| Date | Tuesday, 24 March 1998 |
|---|---|
| Competition | Scottish League Division 3 |
| Fixture/Score | Ross County 0:2 Alloa Athletic |
| Venue | Victoria Park |
| Attendance | 1,327 |
| Referee | Sandy Roy |
| Comments | Match Report Report by Mike Tremlett for the Press & Journal. Ross County 0 Alloa Athletic 2 Alloa have one hand on the Third Division championship after romping to a 2-0 win over off-colour Ross County at Dingwall last night which saw the Wasps stretch their cushion at the top of the table to eight points. County needed a win to keep their title hopes alive but there was little encouragement for a 1,300 crowd looking for the Dingwall side to produce a win which would have taken them above second-placed Arbroath and back into contention. Alloa's opening goal in the 10th minute was simplicity itself. Irvine chipped a free kick from the left on to the head of Ramsay, who arrived late and unchallenged to glance a neat header inside the far post. In the 72nd minute the game was over as a contest after Mark Wilson burst through from the halfway line and his pass left Irvine to draw Walker off his line and stroke Alloa 2-0 ahead from 15 yards out. County's one and only clear scoring chance came two minutes into injury time when Adams hit the crossbar with an angled 12-yard shot and Campbell, following up, saw his low drive parried on the line by Alloa keeper Cairns. Ross boss Neale Cooper said: "That's the first time I've been really embarrassed by a County performance. We looked like lambs for slaughter virtually from the start. "We missed a great chance to haul Alloa back to just a three=point lead and and now we're nine behind, a massive gap to bridge. But we've got to start trying to do that against Dumbarton on Saturday but we won't be doing it with a side that was so embarrassing tonight." |
| Ross County | |
| Manager | Neale Cooper |
| Starting 11 | 1: Joseph (Nicky) Walker, 2: Mark Haro, 3: William Furphy, 4: Stuart Golabek, 5: David MacKay, 6: Steven Ferguson, 7: Franck Escalon, 8: Roy McBain, 9: Gerard Farrell, 10: Derek Adams, 11: Connor Campbell |
| Bench | 0: Alexander Taylor, 0: Garry Wood, 0: Jamie MacPherson |
| Alloa Athletic | |
| Manager | Tom Hendrie |
| Starting 11 | Mark Cairns, Lloyd Haddow, Mark Nelson 1, Craig Valentine, Steve Ramsay 1, Mark Wilson 1, Stuart Wilson, William Irvine 1 1, Paul Simpson, Gregor McKechnie, Mark Cowan |
| Bench | David Pew, James Gilmour, Martin Cameron |