Date	Saturday, 02 October 2004
Competition	Scottish League Division 1
Fixture/Score	Ross County 0:1 Falkirk
Venue	Victoria Park
Attendance	3,062
Referee	Eddie Smith
Comments	Match Report Report by Paul Third from the Press & Journal. Ross County 0 Falkirk 1 Alex Smith had to draw on all his years of experience as a manager to keep his composure at Victoria Park on Saturday after watching his side lose 1-0 to Falkirk. Referee Eddie Smith was the major talking point for his decision to award the Bairns a penalty. Smith was seething at seeing his side, which dominated the game, robbed of the chance to haul itself back into the First division title hunt. Smith believes the decision of the SFA to send an inexperienced match official to Dingwall was the major factor in his side's defeat and has called for more experienced referees to be put in charge of First Division games. Smith said: "Nobody could see what happened because nothing happened. "As far as I'm concerned it was a soft penalty to say the least. That is four games we have played up here, big important games, where we have had young referees making impetuous decisions, which have cost us the game. "In the opening part of that game we played Falkirk off the field. For half an hour we played them off the park and the referee opened the door for them. After that, they shut up shop, as all experienced sides do. It is an injustice we have lost this game, and that is as polite as I can put it. "Referee have to learn some where, but in my opinion they are being rushed. We had a referee here in the Bell's Cup semi-final on Tuesday night and he was immaculate as he is a very experienced referee. "This was a promotion game and it should have been someone with it should have been someone with experience in charge." Despite the defeat Smith believes his side can take a lot of credit following the performance against one of the promotion favourites. He said: "We played them without four of my first team players. We were without John Rankin, Alex Burke, Martin Canning and Stuart Taylor, and I would hope three of them will be back when we play Falkirk again. "The first half hour was as good as I have seen Ross County and they did not deserved what happened." As Smith said, his side dominated the opening half hour and if any side looked like scoring, it was the home team as an experienced Falkirk team was run ragged by its younger and more energetic opposition. But the complexion of the game changed on referee Smith's decision in the 40th minute to award the visitors a penalty. John Robertson and Darryl Duffy raced for the ball in the home box and both men collided. As they got to their feet, Duffy's cross was blocked by Robertson but, in a move which stunned players and fans, Smith gave a spot kick which Andy Thomson converted, sending Stuart Garden the wrong way. A goal to the good, the Bairns were content to soak up the pressure of the home side. Hughes and Kevin James marshalled the Falkirk defence excellently as they snuffed out the County attacks to take all three points.
Ross County
Manager	Alexander (Alex) Smith
Starting 11	1: Stuart Garden, 2: James Lauchlan, 3: John Robertson, 4: Stuart Malcolm, 5: Don (JNR) Cowie, 6: Mark McCulloch, 7: Charles Adam, 8: Jamie McCunnie, 9: Sean Kilgannon, 10: Steven McGarry, 11: David Winters
Bench	0: Colin Stewart, 0: Steven MacKay, 0: Sean Higgins, 0: Craig Gunn, 0: Gary McSwegan
Falkirk
Manager	John Hughes
Starting 11	Allan Ferguson, Kevin James, Andy Lawrie, John Hughes, Scott McKenzie, Davie Nicholls 1, Craig McPherson, John O'Neil, Pedro Moutinho, Darryl Duffy, Andy Thomson 1 (1 pen)
Bench	Darren Hill, Kieran McAnespie, Neil Scally, Brent Rahim, Daniel McBreen