Date	Saturday, 22 October 1949
Competition	Scottish Qualifying Cup
Fixture/Score	Ross County 1:3 Caledonian FC
Venue	Victoria Park
Referee	Mr. C. McCaig
Ross County
Manager	The Management Committee
Starting 11	1: Willie Shearer, 2: Willie (Billy) Urquhart, 3: Jimmy Crosbie, 4: Finlay Browning, 5: Jimmy Farmer, 6: Tommy Rooney, 7: Charles (Chic) Ogilvie, 8: Alick Ferguson, 9: George Sutherland, 10: George Gavin 1, 11: Tommy Urquhart
Bench
Attendance	4,100
Match Report	Report from the Ross-shire Journal. Ross County 1 Caledonian FC 3 Caledonian beat Ross County at Dingwall in the semi-final of the Scottish Qualifying Cup, on Saturday. Nobody grudges them their win, but the general opinion of the 4,100 crowd was that a draw would have been a fairer result. A snap goal by Caley in the first minutes of the game, caught them. It did not dishearten County, who fought back with vigour, but, may it be said, as individualists rather than as a team. That was their undoing. They could work the ball up to a point near goal and then fall flat, and there never seemed to be a forward in position to snap up many likely chances. George Sutherland was wasted as a centre-forward. In this position, George has "come off," but in this game, the gods—and Mackinnon and Galloway—were against him. Gavin, the ex-Hearts and Raith Rovers' player, did his best to pull the line together. A clever, clean type of player, his goal showed him as an opportunist, and his many subtle passes, as a born footballer. However, he seemed to lack training, and took some time to get the hang of Highland football. Caley's first goal was got by Mitchell. In the very first seconds, a brilliant save by Shearer prevented a sure counter. Back came the ball, and with the County defence in a tangle, and Shearer unsighted, Mitchell's task was easy. Ross replied vigorously and repeatedly harried the Caley defence. On the wings, both Ogilvie and T. Urquhart were brilliant, and their openings would have brought results. Bruce, Caley goalkeeper, had a big say in thwarting their efforts. His cutting out was superb and his clutching of high balls left the crowd gasping. Against the run of play, Caley, in one of their few break-aways, went further ahead. A loose ball was collected by Bolt, who sent it forward for Mackenzie to slip two opponents and score a classic goal. The fat was in the fire now, and County redoubled their efforts. Caley were completely hemmed in and the half-time whistle must have been a relief to them. The second half was practically a repetition of the first. County were clearly the dominant side, and when a goal came through Gavin after twenty minutes, things looked rosy for the home team. They gamely fought it out for a draw at least, until one of these unlucky incidents cropped up which is dubbed the spice of the game. A lonely break through by the Caley right winger, Macbeth, saw the ball centred close into goal. W. Urquhart had it covered, and decided to head back to his goalkeeper—who was not there—and the ball went into the net. To a man, the crowd's sympathy went out to Willie, whose sterling play throughout had been a feature of the game, and who ill-deserved this misfortune. From this point the fight went on, but the pith had gone out of the game, both players and crowd seemed to take it for granted that it was a Caledonian victory. And so it was, Caley go into the final with a three to one score. Macbeth, the brilliant Caley right winger and a Dingwall boy to boot, has never been so well held. Crosbie, County's left back, had the beating of him all the time, and their duels were many. This did much to spike one of Caley's match-winning guns. Where County seemed to go wrong was in the half-line. All clever in the tackle and in hefty clearances, they too often over-shot their forwards, making the work of the tall, hefty Caley defence an easy one. Judicious passing probably would have got these big fellows on the run, and with T. Urquhart and Ogilvie in scintillating form, would surely have returned dividends. A crowd of exactly 4,100 turned up, which included at least 1,500 from Inverness. At the gate, £190 17s 6d was paid in. The weather, from a spectator's point of view, was ideal, but the players had to contend with a troublesome sun. The crowd were exceptionally good humoured throughout. There were no glaring matches, and the referee, although accused of "doing County out" of two penalties, was very well received. The new banking introduced by the County Management was very much appreciated, as was the grandstand provided by the police turrets by the lucky few who managed to scale their heights. Not so lucky, however, the young enthusiasts who scaled to the roof of the grandstand proper. The police quickly "grounded" them. The Police management of the crowd, both before and after the match, was ideal. They brought Castle Street in as a parking place and had the cars neatly marshalled and expeditiously dispatched on their various ways with no fuss or bother—quite an achievement on Dingwall's narrow highways and byeways.