Ross County interim proud of Staggies performance despite coming away from Aberdeen empty-handed in Premiership relegation battle crunch match
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Don Cowie was proud of his Ross County players’ performances despite their 2-1 defeat to Aberdeen at Pittodrie.
Simon Murray had equalised for the Staggies after Bojan Miovski’s early opener, but Jamie McGrath scored what would prove to be the winning goal inside the last 15 minutes, leaving County six points behind their hosts in the league table.
For large parts of the afternoon, the Aberdeen supporters were frustrated with how the game was going, which Cowie took as a compliment.
Indeed, he felt that the level of performance showed that County have more than enough to stay in the Premiership for next season – although he acknowledged that they needed to start picking up more points on the road.
“I thought it was a really good performance, the team responded well to a poor start,” Cowie reasoned.
“We were spooked in the first 10 minutes but the response was excellent and we deserved to go in at half time level.
“I felt we could go onto to win it, but if you don’t win it you have to make sure you don’t lose - and unfortunately that’s what we did.
“We are disappointed we didn’t get anything but I am proud of the team for the way they played.
“It’s a team working really hard for each other and with real quality at times too, but you need to get points from good performance at the end of the day.
“We have a group who can score goals and have shown over the last seven or eight games we can be dangerous, but we need to start picking up points away from home. At home we’re on a really good run but away from home we have played well but had nothing to show for it.”
On paper, it would be easy to think County are now in a two-horse race to avoid the relegation play-off place.
While one point separates the Staggies from St Johnstone, the pair are two results away from Aberdeen and Motherwell.
Cowie, though, insists anything can happen when teams in the bottom half of the table meet again post-split.
“I felt comfortable and you could sense within the stadium we were playing well,” he added.
“I’m watching a team defending well through games but it’s moments of concentration.
“Nine times out of ten Loick clears it off the line and the second goal, it was a bit too easy to get into our box.”
