| Date | Saturday, 23 August 2003 |
|---|---|
| Competition | Scottish League Division 1 |
| Fixture/Score | Ross County 2:0 Saint Mirren |
| Venue | Victoria Park |
| Attendance | 3,053 |
| Referee | Craig MacKay |
| Comments | Match Report Report from the Press & Journal. Ross County 2 Saint Mirren 0 Ross County maintained their 100% home record after an inspired second half display against St Mirren at Dingwall. But it took a soft penalty and a crazy own goal as the Dingwall side moved up to second place in Division One. County were forced to play second fiddle to the Buddies early on. County manager Alex Smith said: "I thought St Mirren had the better of the play in the first half. They played the ball around better than us and created one or two chances. "We didn't play well and it took us a long time to get a grip of the game. Despite that, we still had three good chances in the first half. "But we changed things around a wee bit and put Sean Higgins on as an extra forward. I thought he was excellent. We started to push up the park and create chances. We were much better in the second half." The breakthrough finally came in the 67th minute when Laurie Ellis downed Hannah and Winters confidently stepped up to send the spot kick high past Hinchliffe. Saints had a penalty claim turned down in the 83rd minute after Ricky Gillies and Steven MacKay collided, but it was not to be the Paisley side's day. Referee Craig MacKay saw nothing amiss and waved play on. And it was all over as a contest a couple of minutes from the end when a diagonal ball from Higgins fell to Saints substitute Scott Gemmell, who inexplicably fired past his own goalkeeper and into the corner of the net. |
| Ross County | |
| Manager | Alexander (Alex) Smith |
| Starting 11 | 1: Colin Stewart, 2: Stuart Malcolm, 3: Jordon Tait, 4: David Hannah, 5: John Rankin, 6: Mark McCulloch, 7: Steven MacKay, 8: Don (JNR) Cowie, 9: Jamie McCunnie, 10: Graham Bayne 1, 11: David Winters 1 (1 pen) |
| Bench | 0: Stephen O'Donnell, 0: Sean Higgins, 0: Conor Gethins, 0: James Hamilton |
| Saint Mirren | |
| Manager | John Coughlin |
| Starting 11 | Craig Hinchcliffe, Kevin McGowne, Gus MacPherson, Laurie Ellis 1, David van Zanten, Kirk Broadfoot, Mark Crilly, Allan Russell, Jon O'Neil, Ricky Gillies, Robert Dunn |
| Bench | Stevie Woods, Mark Dempsie, Scott Gemmill 1, David McKenna, Kevin Twaddle |