Frustration, but no negatives, for the Staggies
They went to Tynecastle as underdogs.
But Stuart Kettlewell revealed Ross County left gutted not to have taken a bite out of Hearts. The newly- promoted Staggies looked every inch an established Premiership side as they came within a post’s width of victory in the capital.
For joint-gaffer Kettlewell, their postmatch frustration was telling.
“It does feel like two points dropped but that’s probably an example of the strides we’ve made over the last year,” he said. “To come to a place like this and be frustrated tells you a story. It shows you the leaps we’ve made forward. “Anyone could see we deserved to win that. Our organisation was terrific against the ball but we just lacked that bit of end product.
“We felt we got the right players in the right positions when chances came. We just didn’t quite get that vital goal.
“When it comes to the penalty, you think that’s the moment that’s going to swing it in your favour.
“Unfortunately, Brian misses it, but these things happen. We are all in this together. Strikers miss chances, miss penalties.
“The nature of our work means we won’t stand there and berate a striker for missing a penalty.
“We can break it down to lots of other elements and say there were other good chances there. wasn’t to be.” County’s performance caused Hearts fans to turn on their own team.
As the second half wore on, the pressure on the home players grew unbearable, and it showed in their increasing lack of enterprise.
Ke t t l e we l l insisted manipulating the Tynecastle atmosphere was all part of County’s plan – and it paid off.
“We couldn’t be more proud of the players off the back of several good results before it,” Kettlewell said.
“We still felt after the penalty that we looked the team that could create another chance.
“There’s no negative spin on this for us, it’s been an excellent start. “We need to put this into perspective. I said before the game we’ve been going for pretty much a year when everyone expects us to win every single game.
“That has been flipped on its head and we’re probably not expected to get anything coming to Hearts.
“We needed to deal with that emotion of not having the favourites tag and go express ourselves, challenge ourselves to take possession of the ball in a place like this.
“We asked the players to turn the crowd slightly. I think that happened. “That shows we’ve been the team on top, the dominant team for pretty much the entire game.”
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