Ross County forward Liam Boyce refused to be disheartened despite his side failing to hold out for a deserved three points in Saturday’s 1-1 Premierhsip draw against Hamilton Accies.
Boyce had given the Staggies the lead towards the end of a one-sided first-half but the Dingwall men failed to take advantage of several chances before being punished by Ali Crawford’s late free-kick equaliser for Accies.
County had ended a 10-match winless run with a 4-2 win at St Johnstone the previous week and, despite being on course to move up to sixth had they held out for a second successive victory, Northern Ireland international Boyce is pleased with his side’s recent progress.
Boyce said: “If we had won we would have been top six, so you just know everyone is scrapping for their lives. Every team has quality players and when Ali Crawford stepped up there was nothing we could really do to stop it.
“We just had to hold up our hands as we knew we could have had the game dead and buried before that. It’s just unfortunate we didn’t.
“I think we’re on the right path. Last week was obviously a big result, going to St Johnstone and beating them there. It’s the first time we’ve beaten them there since I’ve been here.
“We just need to continue what we’re doing and keep playing. If we get those chances again next week we need to keep hitting the target, eventually it will go in.”
Boyce’s strike was his eighth of the season and he is confident the goals will flow for the Staggies if they continue to play as they did against Hamilton.
The 25-year-old added: “It’s hard to take but it’s good we’re creating chances. A couple of games ago we couldn’t score a goal but we scored four last week and we could have scored four today.
“Alex Schalk had chances, I had a chance and there were a couple of half-chances as well.
“It just didn’t seem to go in for us. We needed that second goal to settle everyone down but it didn’t come and unfortunately we couldn’t hang on.
“I thought we defended really well and it just came down to that Crawford free kick.”