Ross County rally ‘too little, too late’ for Kettlewell after defeat at Killie

Stuart Kettlewell praised the impact of substitutes Billy McKay and Alex Schalk but admitted their intervention proved “too little, too late” as Ross County were beaten 3-2 at Kilmarnock.

Kettlewell and Steven Ferguson were at the helm for the first time since taking charge of the Ladbrokes Premiership bottom club last week but goals from Lee Erwin, Kris Boyd and Eamonn Brophy put Killie firmly on top.

The Staggies refused to wilt as McKay and Schalk, who were both introduced off the bench just after the hour, scored in the final five minutes at Rugby Park.

Kilmarnock ultimately held on to secure the win as County slipped seven points adrift of safety, after Hamilton defeated Motherwell, and Kettlewell revealed his frustration afterwards.

He said: “We had the late rally and massive credit to the two guys that came on and managed to grab their goals, but we just felt it was too little, too late.

“We didn’t give ourselves a chance in the game, we felt as if it almost got away from us so by the time we scored our second goal, the game was almost done.

“From that point of view we’re trying to take positives from it and the fact is that the two goals that we got late on are a positive.

“But we’re obviously bitterly disappointed, it wasn’t the way myself and Steven wanted to start. We were obviously looking to get on the front foot, there was never any secret in that but the bottom line is the game got away from us.”

Kilmarnock boss Steve Clarke, who saw his side extend their unbeaten run at home to 10 matches in all competitions, was full of praise for his team despite a frantic final few minutes.

Clarke said: “In the last five minutes we probably just lost concentration. If you lose concentration at any level in football you tend to get punished and that’s what happened.

“The actual performance of the team, from start to almost finish, was excellent.”

All of Kilmarnock’s goals came from their forwards, and Clarke added: “It’s always good for strikers to score.

“I asked Lee Erwin to play a little bit out of position to cover the left side but he did it very well and it was nice he got the goal.

“Kris will always score if you give him the ball in the box, which is what he did. And young Eamonn off the bench is always a threat and when he gets the ball and he’s in the box with a chance to shoot, he normally hits the back of the net so that’s good for us.”