Ross County manager Stuart Kettlewell says the Staggies must earn their own luck as they seek to return to winning ways in the Premiership.
County’s 2-1 loss to Dundee United on Saturday was a fifth consecutive league outing without a victory, in a run which stretches back to a 1-0 triumph over St Johnstone on September 19.
The result sees the Highlanders drop to eighth in the table, although they remain only two points adrift of the top half of the table.
Despite the defeat Kettlewell was encouraged by his side’s performance at Tannadice, arguing the Dingwall men merited a point from the game.
Kettlewell insists the Staggies cannot afford to feel sorry for themselves however, ahead of their crucial next match at home to Livingston on Friday.
Kettlewell said: “I know teams will be looking at us, saying ‘they were good again, they played some lovely football.’
“Two errors of judgement have cost us a point, which is what I felt would have been the minimum we deserved through watching how the whole game panned out.
“It’s a hard one to pick the holes in and see how we’ve come away empty-handed.
“To be fair to the players, their heads did not go down. They did not feel sorry for themselves.
“It’s frustrating for me and also for the players. I saw their body language after the game with how much they put in, they never gave up right until the last whistle. I thought we were really proactive in the game.
“I feel sorry for them, and for the club in losing another game, but I can’t be too disappointed in our play.
“I felt some of our football was really good, but I need to avoid that situation where I say we have played well but lost.
“We need to change that ourselves and we can only change it with our actions on the pitch.”
Kettlewell felt the Staggies were punished for two moments of slackness against United, with Nicky Clark netting from the penalty spot before deflecting home a Mark Reynolds effort following a free-kick in the second half.
Kettlewell added: “I really didn’t feel under any pressure within the game at all.
“The two scenarios, a penalty kick and then a set piece which was very scrappy, ultimately combines to four or five seconds in the game where poor decision making in our penalty box has cost us.
“When you’re up against guys like Shankland and Clark, and your goalkeeper has not made any saves in the game, it probably tells you a bit of a story of how the game panned out.”
Kettlewell has called on the Staggies to cut out their habit of conceding penalties at crucial stages, with Iain Vigurs’ handball giving away a seventh spot-kick from their opening 13 league matches.
Kettlewell added: “It was so avoidable. We had an opportunity to clear our lines, with two players almost coming together, but there’s no pressure on either player.
“It was a different scenario with different players the previous week. There is no reoccurring theme where it’s the same player over and over again, or the same incident.
“It’s just game management and discipline to make the right decisions, and particularly inside your own penalty box.
“If we had that on Saturday at the penalty and the set play it would have been a game we could really have enjoyed and probably come out of it with at least a point.”
