| Date | Tuesday, 11 September 2001 |
|---|---|
| Competition | Scottish League Cup |
| Fixture/Score | Ross County 3:0 Brechin City |
| Venue | Victoria Park |
| Attendance | 759 |
| Referee | Brian McGarry |
| Comments | Match Report Report by Mike Tremlett for the Press & Journal. Ross County 3 Brechin City 0 Ross County made sure lightning would not strike twice in the same place last night, booking a berth in tomorrow's CIS League Cup second-round draw. An opener from Karim Boukraa and an Alex Bone double dumped Brechin City at Victoria Park. Three weeks earlier, the Third Division leaders had left Dingwall with a 2-0 Bell's Challenge Cup quarter-final victory under their belts but this time there was to be no fairy-tale win. Brechin boss Dick Campbell stuck with the side which beat Montrose 1-0 at Links Park on Saturday to maintain the Angus side's 100% league record. It meant the City line-up showed two changes--Stephen McAllister for the departed Alan Kernaghan and Roddy Black for Paul Riley--to the team which shocked County in the Challenge Cup. County boss Neale Cooper, who had seen his side score just once in First Division starts, dropped striker Steve Hislop and winger John McQuade from the side beaten 3-0 by Clyde at Broadwood on Saturday to bring in veteran defender Brian Irvine and Mark McCormick. Cooper said: "That was just what we needed--a terrific team performance and a win which we thoroughly deserved. I wanted to see the commitment and work-rate and the players responded very positively." Campbell said: "There was a lot of pressure on County and on Neale Cooper tonight and they made us look like a side which has played 10 games in seven weeks. They wanted to win the game more than we did." Brechin made the best early scoring chance when Black fired just wide from 18 yards and then Grant nodded a 23rd-minute Kevin Bain free kick into his path after County skipper Steve Ferguson was booked for a hefty foul on Chris Templeman. But County hit back and finished the first half strongly, pinning Brechin back. Boukraa fired a good chance wide in the opening minute of the first half as County's goal drought stretched to more than six-and-a-half hours but Boukraa struck in 51 minutes when he glanced man-of-match McCormick's cross home with a near-post header after the home side worked a clever short corner routine. County were 2-0 up in 58 minutes, Bone sliding the ball home from close range at the back post after Brechin failed to clear a corner. Ferguson had hit the ball across the goalmouth to find the striker all on his own beyond the last defender. Brechin sent on Moray Leask for Chris Templeman in 70 minutes in a bid to grab a lifeline but four minutes later County made it 3-0 when McCormick chipped in a free kick from the right, Maxwell nodded down at the back post and Bone forced the ball past Cairns. |
| Ross County | |
| Manager | Neale Cooper |
| Starting 11 | 1: Anthony (Tony) Bullock, 2: Mark Perry, 3: Ian Maxwell, 4: Richard Hastings, 5: Hugh Robertson 1, 6: Sean Webb, 7: Brian Irvine, 8: Steven Ferguson 1, 9: Karim Boukraa 1, 10: Alexander Bone 2 1, 11: Mark McCormick |
| Bench | 0: Andrew Shearer, 0: John Fraser, 0: Don (JNR) Cowie, 0: Steven Hislop, 0: John McQuade |
| Brechin City | |
| Manager | Dick Campbell |
| Starting 11 | Mark Cairns, Kevin Bain 1, Harry Cairney, Kevin Fotheringham, Steven McAllister, Roddy Black, Charlie King 1, Daryn Smith, Chris Templeman, Roddy Grant, Greig Miller |
| Bench | Kevin McKeown, David Craig, Paul Campbell, Moray Leask, Ben Honeyman |