Don Cowie admits Ross County’s late-season slump is of huge concern ahead of a final three make-or-break matches.
The Staggies remain two points adrift of Dundee, berthed in the 11th place play-off spot they finished in at the close of the previous two campaigns.
A failure to capitalise on a terrific opening goal from Ronan Hale saw Hearts bounce back with a Lawrence Shankland double to inflict defeat number six in a row at the Global Energy Stadium.
Shankland also set up Alan Forrest for the killer third on another frustrating day for the County faithful.
Cowie admitted: “It’s a big concern. It’s a challenging period, and I’m not going to hide from that.
“We’ve had plenty of challenging periods as a club and I’ve had plenty in my career to get to here, so it’s nothing I haven’t faced before.
“As a group, we know what’s at stake.
“There are three games in the space of a week, and if we win all three we will be in the Premiership next season.
“That’s the challenge, and it starts against St Johnstone next Saturday.
“We knew it was going to be hard, because I believe Hearts have very good players who can hurt you.
“The first goal is important to give you that platform, and we got it, but we didn’t manage to build on it.
“The equaliser was a really easy goal, but at half time the game was in the balance.
“Ronan, after a superb first goal, has a good opportunity to score right at the start of the second half, and then we get punished at the other end.
“At 2-1, the game is still there, we’ve proven that against them this season.
“But the third goal gives us a mountain to climb.
“I’m disappointed that the first goal didn’t give us a platform to win the game.”
Staggies boss looks for a reaction
Cowie, though, has been nothing if not calm and composed in the role he took on a permanent basis last summer.
He stressed: “You’ve got to believe. I thought we carried a lot more of a threat today than we have in previous weeks.
“How the ball doesn’t go in the net in stoppage time, I don’t know, and the game would still have been alive at that point.
“(Motherwell’s win against Dundee) doesn’t feel like a boost right now, but we haven’t lost any ground on Dundee.
“They are still a target for us to chase down, and we still have to play them.
“We have to make sure that we give ourselves a good opportunity to win the game against St Johnstone next Saturday.
“If we do that, it gives us a good platform going into Dundee.”
With unrest in the air at Hearts after Neil Critchley’s sacking, caretaker Fox took the team north on a run of five games without victory.
Hearts could, uncharacteristically, fill only half the Victoria Park north stand.
Initially, however, those away fans were enthused as the visitors took early control.
Early chances saw James Penrice’s whipped cross diverted just wide by the slight touch of Jorge Grant, before Shankland miscontrolled in a good position.
Alan Forrest was also weak when it mattered with his 15-yard attempt after 20 minutes and also shot wildly over from a good position after Shankland’s knockdown.
County were full of energy and endeavour, though, and took the lead against the run of play after 26 minutes.
Nohan Kenneh did the hard graft, winning the ball and forcing it forward into the stride of Irish striker Hale.
He unleashed a brilliant angled finish from 20 yards into the bottom left hand corner of the net.
The away fans’ mood shifted immediately, with unprintable chants telling chairwoman Ann Budge to pack her bags along with cries of ‘Sack the Board’.
Shankland saw a tight-angled strike parried by Jordan Amissah and then dinked in another attempt on the rebound, only to see the German born keeper pat the ball over the bar.
Forrest then fluffed another good chance, but Hearts were level inside 40 minutes.
Shankland took a Beni Baningime pass neatly on the turn and his second touch was a sweet 16-yard shot cut beyond Amissah’s reach with casual ease.
There was a first of two rejected VAR checks on County penalty claims before the break.
County opened the second period brightly and an attacking flurry ended with Craig Gordon pulling off a brilliant one-handed save to deny Hale’s terrific strike.
But a couple of minutes before the hour, Shankland’s second seemed to knock the stuffing out of the hosts’ revival.
After patient build-up, Vargas drove the ball across goal from the right side of the penalty area and Shankland, in typical style, was perfectly-positioned to clip the ball past Amissah.
The Highlanders were creaking as their former midfielder Blair Spittal cracked the top of the crossbar from 25 yards.
A triple home substitution followed but County, while scrapping for everything, struggled to change the pattern of the game.
With County over-committed, unmarked Alan Forrest pounced for the calmly-taken killer third with eight minutes remaining after Shankland burst away on the left and flashed in a perfect cross.
It wasn’t County’s day and they hit the bar late on through Michee Efete.
The Staggies face fraught times for a third season running, despite Motherwell’s comeback win at Dundee helping their cause.
Ross County (3-4-3): Amissah 7; Wright 6, Tomkinson 6, Ashworth 7; Brown 6 (Nisbet 63), Kenneh 6 (Efete 63), Randall 6, Harmon 6 (Grieves 74, 4); Samuel 6 (Robesten 83), Hale 7, White 6 (Phillips 63). Subs not used: Ross, Campbell, Lopata, Smith.
Hearts (4-2-3-1): Gordon 7; Forrester 6, Kent 6, Halkett 6, Penrice 7; Baningime 7, Spittal 7 (Nieuwenhof 70); Vargas 7 (Dhanda 80), Grant 7, Forrest 6 (Wilson 90); Shankland 8. Subs not used: Fulton, Kingsley, McKay, Steinwender, Kabangu, Kartum.
Referee: Don Robertson
Man of the match: Lawrence Shankland.
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