Date	Friday, 08 February 2013
Competition	Scottish Premier League
Fixture/Score	Dundee 0:2 Ross County
Venue	Dens Park
Attendance	4,726
Referee	John McKendrick
Comments	Match Report Report by Jim Spence for the BBC. Dundee 0 Ross County 2 Ross County moved up to seventh place in the Scottish Premier League with a hard-fought win over basement side Dundee at Dens Park. Gary Harkins, back at Dundee after his spell at Kilmarnock, fired over the bar in a rare first-half chance for the home side as County had the upper hand. Paul Lawson's powerful shot rattled down off the crossbar and was deemed to have crossed Rab Douglas's goal-line. And deep into injury-time Gary Glen controlled a long kick-out to score. This was a match Dundee really needed to win yet they got off to a bad start when Lewis Toshney, on loan from Celtic, was sloppy with his back-pass to Douglas in the first minute. County midfielder Rocco Quinn was quick to pounce but the home keeper managed to race off his line to clear the danger. That signalled a hectic night for Douglas, who made good first-half stops from County's Mihael Kovacevic and Sam Morrow. As half-time neared, Harkins shifted the ball between his feet neatly to fire a fierce left-foot effort just over Mark Brown's bar. In the second half Morrow lobbed wide of the Dundee goal when he seemed certain to score and substitute Steffen Wohlfarth lifted his effort high over the bar when he went one on one with Douglas. Douglas was busy again a few minutes later, first parrying a ball away to his right and then springing forward to block a Morrow shot. Dundee had chances, though, and Brian Easton volleyed over from 16 yards on the hour mark when better composure might have helped him to find the target and John Baird also headed high over as the ball fell to him with only the keeper to beat. County were always threatening and Lawson brought a good save from Douglas in 67 minutes, closely followed by a timely Gary Irvine block from Iain Vigurs' driven shot. However, two late goals were enough to give County the points, propelling them level on points with sixth-placed Aberdeen and leaving Dundee marooned at the bottom of the table 14 points adrift of St Mirren. Manager of the month Derek Adams set his sights on a top-six finish after his Ross County team leapt from 10th to joint-sixth by beating Dundee 2-0. The Dingwall side are in their first season in the Scottish Premier League and look certain to achieve their aim of avoiding relegation. "We knew if we won tonight we'd be five points off second place and 18 points off bottom," Adams told BBC Scotland. "The top six is a possibility. The better we do, it could become reality." Adams, the Clydesdale Bank Premier League's top manager for January, watched his team have the upper hand in the first half at Dens Park, with Rab Douglas by far the busier goalkeeper, saving from, among others, Mihael Kovacevic and Sam Morrow. However, Dundee and County were level at the interval and the match seemed to be heading for stalemate until Paul Lawson scored his first goal of the season with 10 minutes remaining. His rifled shot from the edge of the box came down off the crossbar and was judged to have crossed the line. Gary Glen controlled Mark Brown's long kick-out in injury-time to move away from on-rushing keeper Douglas and knock the ball home to seal the points. Television replays of Lawson's goal were inconclusive, but the County boss was in no doubt the correct decision was made. "The television pictures have told us tell us that it was over the line," he said. "We hit the woodwork a couple of times and we worked Rab Douglas more than Dundee have worked Mark Brown so overall I think we deserved to win tonight. "We have moved to equal on points with Aberdeen. We have gone above Dundee United, Hearts and Kilmarnock tonight. "For us in our first season in the SPL we have acquitted ourselves exceptionally well. "There are a lot of bigger clubs in the Premier League, with a lot of history, but we are an up-and-coming club that has good foundations." County now have 32 points from 25 games, while Dundee languish on 14 points, meaning it is almost certain that Adams' side will not be making a swift return to the First Division. "We all always complain that we don't have the resources, all us managers, but we have very good players and plenty of organisation and they have a great willingness to do well," said the proud Dingwall boss. "It's do with passing and keeping the ball. It's [the training routine] probably a wee bit military. "We want to improve and to do that we need to have repetition. We should be doing it at a younger age. "At the start of the season we wanted to stay in the SPL and that is still our aim."
Ross County
Manager	Derek Adams
Starting 11	25: Mark Brown, 4: Grant Munro, 5: Scott Boyd, 8: Paul Lawson 1, 10: Richard Brittain 1, 11: Iain Vigurs 1, 12: Rocco Quinn, 17: Samuel Morrow, 18: Evangelos Oikonomou, 21: Alex Cooper, 22: Mihael Kovacevic
Bench	1: Michael Fraser, 7: Stuart Kettlewell, 13: Andre Hainault, 15: Steffen Wohifarth, 20: Gary Glen 1, 23: Archie Macphee, 26: Tony Dingwall
Dundee
Manager	Barry Smith
Starting 11	Rab Douglas 1, Gary Irvine, Declan Gallagher, Lewis Toshney, Brian Easton, Iain Davidson, Kevin McBride 1, Gary Harkins, John Baird, James McAlister, Colin Nish
Bench	Alex Baird, Matthew Lockwood, Kyle Benedictus, Nicky Riley, Ryan Conroy, David Morgan, Mark Stewart