Brian Graham believes County can take positives from Saturday’s defeat to Hibernian, but admitted that they shot themselves in the foot.
He stated: “I just think when you’re on a football pitch it does not matter the football score you’ve got to keep going, you’ve got to have the belief that you can try and get back into it, it wasn’t to be today, we’ve been great up until this point, bitterly disappointed, when you’re playing against a good side, who are as fit as they are, as athletic as they are, as quick as they are, you cannot gift them goals, i feel as if we’ve shot ourselves in the foot today (Saturday).
The striker added: “The manager said after the game that we didn’t make it a cup tie because of the manor we ship the goals in the first-half, we then changed shape second-half, listen we take the positives out of that we don’t concede another goal but we did want to give our fans something to cheer, we wanted that goal, but at this level you can’t make silly mistakes because you get punished and that’s what’s happened today (Saturday), David Gray’s going down the road happy, they’ve got themself into the semi-final, but for us, we regroup very quickly, we’ve got a massive game come Tuesday night, but yes it’s a bitterly disappointing afternoon, but it won’t define our season.
Graham on the learnings that County can take going forward: “Of course there is, listen it doesn’t matter what age you are, if you are at my end of the footballing career, or these younger boys who are just starting their football career, everyday is a learning day, we’ll go over the game and we’ll pick out where we can get better, we know the manor we lost the goals was very, very cheaply and that’s what’s probably hurting right now and it will over the course of the night, but we’ve got to put it to bed very quickly, as i said, that game on Tuesday night, the game in hand we’ve got in the league, where we’ve got three points to go and join Hamilton so we need to make sure we go and win that game against Queen of the South,
Graham added: “Going back to today’s (Saturday’s) game, if you look at the stats, i don’t think there’s much in the game and that’s probably the annoying part, from our side, where there’s not a lot in the game, the game was kind of going back and forward, but when they’ve got that quality, whereas we’re getting the ball in the final third, we’re making that wrong decision, you’re taking that extra touch, you’re no getting by these guys with that, the athleticism they’ve got, the power they’ve got, you need to touch and play and that’s a learning curve for the younger players that are in the squad because if they want to get aspirations to go to that level, then they’ll need to take a lot from the game today, because everyday is about learning and developing, these guys are playing at the top level for a reason.
Brian Graham has enjoyed a stellar career and at thirty-eight years old the striker is still keen to create more footballing memories.
Graham stated: Probably last season with Falkirk when we lost to Dunfermline that was probably the bitter blow because you’re at Hampden, you’re at a semi-final, you’re probably favorites to get to the final, that was probably the bitter blow, that was my last hope of getting to the national final, but listen I’ve been lucky over the course of my career, I’ve won the League Cup, I’ve played in the Scottish Cup Final, so, I’ve been very lucky, some people don’t get to experience the joys that I’ve had in football and i want to continue having more, it doesn’t matter that I’m thirty-eight, i still really enjoy coming to work, i show enthusiasm every day and when you’ve got these younger boys round about you, they give you that buzz and belief to keep going, we have a laugh about it everyday.”