Kye Rowles on Ross County wake-up call and Asian Cup aspirations

An Alex Cochrane own goal and a Yan Dandha free kick saw the visitors stun the Tynecastle crowd before goals from Kenneth Vargas and Lawrence Shankland ensured Hearts stretched the team's unbeaten run to four matches.

Kye Rowles spoke to the media after the match when he was asked about the team's below-par display against the Staggies, Hearts' reliance on Shankland and his aspirations for Australia at the 2024 Asian Cup.

Here's everything the defender had to say:

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What are your thoughts on the match?

It wasn't ideal, not how we wanted it to go down but to come back from two goals down shows the character we have in the group. But overall it was a disappointing performance.

How do you explain the poor start? Is it potentially a hangover from Wednesday night?

It's hard to say. It has been a tough schedule but everyone has the same thing to deal with. It took a while for us and the second goal was definitely the wake-up call for us that unfortunately we need today, until we started playing with that bit of urgency that we needed at the start of the game.

Looking at the positives, it was a good fightback to get the point?

Definitely. The heads could have easily dropped. The boys did well to rally round and get going. Once the first goal went in, we could feel the momentum building. Maybe in the last ten minutes, we could have had a bit more patience and picked the right chance, because I think one more goal would definitely be the decider. It was a good fightback.

When you’ve got Lawrence in your team and he’s on this run of form, you must be confident that he’s going to pull something out the bag?

Yeah, definitely. It's nice to have him, especially when he's been banging them in recently. But you can't really rely on one guy to bail you out every game. I'm happy for Kenny [Vargas] to get his goal. He took it well and maybe if we had another chance to fall to the boys up top, we would have had a third.

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You’ll probably be away for most of January, will you be nervously checking your phone to see if Lawrence is still around?

Yeah, probably! But look, that's none of my business. I'll try my best to distance myself and focus on the games with Australia.

How much are you looking forward to the Asian Cup?

I'm very excited. It's another major tournament and just to be selected for your country is an amazing thing. I wish Cammy [Devlin] was fit enough to come with me and Natty [Atkinson] which is a shame, but it's still good to go with one of your team-mates every day.

The better Australia do, the more matches for Hearts you will miss. Is that just the nature of international football?

Yeah, pretty much. It'll be bittersweet but hopefully we can go on a long run. I have full faith in all the boys. We've got everyone pretty much coming back now and this little free time in January is a nice healthy block for the boys in the physio room to get back out. The ranks should be stocked up again.

Will you be sharing a room with Natty?

Hopefully not!

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What is the expectation for Australia in this tournament?

Like any tournament, you want to go to win. I think we'll probably be up there with the countries that are expected to win. We want to go as far as we can. It would be great to lift a trophy. I've not been able to lift one in my career so far. We'll see how we go.

Are the Hibs boys travelling with you?

I'm not sure. I think I got stitched up with an early flight. I don't think I'll see anyone. I fly out on Monday morning. Straight over to the Middle East.

Will going back to Qatar bring back memories of the World Cup?

Yeah. It's been a happy hunting ground for us boys over there so hopefully we can feed off that experience and make a deep run.