Date	Saturday, 18 April 2026
Competition	Scottish Championship
Fixture/Score	Ross County 2:1 Ayr United
Venue	Global Energy Stadium at Victoria Park
Attendance	2,712
Referee	Dan McFarlane
Comments	Match Report Report by Alasdair Fraser for the Press & Journal. Ross County 2 Ayr United 1 With four minutes to play until half-time at the Global Energy Stadium, it seemed like a familiar script was about to unfold. Promising start, one-goal lead, then a sucker punch to suck the life and spirit out of the Ross County squad. Only this time, the Staggies players weren’t about to lie down and accept it. Alex Iacovitti’s wonderful headed winner in the second half was not just reward for an improved performance, it was a mark of character sometimes missing in this most difficult of seasons for the long-suffering Dingwall team. The stubborn Staggies scrapped for everything and ultimately came good against a dangerous Ayr United to grasp a lifeline in the relegation battle with Airdrie. Ryan Duncan’s early strike was wiped out before the break by Alex Dowds’ dampener. But a County side heavily criticised for responding badly to adversity within matches this season showed grit and character to emerge as victors with that stunning Iacovitti header. The win left Stuart Kettlewell’s team one point behind Airdrie with two games to play, breaking a seven-game winless run dating back to the February 28 win against Raith. Kettlewell, who now awaits the visit of Morton next weekend before a last, potential pre-play-off clash with Raith Rovers, said: “I thought we had decent energy. “We got off to a good start which we always talk about as a major factor, and then we got pegged back. “It’s been a huge thing that we haven’t responded well to those situations, but we did today. “We were excellent at the start of the second half, and measured in our approach. “We had to change our goalkeeper at half time, but Brad (Foster) didn’t have a save to make. “The only frustration is taking a backwards step when we’re ahead, but we still went and took the game to Ayr – and we’re delighted to come away with three points.” ‘We can’t think about two games’ time or any other outcomes.’ Kettlewell insists the job is only a third of the way done as he targets two more victories in the bid to escape the bottom spot. The County gaffer was completely switched off to events at Airdrie, where their rivals led, then trailed Partick, before salvaging a point. Kettlewell said: “I don’t know results elsewhere until our game finishes. “That might change in the last game of the league, but we all came with a focus to do our job. “Too many times this season we’ve let ourselves down, so I enjoyed that side of it – but there’s plenty more work for us to do. “Today my message to the players was to do our job properly, and not get carried away. “We can’t think about two games’ time or any other outcomes. “We had a mission to try and max out the nine points we had to play for and stage one is done. “We won’t get carried away. We’ll come back on Monday and focus again on the task ahead of us.” Kettlewell made one significant change, with Noah Chilvers making his first start in more than a year after battling back from a devastating cruciate injury. Ayr’s John Rankin took charge of his first away fixture since filling the vacancy left by sacked Scott Brown on an interim basis. He named an unchanged team from the slender victory over Arbroath. After an energetic Ayr start, County reacted brilliantly, with a Chilvers corner in the fourth minute knocked away only as far as Ryan Duncan. The Aberdeen loanee drove a fierce strike through the crowded area to beat unsighted David Mitchell. County looked like a different beast, with Chilvers creative. But they needed their goalkeeper to deny first Jamie Murphy then Liam Dick. A great overlap run from centre half Iacovitti summed up the home spirit, taking a Len O’Sullivan pass and rattling the away defence. Dick again went close in the 35th minute, seeing his strike low towards the bottom right corner deflect just wide. From the corner, Kevin Holt’s header struck the crossbar. Iacovitti header seals home victory As news filtered through of Airdrie’s lead against Partick, County lost theirs – with a four-point swing in the table. It was a goal symptomatic of defensive weakness that has plagued them all season. Cohesion was lost as Dick thumped the ball across to find big Anton Dowds, with all the freedom he could want, striding in to stab home the leveller from six yards. County replaced keeper Carson with Foster at the break and it became scrappy for a spell. But Duncan’s right-sided cross, as a corner spun back to him, found its target as big Iacovitti rose to angle a wonderful header into the far left corner of the net.
Ross County
Manager	Stuart (Ketts) Kettlewell
Starting 11	30: Trevor Carson, 3: Len O'Sullivan, 4: Akil Wright, 6: Connor Randall 1, 10: Noah Chilvers, 11: Kieran Phillips, 12: Jayden Carbon, 16: Alexander Iacovitti 1, 23: Ross Docherty, 27: Ryan Duncan 1 1, 31: Declan Gallagher
Bench	21: Bradley Foster, 5: Levis Pitan, 7: Jay Henderson, 8: Dean Cornelius, 15: Dylan Smith, 26: Jordan White, 38: Jamie Lindsay 1, 43: Josh Reid, 45: Calum Brown
Ayr United
Manager	John Rankin
Starting 11	David Mitchell, Kevin Holt, Leon King, Liam Dick 1, Scott McMann 1, Ben Dempsey 1, Jamie Murphy, Ben Summers, Marco Rus, Stuart Bannigan, Anton Dowds
Bench	Jamie Hislop, Lucas McRoberts, Dylan Watret, Rocco Devenny, George Finney, Liam Russell, Francis Turley, Shaun Want, Jamie Douglas