Ross County forward Dominic Samuel was left wondering what could have been in his side’s defeat to Celtic at Parkhead.
County were beaten 3-0 by the Hoops, who triumphed courtesy of second-half goals from Cameron Carter-Vickers and an Albian Ajeti double.
Just 60 seconds prior to Celtic’s crucial second goal, substitute Samuel saw a goalbound header clawed away by Hoops goalkeeper Joe Hart.
Englishman Samuel felt he had done enough to score, in what turned out to be a pivotal moment in the game.
Samuel said: “As a striker, you always want to be putting those situations into the back of the net.
“I thought I would just get a connection on it and use the wet surface to let the ball skid into the goal.
“He’s a very good, experienced goalkeeper and he got down early. There was not much more I could have done other than just let it hit the target.
“It was one of those frustrating games where you have to put away chances like that.
“Throughout the whole game we had chances, and if we were a bit more clinical we could have done something.
“It’s football, I can’t dwell on the past, I just need to keep going and look ahead to Saturday.”
Samuel joined County from Gillingham in the summer, in one of Malky Mackay’s 12 new additions.
The former England under-19 international feels the new-look Staggies are showing up well, having taken two points from a difficult run of opening fixtures.
Samuel added: “It’s a fairly new team. A few players are still getting to gel with each other. I feel like once the games keep on coming we will get better.
“It’s all down to the manager. He has made us work well together, bearing in mind some of the boys have only known each other a few weeks.
“With football you have to start picking up the points sooner rather than later, but I feel like we will.
“If we are creating these kinds of chances against the bigger teams, once we start playing other teams our confidence will just shoot up.
“We are still gelling, we are getting better and I feel like there will be a game when all our hard work will come into play and we will start winning games.”
Samuel is targeting a first league win of the campaign against Hearts at Victoria Park on Saturday, with the 27-year-old adding: “Despite the fact we have not been winning games, and we have been conceding, we can always look at the positive sides.
“On the attacking side of things we have been doing quite well, but we have to start putting things into action and picking up the points.
“When we are at home I feel we can get on the front foot a bit more as a team.
“If we can take the positives from the Celtic performance, and take it into the next game, I’m sure we have a great chance against Hearts.”
