Date	Saturday, 19 February 2000
Competition	Scottish League Division 2
Fixture/Score	Stirling Albion 3:1 Ross County
Venue	Forthbank
Attendance	661
Referee	Cammy Melville
Comments	Match Report Report by Stuart Darroch for the Press & Journal. Stirling Albion 3 Ross County 1 Neale Cooper admits he has finally run out of patience with his Ross County players after they surrendered meekly to Stirling Albion in the league on Saturday. The County manager could only watch as his strikers failed to trouble Stirling goalkeeper Jason Gardiner for 90 minutes, while his defence managed to hold Albion out for all of 33 seconds, allowing Albion to record their win over the Highlanders this season. The Dingwall club has suffered a downturn in fortunes since the turn of the year and now Cooper is demanding they get their season going again before they blow any ambitions of promotion. The County boss is now hoping to persuade former Aberdeen and Celtic winger Joe Miller to sign on if he is successful in a trial this week. A last minute consolation header by defender Brian Irvine was all County had to show for another lacklustre performance in front of goal. To add to Cooper's striker Derek Holmes was taken off with knee ligament damage and could be missing for several months. Cooper said: "I've spoken to Joe Miller and he has got a few options. But he'll come up to us this week and train with us and we will take it from there. "I had said to the players to keep it tight in the beginning and with only 30 seconds gone we found ourselves a goal down. "We try and look after the boys at the club and treat them as well as we can and now it is payback time. "I thought the tables had turned for us and we were on our way back, but that is now three times Stirling have done this to us. "I just don't see where we are going to get goals from, okay, in the end, we got a consolation goal from big Brian, but he is a defender. I couldn't see anything out there to see how we were going to score. "There have been opportunities for players to come in and show me something, but they have not taken it." Albion struck while many of the fans were still taking their seats. County keeper Nicky Walker did well to block Craig Taggart's effort as he closed in on goal, but the ball broke to John McQuade and he steered the ball into the unguarded net. On-loan Ayr United striker Alex Bone, returning to his former club, doubled the lead in 53 minutes when he stabbed the ball past Walker from six yards. And McQuade sealed the match in 74 minutes when his shot trundled under Walker to complete a miserable day for County. Irvine's looping header in final minute from a Paul Kinnaird cross was more than County deserved in a poor showing. Stirling Albion manager John Philliben, hopes his side can build on this performance as they challenge the promotion hopefuls. He said: "I thought we looked a lot more dangerous than we have done in past weeks and we restricted them to a few chances and that was one of the most important parts for me. "This was an important result for us as it gets us back in the pack again and I think we are only one point away from the group and we have given ourselves a good chance of being up there now."
Ross County
Manager	Neale Cooper
Starting 11	1: Joseph (Nicky) Walker, 2: Craig Tully 1, 3: Peter Cormack, 4: Brian Irvine 1, 5: Kenneth Gilbert 1, 6: Steven Ferguson 1, 7: Paul Kinnaird, 8: John Fraser, 9: Derek Ferguson 1, 10: Roy McBain, 11: Derek Holmes
Bench	0: Franck Escalon, 0: George Shaw, 0: Michael Geraghty
Stirling Albion
Manager	John Philliben
Starting 11	Jim Gardiner, Andy Paterson, Pat Clark, Andy Whiteford, Graeme Donald, Paul Mortimer, Craig Taggart, Jim Gardner, John McQuade 2, Alex Bone 1, Ally Graham
Bench	John Philliben, David Bell, Alex Williams