Don Cowie says Ross County’s shock exit to Spartans is a ‘massive blow’

Deflated Don Cowie admitted Ross County’s shock Premier Sports Cup exit away to fourth-tier Spartans was “a massive blow”.

The Premiership side arrived at Ainslie Park buoyed by a six-game unbeaten run at the start of the season and with high hopes of progressing to the quarter-finals of a tournament they won in 2016.

But they were humbled by League Two Spartans as Blair Henderson’s brilliant header 20 seconds into the second half proved enough to earn the Edinburgh part-timers a 1-0 victory in their last-16 tie.

“It’s a massive blow,” said the Staggies boss. “I said prior to the competition starting that we wanted to go far in it.

“We worked so hard in the group stage to top our group and give ourselves a great opportunity.

“We’re a Premiership team coming to a League Two team and we should be dealing with that and we’ve not. We’ve come up well short.”

Cowie conceded Spartans were well worthy of their victory.

“Full credit to Spartans,” he said. “They thoroughly deserve to be through to the next round of the cup.

“We had a lot of the ball, dominated possession but didn’t do enough with it. It’s all about them today.”

Long-serving Spartans boss Dougie Samuel savoured one of the greatest days in his club’s history.

“How does this result rank for Spartans under my watch? I think you’d have to put it at the very top,” he said.

“It’s not the most important or the most significant as that will always be the play-offs against Brechin and Albion Rovers (when Spartans won promotion to League Two last year) but this is another one we can put in the scrapbook.

“We will reminisce and have good memories about what happened today.”

Spartans will go into Sunday’s quarter-final draw knowing they are just one victory from a Hampden semi-final.

“I’d like the players to have an away tie and a big stadium against a big club but being selfish, I’d like it here in front of 3,500 and the whole community gets the chance to enjoy another special day,” said Samuel.