Date	Saturday, 03 December 1949
Competition	Highland League
Fixture/Score	Forres Mechanics 4:1 Ross County
Venue	Mosset Park
Referee	Mr. D. MacKintosh
Ross County
Manager	The Management Committee
Starting 11	1: Fred Newton, 2: Jimmy Farmer, 3: Fred Nimmo, 4: Finlay Browning, 5: John Patience, 6: George Sutherland, 7: Charles (Chic) Ogilvie, 8: Arthur Maybury 1, 9: Bill Paterson, 10: Alick Ferguson, 11: Tommy Rooney
Bench
Attendance
Match Report	Report from the Ross-shire Journal. Forres Mechanics 4 Ross County 1 The "Battle of Mosset Park" was won by a band of fighters, who took their chances, did not panic, and gave as good a display of football as could be wished under bad conditions—and the conditions were really bad, for player and spectator alike. The gusty wind and the driven rain did drop by half time, giving County little second-half wind advantage. Their luck was definitely out. The game opened optimistically enough for the visitors. Several lightning attacks instrumented by Maybury and Ferguson, although inspiring, came to naught. Forres took over midway through the half and County defence were on their toes for the rest of the game. They panicked slightly. A policy of keeping the ball on the ground would have benefitted them immensely, but they were first-timing their clearances, sometimes miskicking, but more often lofting the ball, with the result that the wind caught it and blew it back on them. What a difference the ground pass would have made to their live-wire forwards. On the wings, Rooney and Ogilvie were neatly rounding their opponents and getting away, to send over ideal centres which were, unfortunately headed over the bar. Maybury, introduced to the forward-line at the last minutes, showed up well, An unselfish player, on occasions, he took his unselfishness to excess, when a shot at goal would have been more profitable than a pass to a team-mate. His skill at bringing a knee-high pass under control, and pushing it forward for Ogilvie to run on to, was a delight to watch, Paterson was guilty of waiting for the ball to come to him instead of going for it. Still, for all that, he did his best, and it was just his bad luck that he was not scoring Ferguson was here, there and everywhere, inspiring many attacks. Wattie had Farmer tied in knots, and by the time the former had unravelled himself and put in his tackle, Wattie was away. It was visible, however, that Farmer was not himself, and that he was still suffering the effects of 'flu. Ellis had the beating of Nimmo for speed. On one occasion, he raced through, drew Patience, and crossed a lovely ball to his centre, who with only Newton to beat, failed to score. Browning improves with every game, He was by far the best player on the County side, and revelled on the greasy pitch. Sutherland had a quiet constructive game, and added pep to the forward-line, with his bustling tactics, when he moved to centre-forward during the second half. Forres opened their score when Wattie broke through, and shot in, Newton punched clear, only for the new Forres centre, Milne, to collect and carefully place in the net. Again and again the Forres forwards came through, but Newton was there to save, despite an injury he had received when he had dived at Milne's feet. In the closing minutes of the first half the wind had its final fling, and players were having a difficult job to control the troublesome ball. Milne scored Forres' second goal from a corner by Wattie. The ball swung in and he headed it through Newton's out-stretched arms. "Keeper Wisniewski in Forres goal, had his work cut out on many occasions, He made one reasonably good save, when he held a drive from George Sutherland. Maybury scored the County's consolation goal soon after resumption, when he headed home a corner from Ogilvie. County were putting on pressure; Sutherland had moved to centre-forward; Paterson to inside left, and Ferguson and Browning were at right and left half respectively. There was punch in this arrangement, but not enough. Forres' luck was still holding. In many Forres goalmouth scrimmages, the ball, en route for goal. would strike a player and go bye. Then a Forres attack materialised. Owens took the ball through and shot from twenty yards. The ball entered the net at the corner of the upright and cross-bar, with Newton making a fruitless attempt to punch out. County defence were moving up to help the forwards, when Milne broke away, ran down the centre and scored. The game eked out its miserable finish in semi-darkness, the moon beginning to break through heavy rain clouds, and County trying extremely hard for another goal. Prior to the kick-off, a minute's silence was observed to the memory of Alexander Nicol. former Hearts and Forres player, who had died that week.