CHAOS ISN’T ON COUNTY
large group of punters in Victoria Park’s north stand surged forward and spilled past both stewards and police.
County players retreated amid concerns for their safety and it took a few minutes to clear the playing surface after Anthony Ralston’s goal almost seven minutes into stoppage time.
Although there is no strict liability in place in Scotland, there are SPFL rules that demands home clubs have “good order and security” in order to “prevent unacceptable behaviour”.
Defending both the club and the stewards, Mackay said: “When 3000 people decide to run out of a stand, I don’t know what you’re supposed to do about that.
“I thought Ross County stewarding and staff did everything they could in the circumstances.
“It’s disappointing, obviously, that there’s a steward that’s ended up downstairs, and another one with a broken wrist.
“They were only trying to do their jobs.
“That’s something that has maybe got to be looked at. The home club is the one that is spoken to about these things but it would be interesting to know what is supposed to happen there.
“There were plenty of yellow jackets standing in front of that stand.
“I don’t know what the effect of this is going to be. I genuinely don’t.
“Ross County staff were absolutely trying their best. Clubs have a pre-ops meeting and it was properly stewarded for the amount of people here – overloaded at the Celtic end obviously.”
Meanwhile, Regan Charles-Cook reckons it is a measure of how far County have come that they are crushed not to have claimed at least a point against Celtic.
The Highlanders were left crestfallen as Ralston netted a dramatic winner on Wednesday night.
County have been in the midst of a recent revival and Charles-Cook is in no doubt their season won’t be derailed by this cruel setback.
The Staggies have dragged themselves off the bottom and the midfielder is confident they can continue their resurgence this weekend at Livingston.
Charles-Cook said: “From where we started off at the beginning of the season, and where we are now, we have lost two in seven. One was at Rangers and the other against Celtic here.
“The important thing is how much we are making the ground a fortress here with all the fans, and how difficult it is for teams to come here.
“We don’t like to get ahead of ourselves, Celtic are still a good side.
“But when they went down to 10 men we thought we would kick on and maybe snatch a win.
“We deserved a point at least but it wasn’t meant to be.”