We had the drop on Hibs
Watson admits County wasted a big chance to escape danger
1 2 ROSS COUNTY HIBS SCOTT BURNS AT THE GLOBAL ENERGY STADIUM
KEITH WATSON concedes Ross County blew a massive chance to dodge the drop.
The struggling Staggies barely got to celebrate Billy Mckay’s 50thminute finish as a controversial penalty won and buried by Martin Boyle hauled Hibs back into it.
Substitute Kevin Nisbet tucked away Paul Hanlon’s cross in the 60th minute as John Hughes’ 10thplaced side lost their game in hand.
Their only saving grace came in West Lothian where Hamilton lost to Livingston to ensure the bottom three remained static.
County haven’t won back-toback league matches since the first two rounds of fixtures in August.
And Watson admits a failure to string two results together means they have been unable to give themselves any breathing space in their bid to make it backto-back seasons in the top flight.
The 31-year-old defender said: ”We beat Celtic, get beat at St Mirren, beat Kilmarnock and then lose this week.
“It’s disappointing because if you could pick up two wins on the bounce, it would be massive.
“If you can go on a wee run with a few wins, then you can push up the table. We were looking forward to the game, we fancied ourselves and we’re gutted because we put so much into that second half.
“There’s no change at the bottom. But that was our chance to go seven in front of Kilmarnock and six in front of Hamilton.
“It’s not quite worked out the way we wanted but they haven’t gained on us either, so we look forward to next weekend.”
That will see a trip to St Johnstone before the split as County look to win in Perth for the second time this term.
Watson said: “We’ll keep going, keep working hard and move on to St Johnstone.
“We fancy ourselves going into every game and we need to.
“We had a decent record against Hibs this season already and them coming up to our place, we really fancied our chances. Going 1-0 up, we should probably do better because two minutes later we go and concede, which is disappointing. “But we can’t dwell on it too much because we’ve got massive games coming up and we need to be ready for them.” County know there are still high stakes to play for but were toothless in the first half. Jack Ross’ Hibs were far more threatening, only for the home side to score with their first serious attack when Jordan Tillson’s cross was deftly headed on by Jordan
White for Mckay to smash home. It should have been a springboard but instead was short-lived after Alex Iacovitti’s challenge on Boyle.
Hughes accused him of diving – “the last time I saw a dive like that the boy had Speedos on” – but the Australia international got the full support of his own gaffer.
Watson believes it fell into the extremely dubious category.
He said: “I’ve not seen it back but at the time I thought big Al got a foot on the ball, Boyle has kind of got his body in and given the ref a decision to make.
“And he couldn’t wait to blow
his whistle, to be honest.” Boyle was on a booking when he went down looking again and Watson reckons he could easily have gone.
The former Dundee United fullback added: “If you dive in the box it’s a yellow card, a second yellow card and you should be off the park.
“You need decisions to go your way. He was already booked and if he dives in the box it should be a second yellow.
“Not long after that they go 2-1 up, that’s the difference and in football you need things to go your way. On Saturday they didn’t.
“It’s disappointing and it would be nice to get a few decisions going the other way for a change because we’ve not had much.”
Watson is well aware his side need to be streetwise and take something from games in which they go ahead.
County went close to a leveller but White’s header hit a post and he sent another at Ofir Marciano after the goalie had foiled Watson.
Staggies keeper Ross Laidlaw foiled his former side as Hibs were stopped from scoring three in a game for the first time since putting four past Accies in December.
Watson said: “The boys are really disappointed. In the first half we had to dig in because Hibs were the better team but we got in at 0-0.
“Second half we had chances and went 1-0 up. We threw everything at it and were one v one at the back at times. Conditions were tough as well, which didn’t help.
“The boys gave it everything trying to get that equaliser. We’ve had chances and it just didn’t fall for us.”
This result leaves Hibs six points clear of Aberdeen, with third spot now theirs to throw away.
As for County, they would be happy enough with third bottom.