Date	Saturday, 07 March 2026
Competition	Scottish Championship
Fixture/Score	Arbroath 0:0 Ross County
Venue	Gayfield Park
Attendance	1,395
Referee	Calum Scott
Comments	Match Report Report by Paul Chalk for the Press & Journal. Arbroath 0 Ross County 0 Ross County had two players sent off but held third-placed hosts Arbroath to a 0-0 draw to move off the foot of the Championship. A red card for young on-loan Preston midfielder Kaedyn Kamara in the first half put the Highlanders up against it, although they far from folded after that setback. In the closing five minutes, County midfielder Ross Docherty was also sent off for another poor challenge, but the visitors held on for a point. With Queen’s Park beating Airdrie 1-0, County moved off the bottom of the division, leapfrogging the Diamonds by one point. With eight fixtures to go, they are now three points behind Raith Rovers and Morton, with the former having played one match fewer. County manager Stuart Kettlewell said he had no issue with either red card. However, he claimed a home player swung a punch after Docherty’s challenge which left the ex-Partick Thistle and Dundee United man sporting a black eye when leaving Gayfield. When asked about the dismissals, Kettlewell said: “They’re both red cards for me. “I always try to be as honest as I can. I think we always try and fight our corner. “Kaedyn Kamara is a young player that’s on loan. He sees the ball. He thinks he can get to it. He lunges and he catches the player, so no question mark about that. “Ross Docherty has piled so much into the game, as he has done since I’ve come in, and he knows he’s wrong to go as two-footed. It’s a kind of scissor motion and referees are now going to send you off for that. “But what I do take exception to is him being punched at the other side of it, so when the two players are there and he’s got a black eye now, and he’s being punched, clearly punched, and I can see it for the technical area. “I would expect the referee and the linesman who’s directly in line with it to be able to see that.” When asked which Arbroath player he felt swung a punch, he added: “I’m not going to start throwing other players under the bus, but there’s a punch there, anyone who wants to see the video will be able to see it as well, so that’s what I take exception to.” Tuesday’s slack display in a 3-0 loss at Dunfermline Athletic gave Kettlewell plenty of food for thought in terms of his team selection. In the end, he opted to make four changes, with defender/midfielder Josh Reid, midfielders Kamara and Dean Cornelius and Jayden Carbon brought in, with Sean Mackie, Jamie Lindsay, Jay Henderson and Uche Ikpeazu dropping to the bench. It was a first start for Kamara since his January loan switch from Preston North End, while it was a second start for Middlesbrough loanee Carbon. It was also the first start for Reid in County colours since December 2024, having been on loan at Championship side Partick Thistle last term, where he suffered a hamstring injury. The 23-year-old only returned to the fold last weekend with an appearance from the bench in the 2-0 win against Raith Rovers. Given they played with 10 men for much of the day, this was a gutsy display and County’s seventh clean sheet in 10 league games, all but one of which has come under Kettlewell’s guidance. The County boss was delighted with how his players stood up to the challenge of coping with a promotion-hunting team with the odds stacked against them for much of the afternoon. He said: “We were well organised and structured and that comes from a foundation of the players understanding what they need to do to be competitive in this league. “It’s a difficult pitch, we can all see that, so you need to be structured, you need to be organised, and you need to give 100%. “You need to pour everything out there, and the players were doing that at 11 men, they’ve certainly done it with 10 men, going down to 10 in 22 minutes, and I thought that they were very good with that when it went to nine men as well.” Third-placed Arbroath, who had beaten County in all three meetings this season, were looking for the victory to keep Dunfermline in the rear-view mirror. The gap between those teams is now seven points, with the Pars having a game in hand. It was the hosts who were first to have a go when Gavin Reilly lashed a shot on target after collecting a throw-in, but goalkeeper Trevor Carson gathered it comfortably. Carbon drew a save from Aidan McAdams soon after this with a low shot as County soon settled into the contest. On 22 minutes, Kamara was given his marching orders by referee Calum Scott after his mistimed challenge brought Craig Watson to ground as the Arbroath midfielder headed towards the County box. There seemed to be no real disputes from the 20-year-old as he headed off the park with his shirt over his head, frustrated no doubt with his decision. Aaron Muirhead volleyed over the crossbar from a Reilly chest down as the Angus team sought to find an opener swiftly after the red card flashpoint. Overall, it had been a tame first half overall, with not a lot of quality to match the endeavour. The second half followed the same path, with a Carson one-on-one save from Reilly on 58 minutes keeping the scores blank. Phillips forced a save from McAdams when he met a cross from Gallagher, but it was an easy enough take for the hosts’ number one with eight minutes to go. With five minutes to go, Docherty was given a red card after his challenge on sub Scott Robinson was deemed reckless, an incident which led to clashes between plenty of players on both sides. Sub Dow almost clinched the win for Arbroath, but knocked a late chance over the top deep in stoppage time.
Ross County
Manager	Stuart (Ketts) Kettlewell
Starting 11	30: Trevor Carson, 4: Akil Wright, 5: Levis Pitan 1, 6: Connor Randall 1, 8: Dean Cornelius 1, 12: Jayden Carbon, 23: Ross Docherty 1, 24: Kaedyn Kamara 1, 26: Jordan White, 31: Declan Gallagher 1, 43: Josh Reid
Bench	21: Bradley Foster, 2: Ben Crompton, 7: Jay Henderson, 9: Uche Ikpeazu 1, 11: Kieran Phillips, 15: Dylan Smith, 27: Ryan Duncan, 38: Jamie Lindsay, 62: Sean MacKie
Arbroath
Manager	Colin Hamilton
Starting 11	Aidan McAdams, Craig Watson, Thomas O'Brien, Aaron Muirhead 1, Jack Wilkie, Jacob MacIntyre, Ryan Flynn, Scott Stewart, Findlay Marshall 1, Harry Cochrane, Gavin Reilly
Bench	Ryan Dow, Scott Robinson 1, Thomas Beadling 1, Jordan Pettigrew, David Gold, Dapo Mebude, Victor Enem, Tom Lang, Colin Hamilton