DEREK ADAMS fears he has almost certainly lost midfield mainstay Stuart Kettlewell for the SPL opener after a dodgy red card against Dutch side Den Bosch.

Ross County closed their tour of Holland with an impressive performance marred only by poor
refereeing from whistler Rutger Bekebede.

Tempers flared as decisions got more controversial and Kettlewell walked for a lunge that may have merited only a yellow.

The midfielder will be suspended for the August 4 opener against Motherwell if, as expected, Bekebede reports the incident.

While there was delight at the County performance, there was disappointment at the costly decision.

Adams said: “It was a good test for us and we enjoyed it. You hope the ref keeps his cards in his pocket in a friendly match but we knew what could happen before we played.

“He will probably have to file the report. That’s what he was saying afterwards, so I expect Stuart to miss the opener against Motherwell.

“That is difficult for us and we didn’t want something like that to happen on the eve of the new season.”

There was a hardy band of eight Staggies followers making the trip for County’s first-ever match in Europe.

Fears that the famous Dutch technical ability would overwhelm County quickly subsided as the Highlanders kept and moved the ball impressively.

And the they took the lead in 25 minutes.

Superb build-up play ended with an expertly dinked Jimmy Scott ball behind the defence.

Colin McMenamin was deadly as he tucked a shot past keeper Bruno Appels from 10 yards.

A minute after the re-start, Den Bosch levelled with an angled rocket from sub Randy Wolters.

Kettlewell then copped a straight red for a lunge into a tackle on Wolters.

Against a tiring 10 men, Maarten Boddaert drilled the home side’s winner four minutes from time.