Brown looks forward after draw

Rafael Benitez admitted Chelsea were outclassed by Corinthians who won their Club World Cup final 1-0 in Yokohama.

The Blues' interim boss insisted his side only had themselves to blame as Corinthians dominated the match and Benitez admitted it seemed to mean more to the Brazilians, whose physical pressing game gave Chelsea very little room for manoeuvre.

"This is the final of the World Cup for the South American teams. You could see this from the first minute," Benitez said.

"Our players have some quality but, physically, some of them aren't so strong."

Some of Corinthians' players also tried every trick in the book to get the referee on side, forward Emerson repeatedly rolling around the floor under contact.

Benitez added: "You could see they have experience and, every second, they were around the referee and doing well - and wasting [time] round near the end.

"I don't say that as a negative. They were 'managing' the game quite well."

Emerson was also at the centre of Gary Cahill's late sending off, which Benitez admitted may have been the correct decision.

"He lost his temper," Benitez said. "I didn't see it in the game, but I've seen it on the replay and it could be a red card."

Fernando Torres missed a sitter for the Blues five minutes from time and when he did find the net with a header he was ruled offside.

Benitez tried to remain upbeat: "Try to find the positives in the situation. He was there. He had the chances. He scored the goal that was disallowed.

"He has to take these chances in a final because it's not easy to create too many. If you have two or three, you have to score."

Corinthians boss Tite questioned Benitez's team changes following Chelsea's semi-final win over Monterrey.

"I was surprised by Benitez," he said. "They were a light team when the previous side was physical."

Don't miss any live and exclusive football coverage this festive season. Click here to visit Sky Sports' Festive Calendar

The visitors led when Brown was deceived by Iain Davidson's 37th-minute wonder strike but they responded strongly to level through substitute Gary Glen.

County could have even won it when skipper Richard Brittain was put through clean on goal late on only for his shot to clip the outside of the post.

Brown was not complaining afterwards though as his side had to be content with maintaining their six-point gap over Dundee in the relegation place.

"It was a great move but when he (Brittain) hit the post from what I could see I thought Rab Douglas had saved it," the former Celtic goalkeeper said.

"It is just one of those things Richard has had some great performances this season. On another day it would have crept inside the post.

"We had a few chances at the end and we could maybe have sneaked it. But the gap is still the same.

"We have a busy Christmas period - it's just a case of getting the heads down and picking up as many points as we can."

Brown admitted he had been deceived by the flight of the ball for Davidson's opener.

"New modern balls tend to swing in the air and as soon as it left his foot I thought it was going to my right but it swung the other way," he said.

"When it changes direction there is nothing you can do.

"In the first half we played as well as we could but in the second half we lifted the tempo. In the second half we created the better chances."

County confirmed before the match that Brown had signed a new deal to remain at the club until the end of the season.

"I actually signed it earlier in the week, that takes me up to the summer," said Brown, whose initial deal ran to January.

"Nobody likes to be on the sidelines, but as I've said we have a good squad and we have are a lot of boys on the sidelines who are pushing for starting places. I just think that is healthy for competition."

County travel to Brown's former club Celtic next weekend, and he admitted he was looking forward to his return.

"Everybody expects Celtic to win but shocks can happen," he said.

"We will try not to concede early goals - we will try to frustrate them a bit but you never know what will happen."

Dundee striker Colin Nish, who also missed a chance near the end, said: "Ross County could have won it in the last minute when they hit the post but I think they we could have gone 2-0 up.

"It is not a bad result coming here but I think the boys going back in the bus will be disappointed."

He added: "We've done all right recently and I can't see us going on a losing run again. The boys are defending brilliantly we just need to put the ball in the back of the net.

"Myself and the other strikers haven't been doing that in the last few games - hopefully we can get that back.

"I don't think anyone could complain with a draw but as I said if we got that goal to go 2-0 up I think that would have been good enough for us."