Date	Saturday, 08 January 1949
Competition	Highland League
Fixture/Score	Forres Mechanics 8:2 Ross County
Venue	Mosset Park
Referee
Ross County
Manager	The Management Committee
Starting 11	1: Fred Newton, 2: Jimmy Farmer, 3: Fred Nimmo, 4: Jock Finlay, 5: John Patience, 6: George Sutherland, 7: Charles (Chic) Ogilvie, 8: Jocky (SNR) Clark 1, 9: Finlay Browning, 10: Alick Ferguson, 11: John (Johnny) Bremner 1
Bench
Attendance
Match Report	Report from the Ross-shire Journal. Forres Mechanics 8 Ross County 2 Ross County’s 1949 debut was a disastrous one, at Mosset Park, Forres, on Saturday, where the Mechanics put up a score of eight to County’s lowly 2, a totally unexpected result so far as goals went. Always a difficult pitch, with Forres a tricky combination, these two reasons cannot be held in apologia for such a resounding fall from eminence. The race for league supremacy is too narrow to allow any let-off in the fine consistent play which the Ross men have been putting in for the past ten weeks. However, the best laid schemes, even of sound football tacticians, are liable to “gang aft agley”; perhaps it is not fair to give too much import to the Mosset Park result. Though time is wearing short, County can still, provided they go all out for it, take a creditable position in the table. Incidentally, it was an all-Forres day as far as Ross County were concerned. At Victoria Park, Dingwall, in severe wintry conditions, Forres Mechanics A. defeated Ross County A. by 6 goals to 5. The County lost two valuable points on the rain-soaked field, when they received a lesson in first-time shooting. They had as many goals scored against them in this one game as in the previous eight. Patience won the toss and decided to kick with the advantage of the breeze. Forres were first on the attack and a dangerous looking centre by Wattie was punched by Newton for a corner, which, in turn, was cleared by Findlay. County took up the attack, and a through pass by Sutherland forced Weisneiski to dive at the feet of Browning and Clark to clear his lines. Successive free kicks against Findlay looked dangerous, and from one of them Patience handled in the box. Watt took the kick and gave Newton no chance with a low drive into the corner of the net. This was after 10 minutes had gone. In an isolated Ross raid, Ogilvie put in a long shot, but Weisneiski was there to clear and set Forres attack going again. Wattie, who was proving a thorn in the County defence, sent across a beautiful centre, but W. Taylor, with an open goal, headed over. The visitors were not much in the picture, but Browning did get through to send in a terrific shot from the corner of the penalty box, which was only diverted for a corner, then subsequently cleared. After twenty minutes, the Mechanics went further ahead, and again it was their left winger who provided the opening. He sent in a low drive which Newton saved but could not hold, and Buchanan, running in, had the easiest of tasks to net. From the kick-off, the visitors started an attack, and Bremner eluded Watt before letting loose one of his characteristic shots, which was helped into the net by Dean. The rally, however, was short lived, as two minutes later Penrose centred, and as Newton hesitated, Buchanan rushed in to head the ball past him into the goal. In the 35th minute another free kick against the County gave Forres their fourth goal. Rooney took the kick, from about thirty yards out, and when it was blocked, J. Taylor gained possession to shoot through the County defence via the upright. The County were not getting into their stride, mainly due to the first-time tackling of the Forres men, who seemed much quicker on the ball. A golden opportunity was lost when the forwards bunched and hindered, rather than helped, the ball on its way to the homesters’ goal. Just on the interval Penrose placed the ball on to Buchanan’s head and the inside man secured his “hat-trick” as Newton could only help the ball on its way to the net. Half-time—Forres 5, Ross County 1. On the resumption, County looked as if they intended to wipe out the arrears, but it was the homesters who scored again. Penrose tricked the defence, then shot low with his left foot and Newton allowed the ball to pass under his body as he went down to save. Still undeterred, the Ross men piled on the pressure and the Mechanics’ goal bore a charmed life. Three times in as many minutes, the ball hit the woodwork and ran the wrong way, and on as many occasions it ran along the goal-line waiting for a foot to prod it home. Weisneiski was here, there and everywhere, but he was beaten when he failed to hold a Browning drive, and Clark rammed home the rebound. Referee MacNiven gave a signal and immediately changed his mind and gave Forres a free-kick on the goal-line without even consulting a linesman. It is the first time the writer has seen a referee pointing to the centre for a goal and for a free-kick simultaneously! Spurred on by this let-off, Forres again attacked, and in a goalmouth scrimmage, Wattie managed to prod home, whilst the homesters’ later a fierce drive hit Farmer and rebounded into the net. In the 78th minute County got a consolation counter, and it was the best goal of the match. Browning trailed the ball out to the left, suddenly pivoted and crossed from the bye-line into the centre, where Clark nipped in between Dean and his keeper to nod in. This ended the scoring and County retired well beaten, although there was not six goals difference between the teams. Forres won because of their forwards’ ability to take chances, and because of the strength of their wing halves, Rooney and Ellis, particularly the former. Whilst Dean played a purely defensive role, his outside pair carried the ball forward and drew their opposite numbers before flicking to their forwards, with the result that, more often than not, Nimmo and Farmer were faced by both outside and inside men. In the second half, County, although having the bulk of the play, banged the ball up the middle to meet a sterling defence, instead of feeding the wingers, both of whom had the beating of the Forres backs when they did get the ball. A good point which did emerge from the game was that the Ross team did not collapse, and were still full of running at the end. In fact, anyone entering the ground in the last few minutes would have thought that the scores were level and that they were striving for the winning goal. Did County go on the field with that over-confident feeling? If so, they should have profited from their mistake, except for the loss of two points, and should realise that, however lowly placed in the table are the opposition, they cannot be taken too lightly.