| Date | Saturday, 02 February 2013 |
|---|---|
| Competition | Scottish Premier League |
| Fixture/Score | Ross County 2:2 Heart of Midlothian |
| Venue | Global Energy Stadium at Victoria Park |
| Attendance | 3,903 |
| Referee | Stephen Finnie |
| Comments | Match Report Report by Charles Bannerman for the BBC. Ross County 2 Heart of Midlothian 2 An Iain Vigurs strike right at the death grabbed a point for Ross County and denied Hearts victory. Rocco Quinn's deflected shot opened the scoring for the home side after 20 minutes but Michael Ngoo equalised. Jamie Walker headed Hearts ahead but Vigurs' equaliser came in the second minute of stoppage time. Both keepers made vital saves in a game where victory by two or more goals would have lifted Hearts into the Scottish Premier League's top six. Instead, John McGlynn's side move up to eighth, while Derek Adams' County remain 10th but are now 15 points clear of bottom club Dundee. Hearts had a number of early chances, beginning with a move which involved Danny Wilson and Billy King before Jason Holt shot wide. Ryan Stevenson was next to come close for Hearts and King then pulled one of the game's several great saves out of Mark Brown. County won a series of corners and their fourth one led to the opening goal. Vigurs found Quinn and his 15-yard shot eluded Jamie MacDonald after a hefty deflection. Stevenson fired wide after a through ball from Marius Zaliukas but then supplied Ngoo for the leveller, the striker cruising past central defenders Grant Munro and Scott Boyd to beat Brown. Next it was MacDonald's turn to star with a great save from Quinn. The second half was a good deal less entertaining than the first until 62 minutes when Fraser Mullen's cross found Walker six yards out to put Hearts in front. The keepers were then back in business when Brown pushed Stevenson's effort round for a corner before MacDonald saved from Paul Lawson and then Brown got a hand to an Andy Webster effort. By now County were throwing everything they had at Hearts and it paid off in stoppage time when the ball seemed to spend an eternity in the Hearts box before presenting itself to Vigurs for a tap-in to finish. Ross County manager Derek Adams beamed with pride after his side fought back to claim a draw against Hearts and continue their unbeaten run in 2013. Iain Vigurs' injury-time leveller secured a 2-2 draw in Dingwall. "We've done exceptionally well and against a lot of good teams and we've picked up a lot of points over the last four games," Adams told BBC Scotland. "We've been very competitive and I'm just delighted with the performance levels of the team." Despite moving 15 points clear of bottom club Dundee, Adams insists the threat of relegation remains. "Of course it is and it is not just for the teams in the bottom six but there's teams in the top six that'll be looking over their shoulder as well," he explained. "There's teams that are picking up points and we're trying to catch the teams that are above us and we've done that today. "We want to stay in the SPL, we want to move up and be successful." Adams made several signings during the January transfer window and the County boss feels the player pool has shaped up well for the rest of the season. "We've got a Swiss, a Greek, two Scottish boys, we've got a Canadian that can come in and then we've got a German up front," he added. "Into that, we've got some Englishman and Irishmen as well. "When you talk about money, the foreigners are fine but when you talk about running and hard work, then they go a bit deaf! "It's made us stronger as a group. We've moved on nine players, we've taken in five. We do look like a strong unit and we've got that togetherness that has taken us this far." |
| Ross County | |
| Manager | Derek Adams |
| Starting 11 | 25: Mark Brown, 4: Grant Munro, 5: Scott Boyd, 8: Paul Lawson 1, 10: Richard Brittain, 11: Iain Vigurs 1, 12: Rocco Quinn 1, 17: Samuel Morrow, 18: Evangelos Oikonomou 1, 21: Alex Cooper 1, 22: Mihael Kovacevic |
| Bench | 1: Michael Fraser, 7: Stuart Kettlewell, 13: Andre Hainault, 15: Steffen Wohifarth, 20: Gary Glen, 23: Archie Macphee, 26: Tony Dingwall |
| Heart of Midlothian | |
| Manager | John McGlynn |
| Starting 11 | Jamie MacDonald, Danny Wilson, Andy Webster, Jamie Walker 1, Marius Zaliukas, Fraser Mullen, Ryan Stevenson, Jason Holt, Callum Tapping, Michael Ngoo 1, Billy King |
| Bench | Mark Ridgers, Darren Barr 1, Mehdi Taouil, Andrew Driver, Dylan McGowan, John Sutton, Arvydas Novikovas |