Ross County “know they have let themselves down,” said coach Don Cowie, who is calling for a positive response to the League Cup embarrassment.

The Premiership side were knocked out in the last 16 after a 1-0 defeat to League Two side The Spartans and Cowie said “everyone was unhappy”.

But the manager insists his team must make up for the mistakes of their flop against the part-time Edinburgh players when they return to action with a league game at Hampden on Saturday and a home game against Aberdeen before the international break.

“The fans are rightly dissatisfied,” said the Staggies boss. “We are all dissatisfied, we are an honest group and an honest football club and we know when we have disappointed ourselves.”

“The fans came and supported us as they always do and, like us, they thought this was a great opportunity to progress in the cup.

“We can now put that right with a view to the league season by showing them that this defeat hurts us.”

Henderson scored his goal just 20 seconds into the second half, heading home a fine cross from Jamie Dishington.

“The frustrating thing is that we conceded a goal so early after half-time,” added Cowie. “We’ve spoken about the fact that we didn’t give them any motivation.”

“Conceding within 30 seconds of the restart was really disappointing, but we had more than enough time to take control of the game and we didn’t do enough. We were pumping and gasping and that is the biggest disappointment.”