Date	Saturday, 06 August 2005
Competition	Scottish League Division 1
Fixture/Score	Ross County 3:1 Clyde
Venue	Victoria Park
Attendance	1,750
Referee	John Underhill
Comments	Match Report Report from the Press & Journal. Ross County 3 Clyde 1 Ross County were quick off the mark in their opening league match of the season. Goals from John Rankin and Alex Burke in the first eight minutes got the home side off to a flier in the First Division match against Clyde at Victoria Park on Saturday. County manager John Robertson said: "We've been working on starting games well and we did just that today and had a couple of efforts in the first 40 seconds. "We got the early goal, then another one and looked as if we were going to steamroller them. We had two or three chances to kill the game, but Clyde battled back. But we got the third goal at the right time." County made a lightning start and Burke forced a fine save from Clyde goalkeeper Paul Jarvie, then David Winters had a header cleared off the line. The opener came in the second minute when a long ball from French full back Lionel Zadi was knocked down by Stuart Taylor and Burke scooped the ball high into the net. Before the Bully Wee could draw breath, the home side struck again. Following a corner on the right, the ball broke out to Rankin and he curled a shot into the top corner from 20 yards for a delightful goal. It looked as if County were going to run up a cricket score, but the visitors gradually clawed their way back into the game and some slack defending in the 31st minute allowed Craig Bryson room to the net from 15 yards. Tom Brighton missed a great chance to level the scores a couple of minutes before the break, but his header flew wide with the goal gaping. Sean Higgins, who replaced Winters in the 55th minute, made his mark by scoring his side's third goal 12 minutes after coming on. Rankin started the move with a diagonal ball into the box and Steve McGarry's square ball across the face of the goal teed up Higgins to net from close range. Clyde substitute Joe Miller forced a couple of good saves from Ian McCaldon before the end, but County held out.
Ross County
Manager	John Robertson
Starting 11	1: Ian McCaldon, 2: Lionel Djebi-Zadi, 3: Sean Webb, 4: Neil McDonald, 5: Martin Canning, 6: John Rankin 1, 7: Stuart Taylor, 8: Mark McCulloch, 9: Alexander Burke 1, 10: David Winters, 11: Steven McGarry
Bench	0: Stuart Garden, 0: David Niven, 0: Neal Hooks, 0: Kevin McKinlay, 0: Sean Higgins 1
Clyde
Manager	Graham Roberts
Starting 11	Paul Jarvie, Neil McGregor, Eddie Malone 1, Chris Higgins, Craig McKeown, Paul McHale, Craig Bryson 1, Stephen O'Donnell, Alex Williams, Tom Brighton, Robert Harris
Bench	Peter Cherrie, Andrew Dick, Michael McGowan, Joe Miller, Roddy Hunter