Date	Saturday, 01 April 1989
Competition	Highland League
Fixture/Score	Ross County 2:4 Nairn County
Venue	Victoria Park
Referee
Ross County
Manager	Robert (Bobby) Wilson
Starting 11	1: John Sutter, 2: Christopher (Chris) Somerville, 3: Scott Lemmon, 4: Gary Campbell, 5: Alan Brown, 6: Don Cowie (SNR), 7: Keith (Billy) Ferries, 8: Barry Wilson 1, 9: Davie Jackson 1, 10: Gordon Connelly, 11: Albert Allan
Bench	0: Alex (Nero) McDonald, 0: Alan Robertson
Attendance
Match Report	Report from the Ross-shire Journal. Ross County 2 Nairn County 4 With Wednesday’s defeat very fresh in the memory, it must have seemed to Ross County supporters when Nairn County went three-up within 18 minutes, that it was going to be a case of “Here we go again!” In these opening minutes, Nairn did not allow the home team to settle, and came at them in a flurry of attacks on what was a firm, holding pitch — so different from Wednesday. The sun and the wind had done their work, with George Barnetson and David Hamilton adding to it. However, players found they had to adapt themselves to the changed circumstances. Firmer though the surface was, everyone had to re-adjust to the speed and flow of the ball, the bounce, and to the actual surface itself, which in places was a little rough. Be that as it may, Nairn, playing into the wind, started with a great flourish and were full of running. Ross County might have noted too that their most dangerous attacks were coming down the wings, the left in particular. Playing wide, the Nairn wingers were giving their colleagues more opportunities to open up play, the width offered preventing a bottling-up of players in centre-field, as Ross found to their cost, while pressing for the equalising goal throughout the second half — there were too many players in the middle for a strike on goal to count. In the fifth minute, Lowe evaded a tackle by Campbell, and ran in from the left wing, rounded keeper Suttar and lobbed the ball to Brian Fraser, who was given a free header. Two minutes later John Macgillivray scored his first goal. Cuthbert broke through from the left back position, avoided a tackle by Cowie, and centred the ball to Macgillivray, who weathered a tackle by Lemmon and scored. In the 18th minute, a third defensive slip-up gave Nairn their third goal. With wind-advantage, the County defence were indulging in a piece of inter-passing within their own area, when the ball was snatched from the toe of Cowie by Macgillivray who lobbed the keeper from all of 20 yards. That was that! The situation did not look any too bright for Ross County, but then Nairn played into their lap, and allowed them to come back into the game, although this was not without the greatest possible endeavour by a team whose pride had been touched. As Nairn defended what they had instead of continuing to pressure their opponents, Ross County came at them, and continued to do so for the whole of the second half, and for the eight to 10 minutes play added on for what the referee judged was time-wasting by the visitors. The standard of entertainment was first class as both teams buckled to and gave battle. In the 22nd minute, David Jackson reduced the leeway, when he gained possession from a Billy Ferries free kick and hit the ball home. Fifteen minutes later, Barry Wilson took a pass from Lemmon and crashed the ball past the keeper from outside the box on the right. Steady pressure was maintained on the Nairn goal throughout the second half, but time and again the County forwards were denied a score by keeper Neilson; a timely tackle; the post in the case of Barry Wilson; or a defender’s foot on the line, in the case of Lemmon. With every Ross player but Suttar in the Nairn half, the home side was exposed to the quick break. It came! Substitute Willie Forsyth lying on the right, within his own half, took the ball and advanced unchallenged on Suttar, who could do little to prevent the youngster scoring. Overall, the referee had played 8-10 minutes extra time — no bad punishment for a team employing the tactics of delay, and, for spectators enjoying what was then a keenly contested encounter, and thrilling entertainment.