Date	Saturday, 31 August 1929
Competition	Highland League
Fixture/Score	Ross County 2:2 Buckie Thistle
Venue	Victoria Park
Referee
Ross County
Manager	Thomas (Tom) Pirie
Starting 11	1: John Gray, 2: Robert Munro, 3: R Johnstone, 4: ??? MacLeman, 5: Thomas Pirie, 6: Tom Young 1, 7: Dick Traill, 8: Paulo Grant, 9: D. Sutherland, 10: Dave MacKenzie 1, 11: William Bowie
Bench
Attendance
Match Report	Report from the Ross-shire Journal. Ross County 2 Buckie Thistle 2 A reorganised Ross County played appreciably improved football against a clever Buckie Thistle last week. Wings and centre have been strengthened, and with Tom Young in his true place at left half the mid-line—the most critical part of the team—is as reliable in defence as it is penetrative in attack. Sutherland, the new centre—a Pirie discovery—is a Dornoch lad. Critics would have liked to have seen him more frequently farther upfield, bothering the opposing backs, but critic football happens in short stories; rarely in the field of play. Pirie's discovery holds good, and once the line is knitted together and each knows all and all knows each, Sutherland, who played a really clever game, will score goals. Trail and Grant on Sutherland’s right and Bowie and Mackenzie on the left have solved the remaining part of the forward problem. The critics hesitated a doubt about Macleman the right half. The critics allow nothing for the fact that he was opposite number to Mackenzie and Milne, the former a student who is likely to wear the Queen’s Park jersey soon. Macleman is alright. Both backs, Munro and Johnstone stand for reliability, and Gray in goal keeps closer to his post than in previous matches. He gathered a greasy ball with difficulty on Saturday, but he saved five times the number of balls that passed him and both these were of the elusive type. Buckie Thistle is a fine athletic team: clean-limbed, well-trained fellows all, of a superior type, it is easy to understand why they win matches. Snappy was the description of a ring-sider; it fits. Stylish is not inapplicable: also gentlemanly. But neither side revealed unsportsman-like play. If both make clean play a tenet each will win matches. Buckie's centre and goal-keeper first to last seemed to catch the eye most. The centre’s movements are needle-like: Ross County backs might well have been rattled; to their credit they were not. Tom Pirie sized G. Ross up early and his directional leadership—often a quick sign by a raised hand to a back or half-back—rendered ineffective many raids. Wood, Buckie goalkeeper, handled many more balls than Gray. He is a tower of strength: confident and calmly alert. Long-range shots don’t catch him napping. A dozen balls were passed back to him and always safely. The goals scored against him were deliveries beyond his range. First to last it was a good game to watch. Neither side bunched until the closing moments when the issue swayed delicately in the balance. Play ranged from end to end, and excitement on the field, as round it, stirred the blood. Positional play: one man, one job ruled. No play is prettier to watch: it is football. Anxiety marked the ringside in the first half hour. Buckie Thistle came with a great reputation, which did not belie them. After half an hour, ringside anxiety diminished. Ross County was a better balanced team than when it beat Caledonian in its first League game: and incredibly better than at Fraserburgh a week earlier. Several County players won cheers. Sutherland came in for a round or two in the early stages. His unselfishness may have been a fault: his distribution otherwise was not. Long range shots, however, were gifts to Wood in Buckie's goal. Paulo Grant with Trail was troublesome and one stinging shot by the former would have gone home against most goalkeepers. A moment later Sutherland, on the mark, was also check-mated by Wood. To get within easy range against Geddes and Nicol, Buckie's backs, was an art seldom achieved. A clean burst through was rarely allowed to happen. At the other end, owing to fine understanding among its opponents Ross County was frequently stretched. G. Ross at centre was elusive until, as indicated already, Pirie measured the man and set his field to trap him in. Even then he got through once or twice and alarmingly; but the fates remained kindly. With five minutes to go, as an Irish voice at the ringside said, a minute earlier—"Bejabers, a goal is coming." He was right. Dave Mackenzie, on the post, drove a ball past the prostrate Wood. Rain was falling heavily as the first half closed but cleared off when the teams resumed. Dave Mackenzie was an absentee. He had strained his shoulder against the post. When he resumed later he played under painful handicap. Buckie came back the fresher of the two. For half an hour they were masters of the situation by a disconcerting margin. Better trained, the advantage was considerable. Ross County were not completely hemmed in: their work was simply less effective. Over-passing developed and chances were wasted. Buckie's overdue goal came, following a foul, when 25 minutes had gone. Mackintosh, right half, was scorer. A minute later Munro, County back, cleverly cleared a menacing break through, and for a time Buckie pinned the County well within their half of the field and shot after shot was rained goalwards. Shaking off the attack the County forced a corner and Pirie's header just missed. Wonderful head Pirie's: quite as reliable as either foot, and never a wildly placed ball from one or the other! Presently Gray got bunched up in a goalmouth scuffle; falling, he lay on the ball but managed to push it behind. Five minutes from time a winning-like goal came to Buckie. Newlands sent the ball home. All seemed lost to the County supporters. From the kick off the County ran riot. Pirie was fouled. He took the kick, placed the ball to Young's head who nodded it through beyond reach of Wood. Play ended with much excitement.