Ross County midfielder Jordan Tillson out to erase agony of ‘worst low’ of being thrashed by Motherwell
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JORDAN Tillson admits he plumbed the depths emotionally on Tuesday evening after his worst experience as a Ross County player.
A painful Tuesday night gave way to a galling video recap of the 5-0 thrashing on Wednesday morning as the committed midfielder and his team-mates endured the post-mortem and relived a disastrous second-half showing.
Motherwell led 1-0 at the break, but there was little in the game and nothing to hint at the rout about to unfold as Kevin Van Veen ran amok with a hat-trick amid other goals from Callum Slattery and Joe Efford.
It was an inept display, Malky Mackay’s heaviest defeat since taking over as manager in June last year and County’s worst home beating since Celtic stuck five past them in September 2020.
Tillson, the former Exeter City midfielder who arrived at the club in January 2020, admits the players must make sure it proves the low watermark for the season.
“It is a sore one to take. We had a real go in the first half and I thought it was quite even, although they took the lead from the penalty spot,” the Bath-born 29-year-old said. “In the second half, we just didn’t come out of the traps.
“We’re going to have to use this to learn. It is obviously not good enough.
“We have to go again and this has to be a reset button now for our season.”
While the outcome was more devastating, there were similarities to Saturday’s match against Hibs, where County failed to muster a reaction to an early second-half goal.
“We conceded early in the second half and, again, we never recovered,” Tillson said.
“We can’t let it happen again. In football, there are highs and lows and Tuesday night was a real low, but we need to learn from it.
“It is probably as tough a night as I’ve had since joining Ross County.”
All eyes will now be on how County perform away to Livingston on Saturday, a team now seven points above them with a game in hand.
County, three points above bottom side Dundee United – who also have a game in hand – and two above second bottom Kilmarnock, will be desperate to avoid any larger gap opening between the bottom three and the rest.
“We have to get ready for Livingston now. We will look at what happened against Motherwell and get ourselves back up for what is another really important match for us,” Tillson said.
“I think we can look back and learn from it, but we need to draw a line under this and get back on it for Saturday.”
