Missing Euro spot was all our fault – Mackay
Malky Mackay admits Ross County only had themselves to blame for tumbling out of the European placings.
The Staggies’ boss remained neutral on referee David Munro’s huge and decisive penalty award after Alex Iacovitti was adjudged to have downed Kevin Van Veen in the box.
Describing the Motherwell victory as “smash and grab”, Mackay felt his players, despite wholehearted effort, should have been better on the day.
He said: “The penalty? 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.
“My boy is saying he kicked the ball on to their player.
“It’s a huge decision from the referee, I will tell you that. It’s not the first penalty he has given against us this season.
“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 a lot of possession and we’ve got to be better than that.”
Three points separate fourth-placed Dundee United and County in sixth, with Motherwell wedged in between.
But the Fir Park side still have to play Hearts and Rangers, and Mackay’s men will not give up on the chase of a historic first European placing in the Europa Conference League.
He said: “It’s a really tough one to take. We saw how Motherwell set up, which meant we had a lot of the ball.
“We shifted it around a lot, and had a lot of possession. We also had three great chances in the first half and didn’t take them.
“We had great chances in the second half, Liam Kelly pulled off a couple of great saves but at the same time, we had another three or four that we didn’t test him well enough with.
“It was a kind of smash and grab performance.
“I can’t ask any more of them in terms of their effort, application and willingness to get into those areas and be brave.
“We have two games to go, and we’ve got to give our best for two games.”