Date	Saturday, 24 October 2026
Competition	Scottish League Division 1
Fixture/Score	Ross County 4:0 Airdrieonians
Venue	Global Energy Stadium at Victoria Park
Referee	Peter Stuart
Ross County
Manager	Stuart (Ketts) Kettlewell
Starting 11	1: Bradley Foster, 3: Lewis Strapp, 4: Akil Wright, 6: Connor Randall, 7: Richard Chin 1, 9: Brian Graham 3, 11: Kieran Phillips, 15: Dylan Smith, 16: Chris Hamilton, 19: Luke McCarvel, 23: Ross Docherty
Bench	30: Nickolas Suman, 5: Lewis Reid, 10: Jamie Lindsay, 17: Ricco Diack, 20: Jack Turner 1, 22: Adam Emslie, 24: Lewis Jamieson, 28: Jamie Williamson, 43: Josh Reid
Airdrieonians
Manager	John Rankin
Starting 11	Cade Melrose, Reghan Tumilty, Sam Fisher, Craig Ross 1, Dylan MacDonald, Connor Smith, Gavin Gallagher, Ewan Simpson, Callum Burnside, Josh Gentles, Lewis Gibson
Bench	Dapo Mebude, Kwame Boateng, Kian Taylor, Adam Devine, Tom Pickford, Matty Yates, Evan Easton, Robbie Mahon, Robert Duffy
Attendance	2,541
Match Report	Ross County Goal Scorers: Brian Graham (24' 27' 54') Richard Chin (45+2) Ross County Substitutions: Ricco Diack for Brian Graham (57') Jamie Lindsay for Ross Docherty (63') Adam Emslie for Richard Chin (63') Jack Turner for Kieran Phillips (63') Lewis Reid for Connor Randall (77') Ross County Caution: Jack Turner (89') Airdrieonians Substitutions: Adam Devine for Reghan Tumilty (46') Dapo Mebude for Callum Burnside (46') Kwame Boateng for Dylan MacDonald (53') Kian Taylor for Gavin Gallagher (64') Tom Pickford for Josh Gentles (77') Airdrieonians Caution: Craig Ross (79') Report by Alasdair Fraser for the Press & Journal. Ross County 4 Airdrieonians 0 The Staggies forward, who turns 39 next week, took his tally for the season to 18 goals after a hat-trick against Airdrieonians. Stuart Kettlewell hailed super-veteran Brian Graham’s mindset as the irrepressible frontman refused to bow to injury before completing his hat-trick in Saturday’s emphatic 4-0 victory over Airdrie. The Ross County manager described the 38-year-old as a shining example to young players after shrugging off a nasty knee knock to stay on the field and net his third goal of the day. Rampant County were electric again, with Graham’s goals and another from wide man Richard Chin keeping them joint top of the league on points and taking them to an incredible 85 finishes for the season. For Graham, the hat-trick, including a stunning 12-yard header, brought his personal haul to 18 for the season already, including 13 League One goals in 11 matches. Kettlewell couldn’t praise Graham – who turns 39 next month – enough. The Staggies boss said: “What you guys don’t see is that Brian never misses training sessions because of his age. “He comes here to get through the same workload that everybody else does – and more – and we always knew he could be a really good influence, on and off the pitch. “But Brian will be the first one to tell you that the service he gets coming into the box is top drawer. “Richard Chin, Luke McCarvel and Lewis Strapp today provided opportunities for our strikers and midfield, and that’s an absolute must. “We need to have quality to get him into the right positions. “He took a sore one with studs to the knee, but that’s an example to young players. “If you take a bang, it will be sore, but give it a minute and you’ll be alright. “In modern times, every knock and every bit of pain makes some people want to come off the pitch, but he had the mindset to stay on and get himself a hat-trick, which he did.” County now face Hamilton at home, neck and neck with them at the league summit, in a cracker of a contest on Tuesday evening. But they knew Airdrie would come north intent on scalping the title favourites and it took County 24 minutes of hard toil before they claimed the breakthrough. Patience paid off as Lewis Strapp was fed the ball on the left and his pinpoint cross found Graham smashing home with glee. Three minutes later, the striker notched his second this time from Chin’s right-sided delivery, with Graham finding plenty of power to send his 12-yard header high into the net. In the second minute of first half stoppage time, Chin pounced from eight yards after Luke McCarvel’s cross was poorly cleared. After the break, Sam Fisher hooked a Conor Randall attempt off the line, but the fourth arrived in 54 minutes as Graham poached close to the goal line. Akil Wright’s header from a corner was heading into the net, but Graham’s final touch sealed his treble. It was one-way traffic through the rest of the half as County stayed joint top of the league. Kettlewell added: “Airdrie came here off the back of decent form, and they’re another full-time team who finished above us last year. “From our point of view, to run out 4-0 winners as comfortably as it ended up is great for us. “We could have added to that in the second half. We had to work for it, but our goalie didn’t make a save in the game. There wasn’t a shot all game which shows how we’re functioning across our backline. “They tried to get the ball forward early and play off that, but we dealt with it well. “When the ball turned over we knew we had to complete the first pass, because when we did we knew there would be space to get the ball into crossing positions, and we capitalised on that with our four goals. “We could have had another couple of goals we were so dominant – Akil Wright blazes one over, Jack Turner and Luke McCarvel both had good opportunities, and we had good crosses nobody got on the end of. “We came here to win and get the clean sheet, and we managed to do that in dominant fashion.”