Dunfermline Athletic 3-0 Ross County: Boss Stuart Kettlewell issues warning as defeat against slick Pars keeps Staggies in bottom spot

Ross County slumped to a 3-0 defeat at Dunfermline Athletic, which leaves the Staggies bottom of the Championship with nine games to go.

Callumn Morrison swept the Fifers in front on 15 minutes from a swift attack and added a second goal 11 minutes later to heap further pressure on the Staggies.

Ex-St Johnstone star Chris Kane stepped off the bench to add gloss to the scoreline in a match where County had no cutting edge for all their efforts.

In what was Dunfermline’s first win over County in 15 years, it was a victory which pushed the fourth-placed hosts two points clear of Ayr United, who drew 1-1 at Arbroath.

County remain 10th, behind Airdrieonians on goal difference and two points below Queen’s Park, who are in the safe position of eighth.

Under manager Stuart Kettlewell, who replaced Tony Docherty going into the new year, County have improved in terms of results and clean sheets, with six shutouts from their last eight league games before this midweek game.

Four wins from seven Championship matches, boosted by such an impressive shut-out record, has given the Dingwall side a fighting chance of surviving a second successive relegation.

Wholesale changes needed after wins?

Coming off the back of a 2-0 weekend win against Raith, the display angered Kettlewell, who is frustrated by the lack of consistently positive results.

He said: “My biggest bugbear really starts to sit with the fact that it’s three games I’ve lost in my time here and it’s been off the back of victories, it’s been off the back of good results, a couple of them away from home, I think once maybe at home, and we can’t back it up. We don’t have that level of consistency.

“I’ve just said it to the players here and it’s not an empty threat — we would need to start to look at wholesale changes off the back of victories because we’ve already shown that we don’t have that level of consistency, be it psychologically, physically, technically, to go and back it up again and go and do it again.”

‘Gifted goals’ frustrates manager

And Kettlewell was disappointed by the reaction from the players after falling behind to two goals in the first half.

He added: “Dunfermline deserved their win. We can start to talk about margin of victory and all the rest of it. You make two errors that lead to goals in the fashion that we do, give them a head start, give them an advantage in the game, it becomes an uphill struggle.

“We can debate it, I think it’s a clear foul for the lead up to the third goal on Jayden Carbon, but you’ve not got a leg to stand on when you’re already two down and they’re comfortable in the game of football, so I’m not going to start going down that route.

“From my side of it, the errors are frustrating, they’re annoying when you gift up goals in the fashion that we do.

“What’s more startling for me is the reaction — the lack of belief, the lack of personality to be able to go and try and fight back from a goal down or two goals down and give everybody, give me, give them, give the supporters something to hold on to within a game of football.”

Kettlewell stuck with the same starting XI who helped secure the 2-0 home victory over Raith Rovers on Saturday.

Dunfermline, who host struggling Aberdeen in Saturday’s Scottish Cup quarter-final having knocked out top-flight Hibs already, went into this clash on the back of a 1-0 home win against Queen’s Park which took them back into the top four.

And their manager Neil Lennon made six changes to his starting line-up, perhaps with one eye fixed on the Dons cup fixture as well as being in the midst of playing six games within an 18-day period.

Nine games without losing to Pars

The Pars’ last win against County came in March 2011 in a Division One game when Martin Hardie scored a 90th minute in Dingwall.

Since then County had won seven of the meetings, with two draws maintaining that run before this midweek East End Park clash.

With now interim Aberdeen assistant boss Tony Docherty watching on, Dunfermline took the lead on 15 minutes after they won possession from Ross Docherty in the County half.

[Source: Press and Journal]