Ross County must navigate a relegation play-off for a third successive season after finishing the Premiership season with a 1-1 draw against Motherwell.
The Staggies needed to defeat the Steelmen, and hope Dundee fell to defeat against already-relegated St Johnstone, in order to avoid finishing in 11th place.
Although County started promisingly and took the lead through Ronan Hale, their prospects never looked likely given Dundee had already taken an early lead at McDiarmid Park by then.
Dundee went on to claim a late second goal, however, the Staggies could not see their own lead out, with Motherwell substitute Moses Ebiye coming up with a leveller seven minutes from time.
It means County are back in the play-offs, and must now prepare to travel to Livingston for Thursday’s first leg, before the Lions make the trip to Dingwall a week on Monday.
We look at three talking points from the 90 minutes at Victoria Park.
Ross County made promising start – but Dundee breakthrough never made great escape likely
Ross County took early command of the game against Motherwell, fully aware of the requirement to secure nothing less than all three points.
They threatened with some early chances, with Hale seeing an effort turned behind by Well defender John Koutroumbis, Will Nightingale nodding over following a set-piece, and Michee Efete seeing his strike palmed to safety by Ellery Balcombe.
News of Lyall Cameron’s 28th minute opener for Dundee had a muting effect on the Victoria Park crowd, however, it did not last long as County went ahead in stunning fashion just moments later.
A loose pass from the visitors was intercepted by Akil Wright in the middle of the park, before he slid in Hale to thump a sublime strike high past Balcombe – who got a touch on it but could not keep it out.
Even if their fate was not in their own hands, the breakthrough put the Staggies in a fine position to end their winless run.
Disappointing drop in levels in second half
Although the combination of results was not going to be enough for Ross County, they still needed to see out their own lead in order to keep up the pressure on the Dark Blues.
The home side made a slack start to the second half which Well increasingly took control of, with Jordan Amissah making a number of saves, and Tom Sparrow seeing a goal ruled out for offside.
Motherwell’s breakthrough came through Ebiye when he nodded home from close-range on 83 minutes.
The Staggies were ultimately fortunate to come away with the point, with Ebiye missing a glorious chance moments later.
Cowie was frustrated with the drop off in the second half – but insists the damage to the Ross County’s automatic survival hopes was done in the run of seven defeats which preceded the two draws they finished the season with.
He said: “We find ourselves in the play-offs not because of today – it was on the previous two months of results that haven’t been good enough.
“The disappointing thing from today was that I thought the first half was as good as we’ve been. We were good on Wednesday night, but today was the next level.
“We got the goal we deserved through Ronan, which was a real positive, but in the second half we didn’t do enough to win the game of football and we were probably a bit fortunate to come away with a draw in the end.
“The first halves are a reflection of what we’re capable of when we’re connected as a team and play together.
“We were really good, and that was probably symbolic of some of our performances throughout the season when we’ve got it right.
“We need to put more demands on ourselves to do it over 90 minutes, and we need more impact from players coming off the bench.
“As you see, the squad is really thin with some academy players, and that’s where we are.
“We need to all be together to get ready for Thursday.”
In-form Livingston await in play-offs
The Staggies must now defeat an in-form Livi side over two legs in order to retain their Premiership status.
County are well-versed on what lies ahead of them following two differing experiences of the play-offs – having staged a remarkable comeback to defeat Partick Thistle two years ago, before cruising to victory over Raith Rovers 12 months ago.
Livingston defeated Partick Thistle 4-0 on aggregate to set up the tie, and also have experience of defeating County in Dingwall already this season in the Scottish Cup – albeit after extra-time.
Cowie added: “They are a good team, and they will have a confidence about them.
“They are in good form, and have won lots of games of football this year.
“I’ve just said to the group that something we did really well this time last year against a really good Raith Rovers team was that we got our mindset right.
“We knew what was coming, and we were ready to face it, and we need to do the same again this week.”
Player ratings
ROSS COUNTY (3-4-1-2): Amissah 7; Wright 6, Nightingale 7, Campbell 6; Efete 7 (Smith 63), Randall 6, Kenneh 6 (Harmon 63), Ashworth 6 (Tomkinson 82); Nisbet 7; Hale 7 (Phillips 74), Samuel 7 (White 74).
Subs not used: Ross, Robesten, Williamson, Coyle.
MOTHERWELL (4-2-3-1): Balcombe 6; Koutroumbis 6, O’Donnell 6, Seddon 6, Wilson 5 (Thompson 46); Halliday 6 (Maswanhise 81), Zdravkovski 5 (Andrews 56); Miller 7, Slattery 6, Dickson 5 (Sparrow 46); Armstrong 6 (Ebiye 70).
Subs not used: Oxborough, Paton, Ebiye, Williamson, Forest.
Referee: Don Robertson
Attendance: 4,178
Man of the match: Josh Nisbet
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