Ross County manager has no complaints over final decisions for sending offs against St Mirren
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Ross County manager John Hughes had no complaints over the red cards shown to his players against St Mirren.
Josh Reid in the first half and then Ross Draper in the second were shown second yellow cards, leaving the Staggies with a mountain to climb with nine men on the pitch.
Although Hughes feels the first bookings for each man were questionable, he admits they ended up as easy calls for the referee to make for the second infractions.
“There is no finger of blame on young Josh Reid,” Hughes said.
“He’s been magnificent in the short time since I’ve come in. It’s a learning process for him.
“I’ve had a look back at the two sendings off and I just thought the first foul with Josh was a little bit soft. The ref put pressure on himself and, with the second, he has to go.
“With Drapes, I know why he is angry because he has hardly touched the guy.
“But in the aftermath he can’t raise his arms – that’s an easy red for the referee.”
What was all the more frustrating for County was that they looked the better team until those red cards.
Even with 10 men, they were by no means out of the equation, so Hughes believes that if his players had used their heads a bit more, they could have salvaged something from the match.
“Until the first sending off, I felt we were the better team,” he insisted.
“We had the better chances. We were right out of the traps and they played with everything I asked of them.
“The whole game changes with the red card and we were under the cosh, but even with 10 men I thought the spirit and desire to keep that clean sheet was commendable.
“We were up against it, so we went kamikaze at the end.
“If we had just kept it at 1–0 for a spell, I think we might have given them a wee bit of a fright. I think we just ended to be a little bit more streetwise.”
While red cards limit Hughes’ options at Hibernian tomorrow, he at least hopes to have some players back from injury.
“We can’t have red cards, that’s not acceptable,” he said.
“We need everybody on the training pitch, but one or two of them are coming back – Charlie Lakin will start training and Connor Randall is back too.”
