Mackay takes heart from the match statistics
Malky Mackay is still waiting for his first league victory after seven matches as Ross County manager but he praised his players to the hilt following defeat at Fir Park and remained optimistic they will move away from the foot of the table.
County have taken just three points from a possible 21 and face Dundee United at Ross County on Saturday but Mackay has seen enough green shoots of recovery to have left Lanarkshire in a buoyant mood.
“We probably gave our best performance of the season,” he said. “I believe it was 55% possession and 16 shots to eight, away from home against a team sitting near the top of the league. So I have got to be happy with the way we played.
“I realise you have got to turn those chances into goals but we are creating more chances than we’ve created for a while – and that’s going back to last year.
“If we keep playing the way we are then we’ll be OK.”
County recovered from a poor start to push the home side all the way and Mackay admired the way his players stood up to the Steelmen.
“We knew what we had to do, we knew how Motherwell would play,” he said.
“You have to stand up to the challenge and win your first and second balls against them because they have some big men and they make it difficult for you.
“You have to defend properly and then we got the ball down and managed to find areas where we could expose them. We did that regularly.
“I look at performances. In the first six games we’ve played the top six and created chances against them all. We had nine counter-attacks against Celtic and we should have scored.
“In every game we’ve either scored or should have scored. I would be struggling if we were playing well and not creating chances but we’re creating a hell of a lot. I’m very proud of the way they played against a team that is flying high at the moment.
“For us to come here and have 55% possession and 16 shots to their eight says a lot about our lads. OK, we have to start converting some of those chances into goals but if we can maintain this form then we’ll do that.”