MOTHERWELL goalkeeper Mark Gillespie apologised to his side’s supporters after the Steelmen crashed out of the Scottish Cup with a dismal display against Championship leaders Ross County, but he was perhaps the only member of his team that had nothing to be sorry for.

If it wasn’t for Gillespie, indeed, the 2-1 scoreline - which flattered Motherwell – could have been a fair bit worse.

As it was, a second-half Brian Graham double was enough to see County into the hat for the next round despite an injury-time consolation from Motherwell youngster Jake Hastie.

For the home crowd, an afternoon that had started with a huge sense of anticipation as Gboly Ariyibi and Ross McCormack made their home bows ended in a deep sense of despair as the memories of their trips to Hampden last season now seem a lifetime ago.

“That was hugely disappointing,” said Gillespie. “We’ve let the supporters down and our dressing room was silent after the game.

“Individually and collectively, we need to look at ourselves in the mirror. We have no excuses - they were the better team and they deserved to win.

“After what the club achieved last season, we’ve missed an opportunity here. The lads will remember last season for the rest of their lives and, if the fans are disappointed, the players are too.

“If we knew why we were off the pace then we wouldn’t have been like that. They moved the ball quicker and we were just second-best throughout. I don’t think it was an attitude thing because we have a really honest dressing room.

“Obviously, it’s concerning but at least we’re in a position where we can improve on where we are in the league. We have good players and we can get big results – you look at our games at home against Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen where we took points.

“We just need to lift ourselves to those levels more consistently.”

Motherwell don’t have too much time to lick their wounds, with Hibernian coming to Fir Park on league duty on Wednesday night.

Gillespie is relishing the early opportunity to get the County game out of his system, and he has stressed the importance of his teammates shrugging off their disappointment quickly to avoid being dragged into a relegation battle.

“Football moves quickly, and we have Hibs on Wednesday to kick off the second half of our league campaign,” he said. “We need to be better, though, because we were miles off it against County.

“It should help having the midweek game because it means we can’t dwell on this one. We’ll look at it on Monday morning to identify what went wrong – and plenty went wrong – but, as soon as that meeting ends, we’ll turn our attention to Wednesday night.

“We can close the gap on Hibs and that will be a positive. The next three games are massive. We have Hibs, Dundee then Livingston and, if we can take two positive results, then I don’t see why we can’t make the top six.

“Having said that, if results go against us it will leave us with a lot to do. The next week can really set up the rest of the season for us.”