Date	Saturday, 04 January 2014
Competition	Scottish Premiership
Fixture/Score	Ross County 1:0 Saint Johnstone
Venue	Global Energy Stadium at Victoria Park
Attendance	3,305
Referee	Euan Norris
Comments	Match Report Report for the BBC. Ross County 1 Saint Johnstone 0 Graham Carey pounced after a defensive error two minutes from time to give Ross County victory over St Johnstone. Both sides fielded new striking additions, but neither looked like breaking the deadlock in their Premiership meeting in Dingwall. But Melvin De Leeuw stole the ball from Frazer Wright before setting up Carey to slide home the winning goal. It secured County's second straight victory and consigned Saints to consecutive defeats. Victory lifted the Highland outfit above Partick Thistle into 10th spot in the table, with the Perth side stuck in seventh. The transformation of Derek Adams' County squad continued, with Evangelos Ikonomou replacing the injured Steven Saunders in defence after returning from six months with Veria in his Greek homeland. Former Morton midfielder Michael Tidser could only make the bench after his loan move from Rotherham United. It was the imminent loss of a player that forced one of St Johnstone's two changes, with Chris Millar coming into midfield in place of Gwion Edwards, who has decided to return to end his loan from Swansea City because he wanted more guarantees of first-team starts. Despite the signing of Michael O'Halloran after the striker's departure from Bolton Wanderers, it was Nigel Hasselbaink who was given the nod up front in place of Scott Brown. Neither side was able to create more than a couple of half chances for the first 20 minutes and it was one of County's new arrivals who threatened to score from the first clear sight of goal. On-loan Blackburn Rovers striker Jordan Slew, who set up two goals in the midweek win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle on his debut, should have opened his County account but headed wide from an Ikonomou cross. Millar fired straight at County goalkeeper Michael Fraser at the other end when a cut-back might have created more realistic danger to the home goal. Slew showed his quality with a fine volley on the turn after controlling a Ben Gordon cross, but goalkeeper Alan Mannus turned it over for a corner. However, defences were on top and a fine block from left-back Ikonomou prevented a Stevie May drive reaching the County goal. St Johnstone created the first opportunity of the second half, a Millar shot missing the top corner, while Brian McLean headed over at the other end. David Wotherspoon had a sight of the County goal, but his curling drive to the back post was easily held by goalkeeper Fraser. Carey side-footed the ball home from close range when De Leeuw stole the ball from Frazer Wright before squaring it for the midfielder. Substitute Tidser went close to extending County's lead with a powerful drive, but one goal proved enough for Adams' side. Cardiff City midfielder Filip Kiss will spend the rest of the season on loan at Ross County. The 23-year-old Slovakian watched the Staggies beat St Johnstone 1-0 at the weekend and goes into the squad for Saturday's visit to Partick Thistle. Kiss moved to Wales from Slovan Bratislava in 2009 and has made 28 appearances for the Bluebirds. However, he only played in three games last season and has not featured at all during this campaign. The Dingwall club have already brought in , externalas well as Evangelos Ikonomou and Michael Tidser since the January transfer window opened. And chairman Roy MacGregor has hinted at more arrivals. "We recognised that we haven't been good enough and we need to do something about it," MacGregor told BBC Scotland on Saturday. "We need to strengthen and we need to stay in this league." County occupy third-bottom place in the Scottish Premiership and, although they hold a 19-point advantage over bottom side Hearts, the Highlanders are eager to move up to the table to avoid finishing 11th and entering a promotion-relegation play-off at the end of the season. County clinched a top-six finish in their debut top-flight campaign last term, with their form in the second half of the season proving crucial to their eventual placing of fifth. "We strived for 19 years to get here and we're not going to give it up easy," added MacGregor. "Everybody said it was going to be difficult. It's the second season and we're not unknown and we had a lot of spirit coming up from winning the First Division. "We just got a reaction and it wasn't the right reaction. "It's like anything in life, when you make mistakes you've got to challenge mistakes and do something about it and that's exactly what we're doing now."
Ross County
Manager	Derek Adams
Starting 11	20: Michael Fraser, 3: Benjamin Gordon, 4: Stuart Kettlewell, 5: Scott Boyd 1, 8: Richard Brittain, 15: Gary Glen, 16: Alex Cooper, 21: Brian McLean, 23: Graham Carey 1, 25: Jordan Slew, 26: Evangelos Oikonomou
Bench	1: Mark Brown, 6: Branislav Micic, 10: Rocco Quinn, 11: Melvin De Leeuw, 12: Michael Tidser, 18: Mark Klok, 19: Kevin Luckassen
Saint Johnstone
Manager	Tommy Wright
Starting 11	Alan Manus, Dave Mackay 1, Tom Scobbie, Frazer Wright, Steven Anderson, Chris Millar, Garry McDonald, David Wotherspoon, Nigel Hasselbaink, Steve May, Murray Davidson
Bench	Steve Banks, Gary Miller, Scott Brown, Lee Croft, Sanel Jahic, Rory Fallon, Michael O'Halloran