| Date | Saturday, 30 January 2010 |
|---|---|
| Competition | Scottish League Division 1 |
| Fixture/Score | Dundee 0:1 Ross County |
| Venue | Dens Park |
| Attendance | 4,912 |
| Referee | Mike Tumilty |
| Comments | Match Report Report by Jim Spence for the BBC. Dundee 0 Ross County 1 Ross County surprised First Division leaders Dundee with a well deserved victory at Dens Park, thanks to a fine Paul Lawson strike. The deadly strike from 22 yards whistled low past Rab Douglas on the stroke of half time. Dundee enjoyed long spells of possession but were unable to find a way past a resolute County rearguard. Darren Young went closest for the home side leaders, with his 25-yard drive missing by a fine margin. Four minutes after the break, Douglas made a fine save to his left clawing away a neat flick from Michael Gardyne. That could have galvanised Dundee but, despite having brought on talismanic striker Leigh Griffiths at half time, the home side remained sluggish and failed to impose themselves on a side they had beaten twice already this season. On 62 minutes, Martin Scott tumbled in the Dundee box after a lightning County break, but referee Mike Tumilty saw no merit in their claim for a penalty. County continued to be the quicker, sharper side, while Dundee struggled to create a decent chance in a performance which was distinctly under par. Indeed, 81 minutes had elapsed before a powerful low header from Gary Harkins threatened to breach the visiting defence, but Michael McGovern made a stunning low stop with an athletic leap to his right to thwart a certain goal. A minute after that he tipped a Colin McMenamin header over the bar, but that was simply for the sake of safety, with the effort lacking the power to seriously trouble him. It was lethargic performance from the league leaders and one which cut their points advantage over County, who have three games in hand, to six points. And it was good professional, spirited show from the Dingwall side, whose manager Derek Adams must be attracting attention of other clubs with the fine job he has done at the Victoria ground. Adams felt victory had been well deserved saying: "We passed the ball well got ourselves in front, a good goal from Paul Lawson and into the second half took the game to Dundee again got players forward, changed formation and were very good on the counter attack." Dundee boss Jocky Scott was very unhappy at the performance. "I'm very disappointed," he said. "Especially when you're at home you've got to do something to get your supporters behind you instead what we did was got them on our backs and that didn't help us. The supporters are very frustrated by the performance the same as I am." |
| Ross County | |
| Manager | Derek Adams |
| Starting 11 | 1: Michael McGovern, 2: Scott Morrison, 3: Alexander Keddie, 4: Gary Miller, 5: Scott Boyd, 6: Martin Scott, 7: Paul Lawson 1 1, 8: Richard Brittain, 9: Michael Gardyne 1, 10: Garry Wood 1, 11: Paul Di Giacomo |
| Bench | 0: Joseph Malin, 0: Steven Watt, 0: Ross Grant, 0: Stuart Kettlewell, 0: Iain Vigurs |
| Dundee | |
| Manager | Jocky Scott |
| Starting 11 | Rab Douglas, Eric Paton, Eddie Malone, Craig Forsyth, Jim Lauchlan 1, Brian Kerr, Darren Young 1, Richard Hart, Gary Harkins, Patrick Clarke, Colin McMenamin |
| Bench | Derek Soutar, Kyle Benedictus 1, Maros Klimpl, Andrew Shinnie, Leigh Griffiths |