Rice won't blame keeper as Accies slump at home to Staggies

County make perfect start with two wins out of two

Author: Clyde NewsPublished 8th Aug 2020

Brian Rice refused to point the finger of blame at Hamilton goalkeeper Ryan Fulton for the mistake which handed Ross County a 1-0 victory.

The former Liverpool youngster spilled an Iain Vigurs cross with 15 minutes left and looked on in horror as Billy McKay fired home the winner in the Scottish Premiership contest.

Rice, however, was in forgiving mood as he insisted his number one had been impeded.

But the Accies boss hit out at the rest of his team for their failure to respond to the Staggies' late strike.

Rice - whose side have now lost both their first two fixtures - said: I'm not going to be too harsh on the goalkeeper.

He made some good saves earlier and I actually think David Moyo headed the ball out of his hands.

Unfortunately they both went for the same ball and they collided with each other.

What disappointed me most was our reaction after they went ahead. We were too naive and picked the wrong option too often when we had dangerous players on the park like David Templeton.

We need to be more streetwise if we want to start picking up points.''

County now sit joint top of the table after they followed up Monday night's win over Motherwell by claiming another three points at the Foys Stadium.

They now have a run of four winnable games, with Kilmarnock and Dundee United set to visit Dingwall before the Staggies head for St Mirren and Livingston.

But boss Stuart Kettlewell is refusing to get too excited just yet.

It's a brilliant win on the road,'' he said.We got two away wins last year and now we've already got one this season.

What I don't want to do is be sitting here in months' time looking for my next one.

I've just said that to the players about trying to push boundaries and see where that will take us.

We've got this result today but now we've got two home games and we need to look at how we can piece together some sort of home record.

We're not going to get carried away. I've been stung by things like that before.

I'm not one for shouting my mouth off and I don't want any of my players doing that either.

We show everyone respect. Kilmarnock is our next game at home and will be a tough one.''