Motherwell boss Steven Hammell was left lamenting his side's failure to do the basics right after they switched off late on to allow Ross County's Jordy Hiwula Mayifuila to snatch a point just seconds after he came onto the field.
Stuart McKinstry struck in the 68th minute to put the Steelmen on course for their first win in seven games and a first home win since August, but Staggies substitute Mayifuila made an instant impact as he netted grabbed the equaliser 10 minutes from time after replacing Yan Dhanda.
Motherwell failed to deal with a throw-in and ex-Well player Jordan White fed Mayifuila through to score and Hammell said: "The player has come on the pitch straight away. Our setup is fine for the throw-in but we just don't deal with the basics.
"It is everything we speak about in terms of team like that who play in that style, especially in those conditions.
"It's first contact, second balls, matching runners, all that stuff. Just dealing with the basics of the game.
"That's where the goal has come from.
"The message before the game was that our attitude and application towards our defending was going to win us the game.
"The message was if we keep a clean sheet, we win this game. We felt we had enough in the team to hurt the opposition and score, which we did.
"If we could have kept the door shut we would have seen it over the line but the goal is cheap.
"We are frustrated. It's a game we should have won from the position we foind ourselves in.
"There's no doubt we should have seen that through and come away with three points.
"It wasn't going to be a classic with the conditions. The conditions were massive in the game and we weren't over complicating our game plan.
"It was about doing the basics well and trying to get the ball into areas where we could hurt them.
"I felt we did that at times. Even though the conditions were toigh we got ourselves into a positoion where we should be coming away with three points."
The result actually lifted Motherwell up to ninth, where they are tied on points with Dundee United and Kilmarmock.
But the trio are all just three points ahead of rock-bottom Staggies in what is turning into a four-way fight at the bottom of the Premiership.
Boos rang out around Fir Park at the final whistle and asked if he could understand the fans' frsutration, Hammell said: "Absolutely. It's a game we prepared well for and it went the way we thought it would.
"We got ourselves in front, scored a good goal and I thought the freshness of the new players and Max coming in helped us as well.
"We found ourselves in a position we would have been happy with before the game but it is about seeeing that out and being professional, but unfortunately we weren't able to do that."
Hammell revealed an announcement on the future of on-loan Ipswich defender Matt Penney will be made on Monday, while he is still in the market for new signings.
He added: "We are still speaking about Matt. That will get announced on Monday, what is happening with that.
"We are in dialogue with them [Ipswich] so hopefully we3 will be able to confirm that one way or another.
"I think we do still need to do a bit of business.
"In terms of competition we were a lot better today. The new signings have given us good impact but also good competition throughout the group.
"You can't concede the goals we have without looking at what we can do better."
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