Ross County let themselves down with 'soft' goals they conceded in Premier Sports Cup exit against Celtic in Dingwall, according to manager Malky Mackay
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Malky Mackay was left lamenting 'soft goals' that cost Ross County a spot in the Premier Sports Cup quarter finals.
It was always going to be a tough challenge against the reigning Premiership champions – who had most recently put nine past Dundee United at Tannadice – but the Staggies boss felt his players let themselves down with the goals that went against them.
In the end it was fairly comfortable for Celtic, who twice hit the crossbar in the opening minutes and went into half time with a 2–0 lead, but County did threaten to find a way back into the game when Alex Iacovitti halved the deficit after the restart.
A quick response from the Glasgow giants deflated their hosts in Dingwall, though, and it would be 4–1 by the time the final whistle blew.
"In the first half I thought we let ourselves down with the two goals," Mackay said.
"I thought they were soft goals to concede, they weren't top class goals from our point of view, but we stayed in the game. There are times Celtic do that and they run away with it, and what happened at the weekend can happen – we were resilient and stayed in the game.
"In the second half I made a couple of changes to go man for man all over the pitch. To do that against the champions who are playing Real Madrid next week, and play the way we did and cause the problems we did, we earned our way back into the game.
"At the moment we're the only team in the country who has scored against Celtic, and we've done it twice now.
"The momentum was with us at 2–1, so I've got to be proud of that. Their third goal is a poor one to lose as far as we're concerned, and that burst our bubble a little bit.
"At the same time, I've got great courage in my team. We've played Celtic twice now, Rangers and Hearts in the last six weeks, and at no point have we been out of these games."
"They come here going into the Champions League group stage against Real Madrid and just having beaten someone 9–0, so for Ross County to then lay a glove on them is a measure of where we've come to. That's something I want to keep pushing."
County lost George Harmon to a hamstring injury right at the end of the first half, but Mackay was yet to assess the extent of the issue and as such unable to give any indication of how long the 21-year-old will be out for.
