Date	Saturday, 13 November 1993
Competition	Scottish Qualifying Cup
Fixture/Score	Ross County 2:1 Huntly
Venue	Borough Briggs
Attendance	3,000
Referee	J. Timmonds
Comments	Match Report Report by Mike Tremlett for the Press & Journal. Huntly 1 Ross County 2 After Extra Time History was always going to be made one way or the other at Bourough Briggs in Saturday's Qualifying Cup final, but there will have been few in the near-3,000 crowd brave enough to predict the drama which unfold along the way. After the best north soccer showpiece in years, the outcome was a classic and a case of the biters bitten as Huntly--last season's masters of the last-gasp lifeline--lost out to a Ross County side with the odds stacked against them. Victory for full-strength Huntly would have made them the first club to successfully defend both the Tennents Highland League Cup and the Qualifying Cup. County had not won the trophy for 20 years and their build-up had been a nightmare of cancelled training sessions, injuries and a flu epidemic which held the Dingwall camp in a vice-like grip last week. Things did not improve much for them in the first half-hour of Saturday's final, because it looked as though the Strathbogie side's name was on the trophy as Huntly came out with all guns blazing. Brian Thomson and Gary Whyte both hit the woodwork and chances fell to Marco de Barros, Martin Stewart and Eddie Copland as Huntly created chance after chance, while goalkeeper John Gardiner blunted County's threat with two tremendous saves at the other end. County's chances looked even slimmer when playmaker Gordon Connelly departed with a broken nose and centre half Johnston Bellshaw limped off with a hamstring injury, but Bobby Wilson's men simply tore up the script. They looked down and out trailing to a 78th-minute STEWART counter, but Barry Wilson slung over a cross from the left in injury time, Brian Grant knocked it inside and Alan DUFF, who just scraped through a morning test, sent the final into extra-time. Two superb saves from County keeper Steve Hutchison denied Huntly a crucial second goal early on and then, nine minutes into extra time, Bill Ferries found GRANT with a great cross from the left and the County striker stroked the ball home at the near post. The drama of it all clearly got to County manager Bobby Wilson, who had filled a glaring gap in his personal haul of North honours by finally winning the only major Highland trophy which had escaped him. He said: "After the horrors through the week with training cancelled on Tuesday and little more than a photo-call on Thursday due to flu and injuries, I'd almost given up hope. "But, as so often happens in football, the nightmare became a fairy tale, thanks to a great effort from every one of my players. They had to dig deep into their reserves of character for every minute of the game. "In the end, Huntly probably had the better of the game but they didn't put the chances away and we simply never gave up. "I'm delighted for the players. They were heroes down to the last man and I'm over the moon for the County officials and the supporters because it was a victory we can all savour for a long time." Every one of Wilson's men put on an epic performance but victory must have tasted particularly sweet for the vastly underrated Sandy MacLeod, who underlined his growing stature with a rock-like performance in the County defence. And no one wore a grin wider than Billy Ferries, who turned on a livewire performance which proved that the tricky Tain player has clearly won his two-year battle for fitness. While cock-a-hoop County carted the trophy back to Dingwall, where a police escort waited to lead them on a triumphant procession through the streets, Huntly manager Steve Paterson was left to consider how close his side came to a unique achievement. "We were seconds away from rewriting the history books and it was all snatched away leaving us with first-hand knowledge of how Dave Watson and his players must have felt after two finals last season," he said. "I can't possibly criticise any of my players because we produced our best performance in a major final and proved that we are a better side now than we were last season. We can take some satisfaction from that."
Ross County
Manager	Robert (Bobby) Wilson
Starting 11	1: Stephen Hutchison, 2: Christopher (Chris) Somerville, 3: Cameron Robertson, 4: Robert (Robbie) Williamson, 5: Johnston Bellshaw, 6: Alexander (Sandy) MacLeod, 7: Keith (Billy) Ferries, 8: Brian Grant 1, 9: Alan Duff 1, 10: Gordon Connelly, 11: Tommy Drummond
Bench	0: Craig Reid, 0: Barry Wilson