| Date | Saturday, 12 November 2005 |
|---|---|
| Competition | Scottish League Division 1 |
| Fixture/Score | Brechin City 1:4 Ross County |
| Venue | Glebe Park |
| Attendance | 502 |
| Referee | Steve Conroy |
| Comments | Match Report Report from the Press & Journal. Brechin City 1 Ross County 4 Ross County caretaker boss Gardner Speirs did his case for the Dingwall hot-seat no harm by presiding over another superb away performance, this time at Brechin's Glebe Park. County move into second place in the First Division--three points behind leaders St Mirren. Spiers said: "I was a wee bit disappointed with our first-half performance, but we were much improved after the break and were first to just about every second ball. "It's always difficult here, but the players played with great determination and enthusiasm and to get four goals from four different players was very pleasing. "We now sit second in the league, just three points adrift, but it's way too early to be thinking in terms of promotion. We will continue to take one game at a time and our next priority is to prepare for the visit of Dundee this coming Saturday, as this will be another important test for us." The result left Brechin rooted at the foot of the table, still seeking their first league win, and manager Ian Campbell was clearly upset at the end of a gruelling 90 minutes. He said: "To say I am disappointed and annoyed would be an understatement. We started really well and looked full of confidence, but we lost two really soft goals. "We were the better team in the first half and to come in at the break a goal down was extremely disappointing. Schoolboy defending after the break cost us a further two goals and made our task almost impossible. "The players still battled on, even when we were three goals down, but overall, the display was completely unacceptable and the lads badly let themselves down." Brechin really looked up for the game in the first half and deservedly went ahead in the 25th minute when Gerry Britton hammered the ball home after a Steven Hampshire pass had created the opening. However, County hit back to equalise 10 minutes later when Martin Canning drove the ball home from just inside the box after a Gary Bollan clearance from the line had come straight to him. John Rankin gave the visitors the lead four minutes before the break when he collected a superb Alex Burke pass to drill the ball into the corner of the net. The second half was barely three minutes old when David Winters increased County's lead when he drove the ball home from the edge of the box. Don Cowie put the icing on the cake for the visitors in the 57th minute when he collected a long defensive clearance before hitting a shot well beyond the reach of City keeper Craig Nelson to seal another great County away win. |
| Ross County | |
| Manager | Gardner Spiers |
| Starting 11 | 1: Stuart Garden, 2: Martin Canning 1, 3: Neil McDonald, 4: James Lauchlan, 5: Lionel Djebi-Zadi, 6: John Rankin 1, 7: Mark McCulloch, 8: Don (JNR) Cowie 1, 9: Fergus Tiernan, 10: Alexander Burke, 11: David Winters 1 |
| Bench | 0: Joseph Malin, 0: David Cowan, 0: Kevin McKinlay, 0: Gary McSwegan, 0: Steven McGarry |
| Brechin City | |
| Manager | Ian Campbell |
| Starting 11 | Craig Nelson, Steven Ferguson, Paul Deas 1, Ally Mitchell, Scott Walker, Gary Bollan, Kevin Byers, Craig Winter, Gerry Britton 1 1, Steve Hampshire, Darren Smith |
| Bench | John Hillcoat, Paul Ritchie, Stuart Callaghan, David White, Charlie King |