| Date | Saturday, 27 October 2001 |
|---|---|
| Competition | Scottish League Division 1 |
| Fixture/Score | Ross County 4:0 Clyde |
| Venue | Victoria Park |
| Attendance | 2,311 |
| Referee | Alan Freeland |
| Comments | Match Report Report from the Press & Journal. Ross County 4 Clyde 0 Irish wonder kid Conor Gethins rocked the Bully Wee with two first-half goals in arguably Ross County's best display of the season at Victoria Park. The 17-year-old from Donegal was given the nod over veteran striker Alex bone and the move paid off handsomely. Ross boss Neale Cooper said: "That's the best we have played collectively all season. Conor Gethins hit them hard, but we have a number of other under-18s in the squad and they are all showing promise. "Today there was a very good shape to the team. The defence was strong and the wing backs Richard Hastings and Mark Perry have upped their game." Man of the match Gethins said: "It was my first start for the club and I wanted to make a big impact. When that first goal went in it was a great feeling. "The rest of the players really helped me keep calm and gave me lots of support throughout the game." The Bully Wee were first to show and Pat Keogh fired one over the bar in just 13 seconds. Then Andy Millen followed the route taken by his teammate in the third minute. County's first real attack came a minute later. Gethins moved on to a Perry cross but the youngster shot straight into the arms of Clyde keeper Bryan Halilwell. Another County starlet, Don Cowie, had the ball in the Clyde net in the eighth minute but was ruled offside. Clyde hit back and County keeper Tony Bullock did well to hold a Keogh shot. Then Simon Mensing went close with a header and Craig Bingham was unlucky to see an effort rebound off the crossbar. But it was County who took the lead in the 20th minute when Gethins got on the end of a perfect cross from Cowie to fire the ball home from close range. Gethins was on target again in the 33rd minute when a Cowie corner was flicked on by Steven Ferguson and the youngster gave Halliwell no chance with his finish. It got even better for County three minutes later when Steven Hislop got on the scoresheet. Hastings created the chance with an in swinging cross from the left and, after Gethins saw his shot blocked on the line, Hislop was on hand to steer the ball home for goal No. 3. There was no way back for Clyde now and it was one-way traffic towards Halliwell's goal in the second half, with Ferguson putting in the 68th minute when he met a Hislop cross to head powerfully home. Clyde manager Alan Maitland said: "This is very disappointing result for us. It was a disgrace to be 3-0 down so early and lose in the manner we did. "We came here today with a strong team but County were better. They played really well. "Our players were quite content to accept the fact that they lost the game by half-time and because of that we are sitting at the bottom of the table." |
| Ross County | |
| Manager | Neale Cooper |
| Starting 11 | 1: Anthony (Tony) Bullock, 2: Sean Webb, 3: Mark Perry, 4: Richard Hastings, 5: Hugh Robertson, 6: Ian Maxwell, 7: Brian Irvine, 8: Don (JNR) Cowie, 9: Steven Ferguson 1, 10: Conor Gethins 2, 11: Steven Hislop 1 |
| Bench | 0: Stefan Gonet, 0: Steven MacKay, 0: Karim Boukraa, 0: Martin Prest, 0: Alexander Bone |
| Clyde | |
| Manager | Allan Maitland |
| Starting 11 | Bryn Halliwell, Darren Murray, Craig Cranmer, Alan Kernaghan, Andy Millen 1, Simon Mensing 1, Craig Bingham, Jamie Mitchell 1, David Hagen, Stevie Convery, Pat Keogh 1 |
| Bench | Kevin Budinauckas, David Dunn 1, Leigh Hinds, Andy Kane, Brian Crawford |