In terms of the form guide we are behind St Johnstone on goal difference.
We had a good training week, we set the team up that way. Conditions were poor with a strong wind. But we didn’t cope with the conditions at all and for an experienced group of players we should be doing better than that. We lose a poor goal and drop a midfield runner and too deep in the box allowing a shot. It is the first shot on target in the match, going one behind you are up against it but I expect my team to come out and get into good areas and we did, but we snatched a lot of things.
“We made changes at half time and brought in Ross Docherty to get more control. But we never quite did that and the goals we lost were poor and we picked up injuries during the match.
“It was a bad day, but credit to the players that they showed the momentum and it is important we get back to that as soon as we can.”
Docherty said the key to improving the season is momentum and they will look to get a good run of results.
He said: “The reason I am here is the inconsistency and it is something I am scratching my head at as I did not see that performance coming.
The training week on the back of a strong performance at home was good.
“The message I gave to the players was good but I felt the execution of the game plan was poor. Of course wind plays a part, but we need to be better than that, but it is a poor defeat.
That is the job now, nobody is feeling worse about this myself and players should feel the same, we’ve really let ourselves down.”