| Date | Saturday, 11 March 2000 |
|---|---|
| Competition | Scottish League Division 2 |
| Fixture/Score | Ross County 3:4 Alloa Athletic |
| Venue | Victoria Park |
| Attendance | 2,331 |
| Referee | Jim Herald |
| Comments | Match Report Report by Mike Tremlett for the Press & Journal. Ross County 3 Alloa Athletic 4 Manager Neale Cooper put his Ross County players through the mill in training yesterday to hammer home a no-pain-on-gain message after the Dingwall men threw away 2-0 and 3-1 leads against Alloa at Victoria Park on Saturday. County tackle the Wasps again at Recreation Park tomorrow and then take on top-of-the-table Clyde at Broadwood on Saturday in what Cooper is billing as a make-or-break week for the Dingwall club's promotion prospects. He said: "Our next two games are must-win matches and I have to be sure the players are in the right frame of mind for them and understand what's at stake. I can't believe we lost Saturday's game from such a good position. "At 2-0 up we lost a goal through 'schoolboy' defending, sheer lack of communication, but when Steve Ferguson put us 3-1 up there should have been no way back for Alloa. The players here need to be made to understand that if they are rewarded for success they've got to feel some pain when they lose. "This was the first of three crucial games in the space of a week. The strikers scored three goals but the defence lost four. That's hard for me to take because when we needed some leadership on the park it wasn't there. "We've got to get the lads up again and do it quickly before we go to Alloa. That Game and the trip to Clyde were big games before this defeat, now they are massive and the guys who dropped us in it this time will have to dig us out on Tuesday night." Record signing Derek Holes capitalised on errors from Alloa's on-loan Kilmarnock goalkeeper Colin Stewart in the 40th and 54th minutes to give County their 2-0 lead, but Willie Irvine pulled one back from the penalty spot four minutes later when County's stand-in keeper, Barry Thompson, tripped David Menelaws. A superb 62nd-minute strike from Ferguson should have had County on easy street at 3-1, but Irvine curled the goal of the game past Thompson in the 67th minute and Alloa grabbed the initiative and the points. Gary Clark levelled in 80 minutes before Martin Cameron stunned the 2,331 crowd with the winner five minutes from time. Relieved and delighted Wasps boss Terry Christie, who saw his side go second in the table, said: "Fightbacks like that say a lot about the character of the side and there's no denying that was a very big result for us. "County were the better side in the first half. They used the wind well and shut us down all over the park. They had the first 70 minutes and probably deserved to be 3-1 up but we had the last 20." |
| Ross County | |
| Manager | Neale Cooper |
| Starting 11 | 1: Barry Thompson, 2: Ian Maxwell, 3: Peter Cormack, 4: Brian Irvine, 5: Kenneth Gilbert 1, 6: Craig Feroz, 7: Mark Duthie, 8: John Fraser, 9: Steven Ferguson 1, 10: Derek Holmes 2, 11: George Shaw |
| Bench | 0: Martin Canning, 0: Paul Kinnaird, 0: Roy McBain |
| Alloa Athletic | |
| Manager | Terry Christie |
| Starting 11 | Colin Stewart, Craig Valentine, Frank Conway, Davie Beaton, Ian Little, Derek Clark, Gerry Farrell, Mark Wilson, William Irvine 2 (1 pen), Max Christie, Martin Cameron 1 |
| Bench | Gary Clark 1, Mark Donaghy, David Menelows 1 |