| Date | Saturday, 20 August 2005 |
|---|---|
| Competition | Scottish League Division 1 |
| Fixture/Score | Ross County 0:0 Hamilton Academical |
| Venue | Victoria Park |
| Attendance | 2,240 |
| Referee | Douglas McDonald |
| Comments | Match Report Report from the Press & Journal. Ross County 0 Hamilton Academical 0 Hamilton keeper David McEwan stood between Ross County and victory with a string of super saves, preventing John Robertson's side going clear at the top of the First Division. County's Maciej Nuckowski, making his home debut, was the biggest culprit in front of goal. The Pole missed a sitter six minutes into the second half and failed to beat McEwan with a close-range header late on. Robertson, although disappointed at dropping two points, was encouraged by his team's performance. He said: "Hamilton had a couple of good chances in the first 20 minutes and hit the post, then we dominated the rest of the first half and had two or three chances of our own. I thought being level at the break was about right. "But after Ian McCaldon made a good save early in the second half we really dominated and David McEwan made about half-a-dozen great saves. "We played the way we wanted to. It was high tempo and we created lots of chances and lots of good football. We just couldn't find the killer touch." Accies started well and Brown Ferguson was unlucky with a drive that shaved the outside of McCaldon's right hand post. But County stepped up a gear and McEwan made his first save of note when he got a hand to a goal-bound effort steve McGarry before scooping over a low shot from John Rankin. Despite an early miss from Brian Carrigan at the start of the second half, County dominated the rest of the game and McEwan was exposed when Nuckowski collected a through-ball from Fergus Tienan, but the Polish forward skewed his shot wide from eight yards with only the goalkeeper to beat. Then, with McEwan out of his goal, John Rankin's attempted lob struck the upright and Tiernan hit the rebound into the side netting. Alex Burke almost won the game with his first touch, but McEwan made another wonder save. Accies have spent a lot of money on players for a serious assault on the title and they are also paying the highest wages in the division. Their manager Billy Reid said: "We are happy to get a point. I'm quite sure Ross County thought they should have won the game." |
| Ross County | |
| Manager | John Robertson |
| Starting 11 | 1: Ian McCaldon, 2: Sean Webb, 3: David Cowan, 4: Lionel Djebi-Zadi, 5: Martin Canning, 6: John Rankin, 7: Fergus Tiernan, 8: Mark McCulloch, 9: Steven McGarry 1, 10: Maciej Nuckowski 1, 11: Sean Higgins 1 |
| Bench | 0: Joseph Malin, 0: David Niven, 0: Kevin McKinlay, 0: David Winters, 0: Alexander Burke |
| Hamilton Academical | |
| Manager | Billy Reid |
| Starting 11 | Dave McEwan, John Robertson 1, Sandy Hodge, Mark McLaughlin 1, Stevie Thompson, Marvyn Wilson, Alex Neil, Brown Ferguson, Lee Hardy, Scott Turnbridge, Brian Carrigan |
| Bench | Raymond Jellema, Tom Bennett, James McArthur, Paul McLeod, Graeme Jones |