 |
|
|
|
|
|
e-mail Lorsports
Return to the Main IndexLorsports' Home Page
ROSS COUNTY 1; Alloa Athletic 0 |
A super strike from Alex Bone was enough to give County their first home win of the season.
Bone hit his fifth goal of the season with a cracking 15-yard drive that finally finished off the Wasps.
The visitors only real chance of the game fell to Chris Wood early in the second half, but the striker failed to test home 'keeper Nicky Walker from about 12 yards.
Andy Smith, signed on a one-month loan deal from Kilmarnock, failed to make much of an impact and was substituted by Derek Holmes.
Within a minute of entering the fray, Holmes found John McQuade on the right and the former Stirling player's cross was met by Bone who despatched the ball into the roof of the net for what proved to be the winner.
After an uneventful first half, County took control and a Bone shot was parried by Cairns in the Alloa goal. Darren Henderson was quick to react in the box but he drove the rebound wide of the post.
After Bone put County into the lead, Eddie Cunnington almost added to County's lead, but Cairns was again Alloa's saviour with a spectacular, finger-tip save.
County manager Neale Cooper said after the match: "That was a big one for us and although it is early in the day, the cushion we have on those teams below us in the league is pleasing, particularly after the poor start we suffered."
Ross County: Walker; Escalon (Gilbert, 63), Cunnington, Maxwell, D McKay, Henderson, McQuade, Smith (Holmes, 69), Bone, Millar and Kinnaird (Ferguson, 76). Unused Subs: Gonet (gk) and Irvine.
Return to the Page Index
Alloa Athleatic 0; ROSS COUNTY 0 |
Alloa must have wished that November would never end. Fine home victories over Airdrie and Falkirk had pushed them away from the relegation berths up to eigth place but time, and the season, will stay still for no-one - not even Terry Christie - and the Wasps returned to Recreation Park with a low-key, scoreless draw against Ross County.
Though only two league points and one league position separated the sides before kick-off, the off-field disparity between them was highlighted by County's acquisition of new faces through the week. Mark Perry and Mark McCormick signed up from Aberdeen and Livingston respectively and Owen Coyle arrived on loan as cover for the suspended striker Alex Bone.
Coyle was the pick of the bunch and, though he failed to score, he proved that he has a lot to offer at this level if life in Dunfermline reserves gets too much for him. McCormick and John McQuade both benefited from Coyle's experience as the veteran held up play and brought team-mates into the action well.
That County did not earn full points was down to a solid display from Alloa 'keeper Mark Cairns and a frantic goal-line clearance by Colin Nish, which foiled Brian Irvine two minutes from time.
McQuade, too, will have cause to rue a total mis-kick 10 minutes into the second half when he looked certain to break the deadlock, and new boys Perry and Coyle both took wild swings at McCormick's corner when a goal looked likely.
Not that the visitors had a stranglehold on squandered opportunities. Alloa, who hardly created an embarrassment of chances, scorned a real gift half way through the first half. As the players jostled, waiting for Max Christie's corner, the referee spotted something sinister about Nicky Walker's attention to Nish and awarded a penalty. It appeared a highly dubious decision and Ianin Little did the decent thing by rattling his kick off the bar.
The Wasps were to strike the metalwork again deep into the second half when John Fraser deflected Willie Irvine's cross onto Walker's left-hand post with the 'keeper beaten, and Nish did net on the hour but was denied by the linesman's off-side call.
Despite his tireless running, Nish struggled to impress the scout from an English Premiership outfit, often seeming too ungainly for his own good. The big striker found his name in the referee's book for an outrageously contrived attempt to earn his side a second penalty in a tangle with Brian Irvine that impressed the eccentric official not one bit.
Ross County: Walker; Perry, Cunnington, Maxwell, Irvine, Taggart (O'Neill, 52), McCormick, Ferguson, Holmes (Fraser, 46), Coyle and McQuade (Zahani-Oni). Subs not used: Hamilton (gk) and D McKay.
Return to the Page Index
ROSS COUNTY 2; Alloa Athletic 3 |
Footballers are not a breed noted for the intellect but, even so, the reasoning behind an act of cross folly from Ian Maxwell, the Ross County defender - that inverted the course of the game - was unfathomable.
The centre half aimed two wild kicks at Gareth Evans as the veteran striker fell to the ground shortly after the start of the second half. To compound his stupidity, Maxwell had in fact been awarded a free kick from the incident. It was the culmination of an ugly on-going feud involving Evans and Brian Irvine that had been sparked by a series of hefty challenges early in the second half.
From then on, the home side's play became even more fragmented, in stark contrat to the fluid football that characterised their earlier efforts. Karim Boukraa, who possesses such keen attacking vision, became a forlorn figure on the left flank.
It was he who had tormented the Alloa back line relentlessly in a sprightly opening from the home side. They went into the lead after 15 minutes when Darren HENDERSON'S meek drive spun wickedly off John McQuillan and wrong-footed Guido van de Kemp in the alloa goal.
At this stage, Terry Christie's charges posed virtually no attacking threat as Maxwell and Irvine competently lapped up the frequent high balls. Just as Christie was putting the finishing touches to a tirade of vitriol with which to lambast his players at half time, Evans - who had previously appeared off-colour as Christie's famous duffel coat - popped up to head home an equaliser.
He shot across the body of the protrate Nicky Walker after clinical work from Steven Thomson.
The second half progressed in a pedestrian manner until Maxwell's reckless intervention sparked a pulsating conclusion. First Alex BONE restored County's lead with an audacious shot from 35 yards which seared into the net with van de Kemp helpless.
The gaping chasm left in the home defence by Maxwell's departure allowed Willie Irvine to ghost in between two locum defenders to plant a header past Walker.
Fortunes were to degenerate for the Dingwall side with barely ten minutes to go. Several wretched attempts at clearing an innocent delivery into the area afforded Hamish French the opportunity to hook the ball in with considerable aplomb, much to the delight of the raucous band of travelling fans.
No prizes for guessing who will have been shunned in the corner, staring bitterly into his beer, if the Ross County players reassembled after the match to take in the Scotland game - assuming they had negotiated the renowned wrath of Neale Cooper, their manager. His ire would undoubtedly have been sharpened by this miserable capitulation.
Ross County: Walker; Perry, Robertson, Maxwell, Irvine, Escalon, McCormick, Fraser, Bone, Boukraa and Henderson (Holmes, 49). Unused Subs: Hamilton (gk), Cunnington, McQuade and Taggart.
Return to the Page Index
Alloa Athletic 1; ROSS COUNTY 1 |
Alloa needed three points from this game in order to have any hope of escaping from the First Division relegation zone. With that in mind, they took the initiative from the start, with Ian Little and Willie Irvine testing Gary Hamilton, Ross County's stand-in goalkeeper.
Against the run of play, the Highland side had a golden opportunity to take the lead in the 13th minute, but Karim Boukraa wasted a free header from six yards. Ross County continued to put pressure on the home defence, with Boukraa and Steve Ferguson combining well, but Guido van de Kamp moved sharply to save the well-placed header.
The home side fought back and should have snatched the lead when Gareth Evans cut the ball back to Irvine, but the striker's shot went over the bar. Just minutes later, Evans put the ball into the path of Richard Huxford, who headed weakly into Hamilton's arms.
Neale Cooper, the Ross County manager, freshened up his attackers at half-time, introducing Derek Holmes and Mark McCormick for Boukraa and Martin Prest.
Within four minutes of the resumption, John McQuade tested Van De Kamp with a fierce snapshot from 20 yards out, but the goalkeeper parried the ball away for a corner. Alloa then took the lead in the 69th minute when an Irvine corner was touched on to Little, whose header gave Hamilton no chance.
Ross County were stung into action and equalised in the 74th minute. Alex BONE scored his 15th goal of the season when he headed home a well-placed cross from McQuade. Alloa almost scored an 89th-minute winner when Chris Wood's shot came off the post, and Irvine wasted another opportunity.
Terry Christie, the Alloa manager, considered the draw to be a fair result, and was pleased with his players' performance. Meanwhile, Cooper was delighted to have taken a point from a match in which he had to construct a makeshift side because of the absence of six players.
Ross County: Hamilton; Perry, Robertson, D McKay, Irvine, Cunnington, McQuade (Fraser, 89), Ferguson, Bone, Boukraa (Holmes, h-t) and Prest (McCormick, h-t). Unused subs: Gonet (gk) and Canning.
Return to the Page Index
Lorsports' Home Page