| Date | Saturday, 30 November 1996 |
|---|---|
| Competition | Scottish League Division 3 |
| Fixture/Score | Ross County 1:1 East Stirlingshire |
| Venue | Victoria Park |
| Attendance | 1,261 |
| Referee | Willie Young |
| Comments | Match Report Report by Neil MacPhail For the Daily Record. Ross County 1 East Stirlingshire 1 Raging Neale Cooper gave his men a 20-minute rollicking after they were held by the league's basement boys. The promotion-chasing County boss watched another two precious points slip away and blazed: "We just weren't at the races in the first half. "East Stirling came at us right from the start and we stood off them, leaving big gaps all over the park. "In the second half we came out buzzing, but then a bad mistake led to the goal. "We didn't get rid of the ball quickly enough, didn't man mark well enough and at other times we gave the ball away." Shire went ahead when David Watt pounced on a County free kick and found Scott Sneddon, who rammed the opener past Steve Hutchison. County thought they had the equaliser when a Derek Adams header crashed off the underside of the bar, but the ref ruled it hadn't cross the line. With 12 minutes left, Adams had better luck when Billy ferries left the Shire defence for dead and shot. Gordon MacDougall parried the effort and Adams was there to score. Cooper's damning verdict was in sharp contrast to that of Shire boss Billy Little, whose men have never lost in Dingwall since County entered the Scottish League. He Grinned: "I thought we were the better side. "We played for a result and I felt we could have had a couple of goals in the second half. "But this has been our problem--we can't score. "It took our centre half to get the goal, but it was a good finish from a defender. "Another plus was the fact we survived a lot of pressure." |
| Ross County | |
| Manager | Neale Cooper |
| Starting 11 | 1: Stephen Hutchison, 2: William Furphy, 3: William (Billy) Herd, 4: David MacKay, 5: Johnston Bellshaw, 6: Gerard Farrell, 7: Roy McBain, 8: Steven Ferguson, 9: Julian Broddle, 10: Derek Adams 1, 11: Keith (Billy) Ferries |
| Bench | 0: Stuart Golabek, 0: Gordon Connelly, 0: Andrew (Andy) MacLeod |
| East Stirlingshire | |
| Manager | Billy Little |
| Starting 11 | Gordon McDougall, Graeme Hamilton 1, Gordon Russell 1, Colin Campbell 1, Scott Sneddon 1, Allan Neill, Trialist, Davie Watt, Martin McBride, Paul Ronald, A Stirling |
| Bench | David Muirhead, Grant Inglis, Brian Ross |