Date	Saturday, 21 November 1987
Competition	Highland League
Fixture/Score	Ross County 2:1 Inverness Thistle
Venue	Victoria Park
Referee
Ross County
Manager	Robert (Bobby) Wilson
Starting 11	1: John Sutter, 2: Christopher (Chris) Somerville, 3: Scott Lemmon, 4: Cameron Robertson, 5: Dave Bellshaw, 6: Don Cowie (SNR) 1 (1 pen), 7: Keith (Billy) Ferries, 8: Donald MacKay 1, 9: Davie Jackson, 10: Gordon Connelly, 11: James MacKay
Bench	0: David MacRae, 0: Alan Gair
Attendance
Match Report	Report from the Ross-shire Journal. Ross County 2 Inverness Thistle 1 The only change in the team on Saturday was the substitution of James Mackay early in the second half. Again, Macrae was the substitute involved. On both occasions, the other substitute, Alan Gair, who had a tremendous game in midfield against Caley in the Inverness Cup, was not used. The surface of Victoria Park was very heavy and glue-like as a result of the continuous rain over the previous few days. Both teams had to pace their efforts and make use of the most stable areas of the pitch. Even so, passage through the middle seemed to be the general direction of play. County had a dream start in the fourth minute. In one of the first forays on the Thistle goal, Donald Mackay tried a speculative shot, which keeper Calder could not hold, and the greasy ball squirmed from his grasp into the back of the net. Back came Thistle, and Suttar saved a strong shot from Noble, pushing it away, and Bain, following up, could only hit the ball into the side netting. Calder did well, stretching to reach a low-placed shot from Connolly. However, Thistle began to put County under considerable pressure, making light of the conditions. Milroy struck the ball onto the crossbar, and then Bellshaw cleared the danger after a finger-tip save by Suttar. As the first half closed, with both sides accepting a share of the honours, Jackson missed a chance to score when put in possession at the far post by Ferries. Thistle had the edge on play for most of the second half, but County were defending dourly, and now and then breaking free to launch an attack of their own. On one occasion, Jackson's first-time shot from a Ferries cross was tipped over the bar by the keeper. Then, in the 77th minute, Thistle got just reward for constant pressure when McCutcheon scored with a header from a free kick lobbed over to the far post from the left. It could have been status quo minutes later, but Jackson could only thump the ball straight at the keeper. In the 85th minute, County, who had now shaken off what seemed to be a desire to “defend what we have,” scored. Somerville sent Connolly away with a well-placed ball. As he broke into the penalty area and Calder came out to meet him, he made to jink round the keeper, but in doing so, was taken down. Cowie scored from the spot with a strong rising shot.