Ross County 1 Accies 1: 4 December 2004

Bell's Scottish Football League Division 1

Victoria Park, Dingwall, 4 December 2004

Report by Bruce Wares

Accies this afternoon won a hard-earned and welcome point in Dingwall, despite handing the initiative to their fellow strugglers and living dangerously for much of the game.

In truth, Accies never really looked like winning this game and didn’t force any saves out of Colin Stewart in the home goal. Perhaps it was a lack of confidence, but they stood off County and defended on the 18-yard line for the whole of the second half and but for some brief end-to end action before half-time, with Mark Corcoran particularly prominent, County had the lion’s share of match possession.

County, for their part, are having their troubles at home with only one win in seven attempts up to this game. A record like that is always going to upset any team’s home faithful but you never expected County’s Match Announcer to tear into the home crowd in a very blunt, and personal, fashion just before kickoff. He lambasted and lectured them over the public address system for moaning and verbally abusing County players in recent matches!

You do wonder if the Ross County Directors had sanctioned this public defence of the home team, for County looked determined at the start and dictated the scrappy first 20 minutes. Accies included Derek Ferguson and Ricky Waddell from the off but our defenders were the real stars for us today.

County didn’t threaten early on and their main tactic was the ‘Dingwall bypass’, route one from Jim Lauchlan to the forwards. On 25 minutes Accies gave away a free kick but County shot wide. Then Steven McGarry’s rasping half volley brought the first of three excellent saves from Accies’ man of the match, Dave McEwan. It was obviously too much for one Accies fan behind our goal as he was ejected from the ground a few minutes later!

Bolstered by the save, Accies grew in confidence for the rest of the first half and had a real go as the game stretched. In the 30th minute Chris Aitken’s beautiful curling shot from just outside the box slipped just past the right hand post with Stewart well beaten.

County would have taken the lead a few minutes from the break but for McEwan’s brilliant save that kept McGarry’s free kick out of his top right hand corner, aided by a Hoops defender who cleared the rebound for a corner. Corcoran then had a flashing cross and shot that went wide.

In the second half it was more or less all County as they sought to clinch the points at their favoured Jail End. They pressured Accies from the 46th minute and you just knew a goal was coming. It says a lot for our defence, though, that County’s 57th minute goal really was a beauty. McGarry turned the defence and shot past McEwan from around 18 yards. Five minutes later, Corcoran made a bursting, twisting run into the box, squared the ball to Tunbridge who delayed slightly before dispatching a low shot past the stricken defenders.

County won a series of corners, including three in two minutes, and McGarry blasted over, but Accies battened the hatches, putting on Arbuckle for Ferguson and Irons for McPhee. We held firm but gave away a needless free kick deep in stoppage time. You feared the worst but McEwan saved well from an awkward low shot.

Apart from our great goalie and the defence, Mark Corcoran and Chris Aitken and The Bee had decent games but the midfield never really got a grip of the game.

Finally, it was good to see the positive reaction at full time from the majority of a decent-sized Accies travelling support. The players appreciated it and let’s hope they take some confidence from this result.

Accies: McEwan, Fyfe, Hodge, Thomson, Mclaughlin, Ferguson (Arbuckle 79), Tunbridge, Aitken, McPhee (Irons 85), Waddell, Corcoran

County: Stewart, Canning, McCulloch, Cowie (their man of the match), Malcolm, Lauchlan, Rankin, McGarry (McSwegan 85), Higgins, Burke, Kilgannon (Mackay 84). County had a sub on from half time, possibly Winters for Burke

Bookings: Aitken

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