| Date | Saturday, 20 April 2002 |
|---|---|
| Competition | Scottish League Division 1 |
| Fixture/Score | Ross County 1:1 Ayr United |
| Venue | Victoria Park |
| Attendance | 2,822 |
| Referee | Michael McCurry |
| Comments | Match Report Report by Paul Third for the Press & Journal. Ross County stretched their unbeaten First Division run to 14 games in this typical end-of-season encounter. Now County boss Neale Cooper faces a big week as he begins contract talks with seven unnamed players. Cooper said: "Hopefully, I can sit down this week and get on with signing talks with the seven players who are out of contract. "This is a big week for everyone at the club and I want to keep all the boys. I'm not looking at bringing in any new players at the moment, but it will depend on how talks go this week. "Martin Prest, Karim Boukraa, Ramiero Gonzalez, Cedric Anselin and Mark McCormick have all left the club and I've decided to go with the players I have here." Cooper has urged his players to think carefully. He said: "Scottish football is going through a recession and the players have to realise there isn't the same money available. I have been given a budget by the board and it doesn't bend. There are going to be hundreds of players available in the summer and I need to know this week which of my players want to stay at the club. "If they have better offers elsewhere, then I'll wish them all the best but the market has changed dramatically in recent months." Cooper has taken heart from the impressive unbeaten run and believes there is much to look forward to at Victoria Park. He said: "I'm disappointed in the manner we lost the goal as we seemed to switch off. I thought we deserved to win the game, but we're still in joint third. "Fourteen games unbeaten is a major achievement for any club. In January we were sitting bottom of the league and to go a third of the season undefeated is superb. If we can keep the squad together over the summer, I'm confident we can do even better." Ayr boss Gordon Dalziel took the opportunity to field some youth players and he singled them out for praise. County opened the scoring just before half-time when Don Cowie played half-time when Steve Hislop and County's top scorer turned his defender to fire the ball low past Craig Nelson for his 17th goal of the season. Ayr were far more direct in the second half and they grabbed a deserved equaliser eight minutes from time when Stewart Kean ran on to Robert Bruce's cross to fire the ball past home keeper Tony Bullock. |
| Ross County | |
| Manager | Neale Cooper |
| Starting 11 | 1: Anthony (Tony) Bullock, 2: Martin Canning, 3: Mark Perry, 4: Richard Hastings, 5: Hugh Robertson, 6: Ian Maxwell, 7: Brian Irvine, 8: Kenneth Gilbert, 9: Don (JNR) Cowie, 10: Alexander Bone, 11: Steven Hislop 1 |
| Bench | 0: Leslie Fridge, 0: Sean Webb, 0: Bryan Dlugonski, 0: Steven MacKay, 0: Conor Gethins |
| Ayr United | |
| Manager | Gordon Dalziel |
| Starting 11 | Neil Duffy, Craig Nelson, David Craig, John Robertson, Marc Smyth, Lee Sharp, Paul Sheerin, Scott Chaplain, James Grady, Scott Crabbe, Stewart Kean 1 |
| Bench | John Dodds, Craig Stevenson, Aaron Black, James Latta, Robert Bruce |