| Date | Saturday, 04 November 2000 |
|---|---|
| Competition | Scottish League Division 1 |
| Fixture/Score | Ross County 3:1 Greenock Morton |
| Venue | Victoria Park |
| Attendance | 2,506 |
| Referee | Eric Martindale |
| Comments | Match Report Report from the Press & journal. Ross County 3 Greenock Morton 1 Ross County got the 5-1 drubbing by Airdrie out of their system by scoring three goals for the first time this season in an entertaining 3-1 won over Morton at Victoria Park. But it took a super strike from Craig Taggart within a minute of the restart to finally kill off the threat of a Ton revival. The visitors knew it was not going to be their day when Paul McDonald missed from the penalty spot in the 57th minute. County manager Neale Cooper said: "It was really important for us to win after that defeat by Airdrie. We created a lot of chances and scored three goals, but the down side is that the score could easily have been 6-4 because we let them get in behind us and they also missed a number of chances." Morton boss Allan Evans said: "We created more chances in this game than we have done in the last eight or nine games, but we lost amateurish goals." County got off to a flying start when Alex Bone notched his eighth goal of the season after Steve Ferguson had set up the chance. Derek Holmes doubled County's lead in the 22nd minute when he forced the ball over the line from another Ferguson pass. County took their foot off the pedal and showed Morton more of the ball and, with four minutes left in the first half, the Greenock side pulled one back when Ross Matheson slid home a Karim Boukraa cross at the near post. John McQuade replacer John Fraser at the start of the second half as County reshaped their midfield and, within a minute of the restart, Taggart bulleted home a superb 25-yard drive to restore County's two-goal lead. Morton were thrown a lifeline when Darren Henderson climbed on Henry Curran inside the box and referee Martindale pointed to the spot. But McDonald was too casual in his run-up and he skied the ball well over Nicky Walker's cross-bar. Ferguson almost added a fourth for County seven minutes later when he struck the base of Andy Carlin's left-hand post with a long-range effort. |
| Ross County | |
| Manager | Neale Cooper |
| Starting 11 | 1: Joseph (Nicky) Walker, 2: Edward Cunnington, 3: Ian Maxwell, 4: Brian Irvine, 5: Darren Henderson, 6: John Fraser, 7: Kenneth Gilbert, 8: Steven Ferguson, 9: Craig Taggart 1, 10: Derek Holmes 1, 11: Alexander Bone 1 |
| Bench | 0: Garry Hamilton, 0: David MacKay, 0: Allan Lees, 0: John McQuade, 0: Craig Campbell |
| Greenock Morton | |
| Manager | Allan Evans |
| Starting 11 | Andy Carlin, Derek Anderson, Robbie Raeside, David Murie, Paul McDonald, Andy Millen, Garry Tweedie 1, Harry Curran, Stephen Aitken, Ross Matheson 1, Karim Boukraa |
| Bench | David MacGregor, Darren Davies, Ross Robb, Trialist |