County pay the penalty for missed chances
ROSS COUNTY fans’ European dreams are on hold after a controversial second-half penalty put Motherwell in the Europa Conference League driving seat.
Referee David Munro’s decision to award the visitors a 67th-minute spot-kick following Alex Iacovitti’s challenge on Kevin van Veen could have far reaching consequences for County.
But manager Malky Mackay refused to pass judgment until he had a chance to examine the TV evidence. He said: ‘I am not going to say yes or no, as I was in the same position as you guys. Even from there the camera angle wasn’t good. I’m sure there might be another one on television.
‘But my boy is saying he kicked the ball on to their player. It’s a huge decision from the referee. It’s not the first penalty he has given against us this season. But we will wait and see.
‘I’m more interested in the fact that we did enough to win the game, and it’s really on ourselves. We had a lot of chances and we have to be better than that.
‘It’s a tough one to take. We saw how Motherwell set up, which meant we had a lot of the ball.
‘We had a lot of possession. We also had three great chances in the first half but didn’t take them.
‘In the second half we changed it because of how they were playing. We moved Blair Spittal into a middle position to pull strings, which worked really well. We started getting at them, with Joseph Hungbo coming on and causing them issues.
‘We had great chances in the second half, Liam Kelly pulled off a couple of great saves but we had another three or four when we didn’t test him well enough.
‘I can’t ask any more of them in terms of their effort, application and willingness to get into those areas and be brave.
‘It’s just that calmness under fire to put the ball in the net. It’s down to the next couple of games.’
Motherwell boss Graeme Alexander added: ‘We have looked at it and it is a clear penalty. Kev had just come on a few minutes before but if it is one man you want to take a penalty, then it’s him.
‘He is as cool as you like, has great technique and lives for those moments.
‘We did great to get into the top six and the opportunity is now there for us, Dundee United and Ross County to get European football.’