| Date | Saturday, 13 November 2004 |
|---|---|
| Competition | Scottish League Division 1 |
| Fixture/Score | Saint Johnstone 1:1 Ross County |
| Venue | McDiarmid Park |
| Attendance | 2,018 |
| Referee | Iain Brines |
| Comments | Match Report Published: Press & Journal 15/11/2004 Saint Johnstone 1 Ross County 1 No lunchtime feast as fans are left hungry Alex Smith won't be keen to travel down the A9 again too soon after his Ross County side survived a first-half onslaught at McDiarmid Park. County looked to be suffering from a cup-final hangover. Smith conceded that his side's Bell's Cup final defeat by Falkirk left County at odds with themselves in front of a subdued crowd at the lunchtime kick-off. County clawed their way back into the game courtesy of a brilliant Sean Higgins effort just 30 seconds into the second half after Peter MacDonald had scored for Saints in seven minutes. Smith felt a share of the spoil was about right. He said: "We were a bit disappointing. I think we were suffering after our cup-final efforts. We weren't quite sure how the players would react to coming back to McDiarmid so quickly and being in the same dressing-room and there was a lesser crowd so it was difficult for them. "But we changed things at half-time and got the reaction we wanted. There was a spell when I couldn't believe how we survived, but I felt the longer the game went on we looked the more likely to score. A win would have been tremendous after Sunday as this a difficult place to come, but to take a point here is a good result." County looked jaded. Defender Jim Lauchlan misjudged a high ball from Lee Hardy and allowed Saints forward MacDonald to beat him to the header to fire the ball home in the seventh minute. Ryan McCann should have increased the home side's lead seven minutes from the break after he chested a pass from Lee Hardy, but shot weakly. County responded to their half-time rollicking by equalising in the 46th minute. Kevin Rutkicwicz passed to Higgins, whose acrobatic effort left McGregor helpless. |
| Ross County | |
| Manager | Alexander (Alex) Smith |
| Starting 11 | 1: Stuart Garden, 2: John Robertson, 3: Martin Canning, 4: James Lauchlan, 5: Don (JNR) Cowie, 6: Mark McCulloch, 7: Sean Kilgannon, 8: John Rankin, 9: Sean Higgins 1, 10: Alexander Burke, 11: David Winters |
| Bench | 0: Colin Stewart, 0: Stuart Malcolm, 0: Jamie McCunnie, 0: Steven MacKay, 0: Steven McGarry |
| Saint Johnstone | |
| Manager | John Connolly |
| Starting 11 | Allan McGregor, Mark Baxter, Ian Maxwell, Kevin Rutkiewicz, Ross Forsyth, Paul Sheerin, Lee Hardy, David Hannah 1, Ryan McCann, Peter MacDonald 1, Michael Moore |
| Bench | Kevin Cuthbert, Sean Webb, Alan Mahood, Stephen McConalogue, Chris Hay |