Andy Kirk says St Johnstone need to learn lessons to stop future leads slipping

St Johnstone caretaker manager Andy Kirk said his players need to learn lessons to prevent future leads from slipping after conceding a stoppage-time equaliser to draw 3-3 at Ross County.

The Perth side had been 3-1 up in Dingwall after two spectacular free-kicks from Nicky Clark, only for late goals from Alex Samuel and Akil Wright to salvage a point for the Staggies.

It was an almost-appropriately-turbulent end to a troublesome week at McDiarmid Park that saw former manager Craig Levein lose his job, and Kirk admitted his players were hurting at the manner of the result in the changing room afterwards.

“The players were obviously not happy with the situation, but they put in a power of work and to not take all three points is hard to take,” he said.

“It’s not the first time, so we need to learn from it.

“The players were rightly angry. We got ahead thanks to two wonderful strikes from Nicky Clark, so we should be coming away with three points.

“It’s the players who are suffering at the moment on the pitch. It feels like we’ve come away with nothing, and that’s hard to take.

“They need to start demanding more from each other on the pitch. I have no issues with their application during the week, but at key moments during the game it’s hurting us.”

Ross County boss Don Cowie, meanwhile, felt his side could have gone on to claim all three points after equalising in stoppage time.

“It was a strange game in terms of us being in control and looking comfortable and threatening,” he said.

“We probably should have been further ahead than the one goal we had, but we weren’t clinical enough and we got punished.

“We showed great character to get a point out of the game, which is the least we deserved. It’s a massive positive, because it didn’t feel like a 3-1 game at that stage, but we kept going.

“We went with three up front to try and get back into it, and Alex pops up with a great header to make it 3-2 and that galvanises the group.

“It helps when you see there’s nine minutes of stoppage time to keep going, and Akil pops up with a fantastic header to get us a very valuable point.

“I think the momentum was there for us to try and win the game, but there wasn’t enough time for that. Overall, I’m just delighted to get it back to 3-3.”