| Date | Saturday, 07 February 2004 |
|---|---|
| Competition | Scottish League Division 1 |
| Fixture/Score | Raith Rovers 0:0 Ross County |
| Venue | Starks Park |
| Attendance | 1,562 |
| Referee | John Gilmour |
| Comments | Match Report Report from the Press & Journal. Raith Rovers 0 Ross County 0 Ross County manager Alex Smith admitted it had been difficult to prepare for Saturday's rearranged league match at Raith Rovers as he had never heard of most of the players in the Kirkcaldy outfit's new-look team. The Fife side fielded nine foreigners in its starting line-up at Stark's Park, including four who were making their debuts. Following the goalless draw which took County into third place in the First Division, Smith acknowledged it had taken time for his players to get to grips with the new Rovers. He said: "We hadn't a clue what Raith would be like or how they would play, and I think we maybe gave them too much respect in the early stages. "They have brought in six or seven players and are basically a completely new team since we last played them. "The transfer window allows you to do that, while we lost one of our leading players, Hugh Robertson, so this was always going to be a very different game to earlier in the season." On that occasion, of course, County won 7-1, but there was very little chance of a repeat in cold and windy conditions. Raith dominated for most of the 90 minutes without creating too many chances and were clearly missing John Sutton, who joined Millwall last month. His replacement, Argentinian Sebastian Ferrero, had several early opportunities to endear himself to the home support, but he twice shot tamely wide and was then denied by Graham Smith's fine block from close range. Substitute Graham Bayne had County's first effort on goal just after the half-hour mark, but his header was well held by French goalkeeper David Berthelot, another of the new Raith recruits. Berthelot further impressed in first-half stoppage time when he dived to turn a 20-yard free kick from former Celtic midfielder David Hannah round the post. The closest to a goal came midway through the second half when Ramon Pereira's 25-yard effort crashed back off the post with Smith well beaten. County substitute David Winters, who had scored a hat-trick in that 7-1 rout back September, wasted the visitors' best chance when he failed to connect properly with the ball when left unmarked in front of goal. The match ended in controversy when Pereira, booked earlier for a late tackle on full back Jamie McCunnie, was shown a red card for apparently taking a retaliatory swipe at Steven Mackay. |
| Ross County | |
| Manager | Alexander (Alex) Smith |
| Starting 11 | 1: Graeme Smith, 2: Stuart Malcolm, 3: James Lauchlan, 4: Sean Webb, 5: Jamie McCunnie, 6: John Rankin, 7: Mark McCulloch, 8: Steven MacKay, 9: David Hannah, 10: Conor Gethins, 11: James Hamilton |
| Bench | 0: Leslie Fridge, 0: Stephen O'Donnell, 0: Don (JNR) Cowie, 0: Graham Bayne, 0: David Winters |
| Raith Rovers | |
| Manager | Antonio Calderon |
| Starting 11 | David Berthelot, Goran Stanic, Shaun Dennis, Paquito Ortiz, Antonio Calderon, Lloyd Young, Joaquin Bornes, Juan Nieto, Sebastien Ferrero, Ramon Pereira 1, Christian Patino |
| Bench | Ramiro Gonzalez, Ian Brown, Darren Brady, John Boyle, David Evans |