| Date | Saturday, 19 November 2005 |
|---|---|
| Competition | Scottish League Division 1 |
| Fixture/Score | Ross County 3:0 Dundee |
| Venue | Victoria Park |
| Attendance | 2,826 |
| Referee | Mike Ritchie |
| Comments | Match Report Report by Paul Third from the Press & Journal. Ross County 3 Dundee 0 Ross County hat-trick hero John Rankin insists he and his team-mates want caretaker manager Garden Speirs to get the job on a permanent basis. Rankin took his goals tally for the season to nine with three well taken efforts against Dundee, and the former Manchester United midfielder hopes the fourth win in a row for County can go a long way to securing Speirs's future at Victoria Park. He said: "The predicament the club is in right now, it is important we encourage the fans to come along. I'm sure they will keep coming back as long as we give performances like this one. "Gardner has been great. He has put his own ideas forward and you can see the boys are right behind him. We would like to see him get the job." The financial review being carried out by the Dingwall club should be completed in the next 10 days, at which point the issue of finding a permanent replacement for John Robertson will be addressed, but the County players are ignoring the off-field problems which are dominating matters at Victoria Park for the time being. Rankin added: "There is no point dwelling on the problems. The financial plight is well known, but we have to concentrate on our games. "It is great to have won four games in a row. This time last year, we were being locked in the dressing-room, as we couldn't get a run going at all." County caretaker Speirs has heard nothing about his own position at the club, but he insists his focus is firmly on the Ross County team. Speirs said: "The players are putting in the work in training and taking it into games with a belief they can win." Rankin set the tone in the eighth minute, hitting a right-foot shot from eight yards past Dundee's teenage goalkeeper Scott Murray. He then doubled his side's advantage just before the break, running on to Alex Burke's clever backheel to drill the ball low past the goalkeeper. County continued to dominate the play and Rankin secured the first hat-trick of his career in the 64th minute, connecting with Don Cowie;s cross to head the ball past the hapless Murray. |
| Ross County | |
| Manager | Gardner Spiers |
| Starting 11 | 1: Stuart Garden, 2: James Lauchlan, 3: Lionel Djebi-Zadi, 4: Martin Canning, 5: Neil McDonald, 6: John Rankin 3, 7: Mark McCulloch, 8: Don (JNR) Cowie, 9: Fergus Tiernan, 10: David Winters, 11: Alexander Burke |
| Bench | 0: Joseph Malin, 0: David Cowan, 0: Kevin McKinlay, 0: Steven McGarry, 0: Sean Higgins |
| Dundee | |
| Manager | Alan Kernaghan |
| Starting 11 | Scott Murray, Steven McNally, Bobby Mann, Paul Dixon, Steven Robb, Barry Smith, Tam McManus, Garry Brady, Steven Craig, Simon Lynch, Calum MacDonald |
| Bench | Scott Robertson, Jamie Kelly, Mark Alison, Andrew Ferguson, Iain Anderson |