Stuart Kettlewell calls for a response as Ross County drop to the bottom

Ross County boss Stuart Kettlewell called for a reaction from his players after defeat to Aberdeen saw his side drop to the foot of the Scottish Premiership table.

Curtis Main netted from close range after just five minutes to set Aberdeen on the road to victory, and hit a second on the turn in the second half to seal his side a first win in five games.

Kettlewell said: “It’s been a bad day at the office. I was frustrated with the start of the game, but I thought we grew into it and in the second half we had a decent control of possession.

“We lost two soft goals. Losing one from a set piece and is a major frustration, and the second goal comes at a time when we’ve just had a good chance to equalise and feel as though we’re edging our way back into the game.

“There’s no luck going for us at the minute and we can feel sorry for ourselves or we can pick ourselves up, get our shoulders back, our head up and work hard and go again. Only ourselves can turn things round.

“Results today put us to the bottom of the table and we can’t hide from that fact.”

Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes was full of praise for Main, who took his chance after a frustrating period with injuries.

McInnes said: “We’d looked at the way Ross County played in the last two performances, in particular how they were difficult to break down.

“We wanted to have a number of ball carriers in the team in terms of speed, and Curtis was a good foil for that as we needed someone to hold the ball in and link the play up.

“Any team can only be as good as their number nine and when you have a lot of supporting players as we have, that main position is very important.

“Curtis has had thigh and hamstring niggles that have caused him to miss too many training minutes this season.

“He led the line brilliantly and was a pivotal part in us winning the game.”