Wednesday 26th December, 2012 at 9:15pm
It was a clearly frustrated Jackie McNamara that spoke to the press after yesterday’s 2-1 defeat by Morton; a game that he clearly felt should have been won long before the Morton equaliser.
“I think to say that the game should have been dead and buried before Morton scored would be a good take on the game. We were a bit unlucky at times; there was the shot that came off the inside of the post and I think that Steven Craig scored a perfectly valid goal. He’s not looked at the goalie when he put the ball in the net.”
Jackie continued;
“I thought that there were a lot of baffling decisions today. There were bookings for our players while others didn’t get punished. I thought there were a lot of inconsistencies today. Look at the booking of Aaron Sinclair when the boy has run into him. Then after that the boy pulls him back and the referee gives the free kick but there’sno booking, then he stands in front of the ball in the last minute. I thought that a lot of things went against us today but credit to the lads they kept going and we might even have snatched a draw when we were down to ten men again.”
Ross Forbes’ red card was in many people’s eyes a fairly soft sending off. Said Jackie;
“I didn’t see the first yellow card to be honest, I didn’t even know that he had been booked.”
The manager bemoaned a couple of missed opportunities at the start of the second half.
“We had a couple of good chances at the start of the second half but even in the first half I felt that we should have been further ahead. Steven Craig did really well to set up Ross Forbes and it was a really good save from the keeper with his foot and Erskine’s has deflected just past. I can’t fault the players for effort, we’re just disappointed in how it finished for us. It was a good chance for us to extend our lead at the top. First half I thought that we passed the ball in difficult circumstances. We knew that their threat was going to come from second balls, diagonals and set pieces.”
And what is the latest on Steven Craig whose loan spell will end at the end of Saturday’s game with Airdrie United.
“We hope to keep him. Obviously things need to be sorted out with Ross County and I think that is between Steven and the club at the moment. I thought Steven did really well for us today. As well as the goal there was the header from a good ball in from Aaron Muirhead and obviously there was the disallowed goal which I felt was a valid goal. He could have had about 4 goals today. I thought that his all round work rate was excellent. Obviously it was difficult for him when we went down to ten men and he was isolated up front but I thought that he worked away well.”
Although defeated yesterday the manager was still pleased to be able to welcome some players back following injury
“It was a big plus being able to bring Sean Welsh back in although I thought Stephen O’Donnell looked a little nervy when he came on.”
After losing the equaliser the manager made a couple of changes soon after but before they could make any impact the whole shape of the game changed with the ordering off of Ross Forbes.
“It was difficult as I had just made the changes. Although they kept one man up front they were getting more of the ball and we weren’t passing the ball as we had been in the first half. That’s why I brought on Sean as an extra midfielder and moved Stuart Bannigan a little over to the left.”
