Date	Saturday, 26 December 2015
Competition	Scottish Premiership
Fixture/Score	Ross County 5:2 Dundee
Venue	Global Energy Stadium at Victoria Park
Attendance	3,687
Referee	Crawford Allan
Comments	Match Report Report by Charles Bannerman for the BBC. Ross County 5 Dundee 2 Liam Boyce's hat-trick secured victory and a top-six Scottish Premiership placing for Ross County over Dundee. The visitors had led twice through a double from Kane Hemmings - his fourth and fifth goals in two matches. Boyce and Michael Gardyne twice levelled for Jim McIntyre's men. And, after Jackson Irvine slid in to tap home from a corner to give the hosts the lead, Boyce struck a spectacular overhead kick and pounced again late on to seal victory. Boyce's second hat-trick of the campaign takes the Northern Ireland international to 17 goals so far and consolidated his side's grip on fifth place. With Dundee a mess in defence and their goal difference dented, the visitors dropped out of the top half, leapfrogged by Partick Thistle, who had their game called off. County were first to go on the attack but Dundee soon got into their stride and Greg Stewart supplied Hemmings, who scored a hat-trick against Hamilton Academical last week, with a short but well-weighted though ball which he cracked home from a dozen yards. However, Dundee were unable to repeat the whirlwind start which had put them 4-0 up against Accies by half-time, and, after some frantic early exchanges, the game settled down to provide what was still a steady 90 minutes of great entertainment. With the ball moving freely inside the Dundee box, both Boyce and Craig Curran failed to connect for an equaliser before Stewart missed a chance for Dundee's second when Scott Fox pulled off a great save. Just before the half hour mark Andrew Davies collected a goal kick and returned it up-field into the path of Boyce, who rolled it slowly into the Dundee net with keeper Scott Bain already committed. Curran was upended just outside the Dundee box by Thomas Konrad, who was booked, but Martin Woods' free-kick went just past the right angle of the goal. Early in the second half, Stewart again provided the run and pass for Hemmings to restore Dundee's lead but there was an almost immediate response from County when Gardyne went down the left to find the net from a very tight angle. Five minutes later, County were ahead for the first time when almost the first thing substitute Irvine did was to force the ball home amid claims that it had not crossed the line. The game remained in the balance until Boyce set the home end alight with his second, an overhead effort from a narrow angle, as Dundee steadily declined as a threat. Boyce completed his treble in the final five minutes, firing high into the net from Jamie Reckord's cross, finally putting the game beyond Paul Hartley's side. Ross County manager Jim McIntyre hailed the character of his players after they came from behind twice to defeat Dundee 5-2 at Victoria Park. Liam Boyce struck a hat-trick for the hosts in what became a comfortable win. "One thing I know that we've got in the dressing room is character and they keep showing it week in, week out," McIntyre told BBC Scotland. "The adversity of going behind then that character to keep doing the right things, I felt that won us the match." McIntyre also had a lot of praise for Boyce who followed his equaliser with County's fourth and fifth goals. "His finishing is top drawer," said the manager. "He knows where to find space and generally puts it away. He does the hard part very well and we're working on the other parts of his game where we feel he can get better." Boyce too was at pains to emphasise the mental resilience in the County team, having bagged his second treble of 2015 - his first, and the first by a Ross County player in Scotland's top flight, coming against St Mirren in April. "It showed the character we have in the team," said Boyce. "I scored a good goal as well but first and foremost it was about getting the three points. "The chances came along and the last couple of weeks we've been missing chances, which has cost us points, but this week in the first half we should have been two or three up, maybe. "To get another match ball is unbelievable." However there was less comfort and joy for Dundee manager Paul Hartley who saw this game as the complete reverse of the previous Saturday's 4-0 eclipse of Hamilton Academical. "We had a great start and took the lead and we got back in and took the lead for a second time, but we just didn't keep our focus and our concentration," he said. "The defending was shambolic at times. The goals we gave away, the defensive part of it, we have to look at ourselves and see how we can do better." However, Hartley did see some positives in the combination of Greg Stewart and Kane Hemmings, which led to both his side's goals. "The goals that Greg set up led to two great finishes but it's the other side of it," added Hartley. It's a team game and we didn't perform well as a team. "Last week was good. We looked solid and we looked defensively solid, but this week was a different scenario."
Ross County
Manager	Jim McIntyre
Starting 11	1: Scott Fox, 3: Jamie Reckord, 6: Christopher Robertson, 7: Michael Gardyne 1, 10: Liam Boyce 3, 11: Craig Curran, 12: Richard Foster 1, 15: Andrew Davies, 17: Jonathan Franks, 18: Stewart Murdoch, 42: Martin Woods
Bench	21: Gary Woods, 4: Rocco Quinn, 5: Scott Boyd, 9: Brian Graham, 23: Alex Schalk, 24: Raffaele De Vita, 36: Jackson Irvine 1
Dundee
Manager	Paul Hartley
Starting 11	Scott Bain, Gary Irvine 1, Thomas Konrad 1, James McPake, Kevin Holt, Paul McGowan, Nick Ross, Greg Stewart, Gary Harkins, Nicky Low, Kane Hemmings 2
Bench	David Mitchell, Kostadin Gadzhalov, Rory Loy, Riccardo Calder, Josh Skelly, Paul McGinn, Cameron Kerr