| Date | Saturday, 29 January 2005 |
|---|---|
| Competition | Scottish League Division 1 |
| Fixture/Score | Ross County 0:1 Falkirk |
| Venue | Victoria Park |
| Attendance | 3,151 |
| Referee | John Rowbotham |
| Comments | Match Report Report from the Press & Journal. Ross County 0 Falkirk 1 Falkirk are 17 points clear at the top of Division 1, but were made to flight all the way for the points and for the second time this season at Victoria Park needed a dubious penalty decision to go their way. Alan Kernaghan made his debut for the league leaders in Saturday's match, but it was Darryl Duffy who stole the show with a brilliant individual display. It was Duffy who was taken down inside the box on the stroke of half-time and the on-loan Rangers player took the penalty to send Colin Stewart the wrong way. Ross County manager Alex Smith found the result hard to take. He said: "Naturally I am disappointed, but it was always going to be a hard game. "It was almost a repeat of the last time the teams met here. Both created lots of chances and played good football, but the first goal was always going to be so important. "The boys all thought it was a soft penalty and I was a bit dubious about the goal we scored being ruled offside." A delighted Falkirk manager John Hughes, understandably, took a different view. He said: "There was some good football and end to end stuff, especially in the first half. We should have closed the game up in the first 20 minutes. I thought we thoroughly deserved the points." Kevin James came close to giving Falkirk the lead in the fourth minute when he headed narrowly over from a Craig McPherson corner. County hit back and David Winters tried his luck from 30 yards out but goalkeeper Darren Hill gathered his shot at the second attempt. Although Falkirk were on top, Ross County were on top, Ross County were denied a penalty in the 39th minute when James appeared to handle a Winters cross but referee John Rowbotham waved play on. Then good build-up involving Winters and Don Cowie released John Rankin who flashed the ball into the Falkirk net, but he was ruled offside. The goal came at the other end when Duffy went down easily under pressure from Fergus Tiernan. Duffy made no mistake from the spot. Duffy should have doubled the lead when he was clean through on goal, but with Stewart beaten his shot rebounded off the inside of the post. Stewart then made an excellent double stop from Russell Latapy and Daniel McBreen as Falkirk went all out to kill the game. County's only chance of an equaliser fell to Jamie McCunnie in the 75th minute, but his delicate lob dipped over the bar. |
| Ross County | |
| Manager | Alexander (Alex) Smith |
| Starting 11 | 1: Colin Stewart, 2: John Robertson, 3: James Lauchlan, 4: Martin Canning, 5: John Rankin, 6: Mark McCulloch, 7: Don (JNR) Cowie, 8: Fergus Tiernan, 9: Jamie McCunnie, 10: Alexander Burke, 11: David Winters |
| Bench | 0: Stuart Garden, 0: Stuart Malcolm, 0: Sean Kilgannon, 0: Steven McGarry, 0: Sean Higgins |
| Falkirk | |
| Manager | John Hughes |
| Starting 11 | Darren Hill, Alan Kernaghan, Kevin James, Andy Lawrie, John Hughes 1, Neil Scally 1, Russell Latapy, Craig McPherson, Pedro Moutinho, Darryl Duffy 1 (1 pen), Scott McKenzie |
| Bench | John Hutchison, Mark Campbell, Colin Marshall, Ryan McStay, Daniel McBreen |