Date	Saturday, 25 August 2001
Competition	Scottish League Division 1
Fixture/Score	Ross County 0:1 Airdrieonians
Venue	Victoria Park
Attendance	2,022
Referee	Alan Gemmill
Comments	Match Report Report by Mike Tremlett for the Press & Journal. Ross County 0 Airdrieonians 1 Owen Coyle did not find Victoria Park the happiest of hunting grounds during his three-month loan spell with Ross County last season. Coyle failed to score for the Highlanders--but in a Diamonds shirt he gave the Dingwall club's strike-force another finishing lesson. Coyle scored twice for Airdrie in a 4-3 win in Dingwall last season and this time he sank them with a deft fifth-minute header. It keeps the Diamonds at the top of the First Division table and Neale Cooper's men firmly in the bottom half. Cooper said: "We need to step up the pressure on the strikers here to take a leaf out of Owen's book and start putting the ball in the net because we couldn't make anything happen in the Airdrie box this afternoon--although we built well from the back. "It was a big improvement on the Challenge Cup defeat by Brechin. We showed a lot more character. "Our commitment and effort were first-class, especially after losing a goal so early. We ended up doing everything except scoring." Cooper brought in Mark McCormick, John McQuade, skipper Steve Ferguson and Karim Boukraa for his first start of the season. Veteran Brian Irvine returned to the 16 with a place on the bench, sitting alongside Martin Prest, Alex Bone, Don Cowie and second-string keeper Stefan Gonet. But County went behind when Diamonds defender Craig McPherson flighted in a free kick from the left. With the County defence concentrating its marking effort on 6ft 6in Kevin James at the back post, Alan McManus met the ball and his header across the goalmouth was cleverly nodded past Tony Bullock by the alert Coyle. Once they had recovered from this early setback, County were the better side, but the equaliser never came. Airdrie always looked dangerous on the break, with Coyle and hunting partner Mark Roberts a constant threat to the home defence. The Dingwall side's best chances fell to youngster Steve Hislop, currently the subject of a compensation battle with Third Division East Stirling. This issue looks to be heading for an SFA transfer tribunal, with the clubs at loggerheads over a fee. Hislop nodded a good 34th-minute chance over the Airdrie bar when the hard-working McCormick picked him out with a cross and--after Hugh Robertson was unlucky with a 50th-minute chip which dipped just over the bar--Hislop passed up the best chance of the match when he headed a Boukraa cross woefully wide in 69 minutes from barely six yards out. Cooper said: "Steve is still a raw, young player who was playing non-league football just over a year ago and we are working hard with him on the training ground. "The step up from the Third Division to full-time football at this level isn't easy to make but he will come good in time. "He is a big, honest lad who works very hard and he listens to what he is being told in training. "On another day, he might have put one of the two chances that came his way back of the net and we would at least have had a point. "Over, I was encouraged by the team's performance and if we keep working as hard as we did against Airdrie and keep making chances the goals will start to come and the wins will follow."
Ross County
Manager	Neale Cooper
Starting 11	1: Anthony (Tony) Bullock, 2: Ian Maxwell 1, 3: Richard Hastings, 4: Sean Webb, 5: Mark Perry, 6: Hugh Robertson, 7: Steven Ferguson 1, 8: Mark McCormick, 9: Steven Hislop, 10: Karim Boukraa, 11: John McQuade
Bench	0: Stefan Gonet, 0: Brian Irvine, 0: Don (JNR) Cowie, 0: Martin Prest, 0: Alexander Bone
Airdrieonians
Manager	Ian McCall
Starting 11	Allan Ferguson, Darren Beesley, Anthony Smith, Kevin James, Stevie Docherty, Paul Armstrong, Craig McPherson, Neil MacFarlane, Allan McManus, Mark Roberts, Owen Coyle 1
Bench	Lee Gardner, Stuart Taylor, Colin McDonald, Robert Dunn, A Trialist