Edwards strikes to give County lift-off as Killie hit rock bottom

IT took Ross County until last October to claim their first win of the season in their 11th Premiership fixture after Malky Mackay was forced to endure a nightmare start to his reign as Staggies boss.

But substitute Owura Edwards yesterday greatly reduced the waiting time to lift his side off the foot of the table.

Edwards struck in the 86th minute to earn County their first points of the campaign and send Killie crashing into bottom spot.

County were reduced to 10 men in the 81st minute when Ross Callachan saw red for hand-ball after he had also been booked in the first half for a crunching tackle on Ryan Alebiosu.

Edwards shattered Killie’s hopes of garnering at least a point from their efforts when he struck from inside the six-yard box after goalkeeper Ross Laidlaw had launched a free-kick upfield.

But even if Edwards had failed to hit the mark, the Staggies would have earned a reprieve in the shape of a penalty kick after Ash Taylor had blatantly handled the incoming ball from Laidlaw.

Derek McInnes, the Kilmarnock manager, conceded that County had been a little more streetwise.

But he was furious that Callachan had escaped with a yellow card for his first offence, insisting that it was a red all day long.

He said: ‘Callachan’s challenge was outrageous. It was a red card and, between four officials, they’ve got to have seen what I saw.

‘It is two feet, off the ground, down the back of our boy’s trailing leg. It was horrendous and it was right in front of me. There’s no excuse for the officials not seeing that as a red.

‘And if Ross County play the majority of the second half with 10 men, I do believe it is a different outcome.’

But McInnes was also critical of his players for not wising up and showing greater attacking flair.

He added: ‘I thought we really didn’t do much of anything in the first half, but negate them. We never allowed Ross County’s speed to be relevant in the game.

‘The first half was pretty even, but we were far better in the second. We offered far more and arrived time and again in their box.

‘But we weren’t good enough in their box and, as good as we were defensively for most of the game, we didn’t see off one last kick from the halfway line by their keeper.

‘We didn’t react and it is such a sore one. I feel like we’ve been mugged. I’m not going to ignore that we should be doing more in the attacking sense, but we should have got our first clean sheet of the season and I’m really annoyed.

‘As good as we were in the second half and I thought we were the better team, you’ve got to credit County for resilience with 10 men — and they found a way to win.’

Mackay had no complaints about Callachan’s red card, but claimed: ‘There were other tackles. Liam Donnelly’s arm into Callum’s (Johnson) face was a sending off and we should have had a penalty. But the opposition can claim a few things as well. I’m disappointed we

went to 10 men, but so delighted that we then took the game to Kilmarnock to go and win it.’

After three consecutive defeats — away to Hearts and St Mirren and at home to Celtic — Mackay must be hoping that this season turns out to be less stressful than the previous campaign when he performed near miracles to guide his side to a top-six finish.

He said: ‘This was always going to be a tough encounter and it was a typical SPFL game, rough and tumble. Derek’s team is big, with a physicality there and we had to match that. But I was disappointed in the first half that we created so many great little openings going forward, but showed carelessness around the edge of the box — four times.

‘On other occasions, we just got the pass wrong. It could have made it easier for us at half-time. Killie had to come out with a bit more and go long and we had to fight and scrap and win second balls.

‘But I was delighted with the character of the team to stand up to that and then still go forward and pick passes. When we went down to 10 men, they had that nerve to actually go and attack, rather than just sitting camped in.

‘I still thought that we could hurt them, even then, and eventually we did and we got the rewards for that. I liked the character that we showed.’