| Date | Saturday, 15 September 2001 |
|---|---|
| Competition | Scottish League Division 1 |
| Fixture/Score | Ross County 2:1 Inverness Caledonian Thistle |
| Venue | Victoria Park |
| Attendance | 4,414 |
| Referee | Willie Young |
| Comments | Match Report Report by Dave Edwards for the Press & Journal. Ross County 2 Inverness Caledonian Thistle 1 Two goals in a four-minute second-half spell earned Ross County their first home victory over local rival Caley Thistle since Neale Cooper took charge at Victoria Park five years ago. After the final whistle, a delighted Cooper said: "Last Saturday's dismal performance against Clyde had put a lot of pressure on everyone but I couldn't have asked for any more from my players. "They did everything a great deal of passion to really have a go at Caley Thistle in the second half and that was the telling factor. "Richard Hastings' cross into the box for Stevie Ferguson's opener started the ball rolling and then Alex Bone went round the keeper for the second. "Caley Jags had nothing to lose after Bobby Mann got sent off and they pulled one back to make it a long last 12 minutes." Goal hero Steve Ferguson added: "I was lucky enough to get on the end of a great cross from Richard Hastings and I was delighted to see my header fly into the net. "There's been a lot of pressure on the manager over the last week but a midweek cup win over Brechin and this victory over Caley Thistle has defused all that." The Highland derby caught fire in the 63rd minute, when Hasting's cross was met perfectly by Ferguson and his header gave Jim Calder no chance. Within a minute, a Ferguson shot hit the underside of the bar and three minutes later Alex Bone rounded Calder to slip the ball into the unguarded net from an acute angle to give County a 2-0 lead. Inverness skipper Bobby Mann was sent off 12 minutes from time for a second bookable offence card when he scythed down Mark Perry. But 10-man Caley Jags still managed to set up a nail-biting finish when Barry Robson hammered an unstoppable drive past Tony Bullock. Caley jags manager Steve Paterson said: "It's funny how you can have a good spell when you're 2-0 behind and down to 10 men, but we'd already lost the game in the opening 20 minutes of the second half. "For me, the game really turned when Dennis Wyness was clean through and missed a sitter. I thought then we could maybe end up paying for that and that's what happened. "We'd dominated the game up to that point but we seemed to get a wee bit rattled and when Bobby Mann was sent off, we had a mountain to climb." "We've had a lot of joy up here in the past and, maybe, Ross County were due the wee rub of the green they got today. It's important we bounce right back with a win over Raith Rovers at home on Wednesday night." |
| Ross County | |
| Manager | Neale Cooper |
| Starting 11 | 1: Anthony (Tony) Bullock, 2: Sean Webb, 3: Mark Perry, 4: Ian Maxwell, 5: Richard Hastings, 6: Hugh Robertson, 7: Brian Irvine, 8: Steven Ferguson 1, 9: Karim Boukraa 1, 10: Alexander Bone 1, 11: Mark McCormick |
| Bench | 0: A Trialist, 0: Don (JNR) Cowie, 0: John Fraser, 0: Steven Hislop, 0: John McQuade |
| Inverness Caledonian Thistle | |
| Manager | Steve Paterson |
| Starting 11 | Jim Calder, Robert Mann 2 1, Ross Tokely, Stuart McCaffrey, Roy McBain, Charlie Christie, Russell Duncan, Barry Robson 1, Dennis Wyness, Martin Bavidge, Paul Ritchie |
| Bench | Ally Ridgers, Stuart Golabek, Grant Munro, Mike Teasdale, Graeme Stewart |