| Date | Saturday, 27 March 2004 |
|---|---|
| Competition | Scottish League Division 1 |
| Fixture/Score | Inverness Caledonian Thistle 1:0 Ross County |
| Venue | Caledonian Stadium |
| Attendance | 4,019 |
| Referee | Tom Brown |
| Comments | Match Report Report by Paul Third for the Press & Journal. Inverness Caledonian Thistle 1 Ross County 0 Caley Thistle evened the score with Ross County in a tense final derby of the season at Caledonian Stadium. The Highland rivals have won one league match apiece, and drawn the other two meetings, underlining Caley manager John Robertson's belief there is little to choose between the teams. Barry Wilson's goal midway through the second half settled a tight, competitive encounter but, more importantly, the win helped the Inverness side reduce Clyde's lead to four points at the top of the First Division. In the first five minutes it could have been 2-2 as County goalkeeper Graeme Smith saved from Wilson and Darran Thomson, while Mark Brown in the home goal saved from John Rankin, with Graham Bayne's shot from the rebound deflecting off the post back into the grateful goalkeeper's arms. From there, defences were on top and the game had a dour, end-of-season feel to it. That was until the 53rd minute when Rankin's 25-yard free kick was superbly tipped round the post by Brown. From the resulting corner, the home side broke up the park, Wilson crossed for Paul Ritchie, who reached the bye-line and returned the favour for the former Livingston player to head home from a yard. A goal in front, the home side was happy to play on the counter but almost let County back in with six minutes remaining, substitute Jim Hamilton's header being cleared off the line by Russell Duncan. Caley manager Robertson said: "You have to dig in sometimes; you can't always play pretty football and I thought it was two well-matched teams. "There's been nothing between us all season, so we knew it was going be tight. I thought County played better in the first half, but we had a chat at the interval and we got to grips with the game in the second half. "With the quality forwards they have we know we are going to be under pressure, but I'm delighted we took all three points." Dejected County manager Smith said: "It's a sore one. I thought we played the better football. Their goalkeeper had several excellent saves, but it just wasn't our day. "There are lessons to be learned for us as we didn't push home our advantage. It's happened several times this season and we have to learn from it. Sometimes we have the killer instinct and sometimes we don't, but people forget how far we've come in a year. "This time last year we were battling to stay in the league, but we've been in the top four or five since the opening day of the season. I'm sure, given some more time, we can improve even more as a team. "We have to become better, develop a winning mentality and be more ruthless. "Caley and Clyde have been on a good run this season and that's what we have to learn from them." |
| Ross County | |
| Manager | Alexander (Alex) Smith |
| Starting 11 | 1: Graeme Smith, 2: James Lauchlan, 3: Martin Canning, 4: Steven MacKay 1, 5: David Hannah 1, 6: Mark McCulloch, 7: John Rankin, 8: Jamie McCunnie, 9: Graham Bayne, 10: Steven McGarry, 11: David Winters |
| Bench | 0: Leslie Fridge, 0: Stuart Malcolm, 0: Stephen O'Donnell, 0: Sean Higgins, 0: James Hamilton |
| Inverness Caledonian Thistle | |
| Manager | John Robertson |
| Starting 11 | Mark Brown, Ross Tokely 1, Stuart Golabek, Stuart McCaffrey, Bobby Mann, Russell Duncan, Darran Thomson, Barry Wilson 1, Roy McBain, Liam Keogh, Paul Ritchie 1 |
| Bench | Michael Fraser, Grant Munro, David Proctor, Richie Hart, Craig Mcmillan |