DON Cowie argued that his Ross County players didn’t deserve to lose to Celtic by three goals today and branded the final scoreline in the William Hill Premiership match at the Global Energy Stadum “harsh”.
The Highland club were level with their Glasgow rivals with 10 minutes of the game in Dingwall remaining after substitute Jordan White had cancelled out Kyogo Furuhashi’s opener in the second half.
But Furuhashi netted a second and Arne Engels, who converted a penalty at the second attempt after referee Matthew MacDermid ruled that goalkeeper Jordan Amissah had moved off his line at the initial attempt, and Luke McCowan then scored in injury-time.
“I'm really frustrated and disappointed for the group,” said Cowie. “We were level with 10 minutes to go so it was harsh for the scoreline to finish the way it did. It's harsh on Jordan especially given the way he performed.
“But the rest of the group put their bodies on the line and tried to make it as difficult as possible for Celtic. I am really frustrated because I don't think they deserved that when you look at the effort they put in.”
Cowie confessed he was surprised that Celtic right-back Alistair Johnston wasn’t booked after conceding a penalty with a shove on County substitute Kieran Phillips.
“I just assumed he got booked,” he said. “When you get told you don't make a genuine attempt to win the ball then it's an automatic booking. The fact that he's made contact by pushing would suggest it should have been penalised. I genuinely wasn't aware at the time, I just assumed it was a booking.”
Cowie was also disappointed that match official MacDermid awarded the visitors a penalty for a foul by James Brown on Yang Hyeon-jun in injury time after watching a replay of the challenge on his pitchside monitor.
“James makes a genuine attempt to get the ball, misses it initially and then tries to scoop his leg around the Celtic player and makes slight contact,” he said. “I always think when the ref has to look at it as many times as he has, he's maybe not sure that it's a penalty.
“But it's a decision and you have to move on. There's nothing I can do about it, there's nothing the boys can do about it.”
