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jack ross after final league match

Pleased with the performance but frustrated at the result, the only thing I could ask the players to add to their game is a little bit of ruthlessness, in terms of taking a lot of the opportunities we have been creating and managing to see out little periods in games when they come under a bit of pressure, because over the course of this game I don’t think we came under a lot of pressure apart from the start of the second half and unfortunately we conceded in that time but for the vast majority of the game lots to be pleased about, again the players energy levels, their commitment, their desire to keep playing that way, despite the game being meaningless, a lot of the football they play is terrific, created good opportunities from good play today, which didn’t always come easy for us, we could have won it at the end, Scott Hynd came on, it has been frustrating for him because we have not been able to give him the opportunities but he has a knack of putting himself in good areas, the first header he possibly was a bit disappointed but the second header was terrific but was unfortunate to see it just go the wrong side of the post.

For our point of view to finish the season unbeaten in the last five games, albeit we could have had a couple of victories instead of draws, it means the morale is good around the place, the players are finishing the season realising they are good players which maybe wasn’t the case earlier in the season, due to how the season had gone, to go the last five games unbeaten after you have already been relegated is testament to their professionalism and integrity to do things correct for the club.

We have a young squad, probably at times even I didn’t realise the age of some of the players, reflecting back to Ibrox last week, the team that finished that game was very young, albeit some of these players are not our own, they are loan players, but that is a market you must explore as well, with these younger player it would have been mentally challenging over parts of the season as how it was going the experience will help them gain confidence and belief in their abilities – Michael Duffy is possibly the case in point in that his performances have been fantastic in the last few months and I know through speaking to him, that belief is now evident in him, which great for him going forward and his appearances will attract interest from other clubs, whether his next move is with Celtic or loaned back out to a full time club, he is certainly good enough to play in the top league and he is only going to get better because he has so much to offer the game. Our own young players it has been frustrating for Scott Hynd and at times I forget how young Isaac Layne is, so pleasing for him to score he would have been disappointed he never added to it but he has not played a lot of games at this level so he is still learning. There are also other players who have impressed in training and have still to be given an opportunity which is good for the future.

My intention would be to keep the core of the team and over the next week we will have a clearer picture but I would like to keep the nucleus of what I have here because we have some good players and I also believe we have players who care about their club which is important, there are players who want to do well and have a hunger to get success back for the club and I will add the ones I’m trying to attract at the moment who I think will fit well with how I like to work but sometimes it is easier said than done and getting them, but the reputation the club has in terms of how professional it is and how it looks after its players can help us to a degree but there are always other factors as well but there are a lot of players here I really enjoy working with.