Date	Tuesday, 08 February 1994
Competition	Scottish Cup
Fixture/Score	Alloa Athletic 2:0 Ross County
Venue	Recreation Park
Attendance	4,189
Referee	T. McCurry
Comments	Match Report Report by Mike Tremlett for the Press & Journal. Alloa Athletic 2 Ross County 0 Every Highland League club's dream--a Scottish Cup trip to Ibrox and a six-figure cash bonanza--turned into a night-mare for Ross County at Recreation Park, Alloa, last night. The huge County travelling support in a 4,000 crowd were left to trudge wearily away after watching the last Highland representatives levered out of the competition by gritty Second Division promotion challengers Alloa. Little went right for County, who rarely prised any openings in a Wasps defence which always looked on top of the job against the County side which never fired on all cylinders. The Dingwall men's gloom was complete when Chris Somerville was sent off late on. Distraught County manager Bobby Wilson paid tribute to his players after the match. Choking back the disappointment, he said: "The players gave so much. They showed tons of character after losing two sucker goals early in the game. "We kept coming back at Alloa and, had we pulled one back before the break, it would have set up a great second half. "It speaks Volumes for my players when you think that Alloa could possibly be playing two divisions above us next season in the Scottish League." County gave their all but in the end the task proved well beyond them on a night when their incisive passing deserted them and the poise in front of goal which saw the Dingwall side rack up 15 goals on the way to the third round went missing. County found themselves with a mountain to climb with the game less than a third over after losing two goals--one from a debatable corner and one from a "soft" free kick award. The tie started to go sour after just 17 minutes when a Gavin Tait corner was knocked back across the County goalmouth by Andy Willock to scorer Mike McANENAY, who bulleted an unstoppable header into the roof of the net. A minute later, Andy MacLeod almost came up with an equaliser when he latched on to a half-cleared corner to drill in an angled shot which drew a great save from Alloa keeper Jim Butter. In 24 minutes, Alloa had one hand on that £100,000 Ibrox bonanza trip when Willie Newbigging drove a free kick against an eight-man County wall after Bellshaw was penalised for hand ball just outside the area. The ball broke to Neil McAVOY, who drilled goal No. 2 past Hutchison. It was a sad double blow for County, who kept Alloa pinned back virtually throughout the first half. County winger Billy Ferries joined four players--teammates Connelly, Bellshaw and Reid, and Alloa's Willock--in the referee's book for talking out of turn in 50 minutes. County gambled in the last half hour, bringing on striker Alan Duff in place of Ferries and skipper Cammy Robertson for Andy MacLeod. Almost immediately Robertson picked up a booking--County's sixth of the gams--as the Highlanders dug deep looking for a lifeline. Three minutes from time County's misery was complete when the tie ended on a sad note for Somerville--probably County's best performer on the night--who was shown a red card for a last-ditch tackle on Willock.
Ross County
Manager	Robert (Bobby) Wilson
Starting 11	1: Stephen Hutchison, 2: Christopher (Chris) Somerville, 3: Craig Reid, 4: Robert (Robbie) Williamson, 5: Johnston Bellshaw, 6: Alexander (Sandy) MacLeod, 7: Keith (Billy) Ferries, 8: Brian Grant, 9: Andrew (Andy) MacLeod, 10: Gordon Connelly, 11: Barry Wilson
Bench	0: Cameron Robertson, 0: Alan Duff