Date	Saturday, 18 February 2006
Competition	Scottish League Division 1
Fixture/Score	Airdrie United 2:3 Ross County
Venue	Excelsior Stadium
Referee	Alan Freeland
Ross County
Manager	Gardner Spiers
Starting 11	1: Stuart Garden, 2: Lionel Djebi-Zadi, 3: Neil McDonald, 4: James Lauchlan, 5: Sean Webb, 6: John Rankin, 7: Don (JNR) Cowie 1, 8: Kevin McKinlay, 9: Mark McCulloch, 10: Sean Higgins 1, 11: David Winters 1
Bench	0: Joseph Malin, 0: Fergus Tiernan, 0: Stuart Anderson, 0: Craig Gunn, 0: Gary McSwegan
Airdrie United
Manager	Sandy Stewart
Starting 11	Stephen Robertson, Neil McGowan, Fraser Coyle, Steven McDougall, Graeme Holmes, Stevie Docherty, Willie McLaren, Stephen McKenna, Brian McPhee 1, Steven McKeown, Bryan Prunty 1
Bench	Lee Hollis, Paul Lovering, David Dunn, Kevin Barkey, Gary Twigg
Attendance	1,119
Match Report	Match Report Report from the Press & Journal. Airdrie United 2 Ross County 3 Ross County caretaker boss Gardner Speirs will have further talks this week about his future as his side continues to battle for promotion from the First Division. Speirs has done an outstanding job since taking charge and has instilled a fighting spirit in the side which shone through. But when questioned about his position, he would only say: "We will just see what happens. "I prefer to focus on the players and I do not want to upset things while we are on a run. I think the players have a lot of belief and you could see that out there. We were not at our best and tired after a heavy schedule, but showed a lot of character." Speirs will give his players a couple of days off to rest after a busy time, which included a Scottish Cup tie against Falkirk. He added: "There is still a long way to go, but we are only six points behind and all the teams will drop points between now and the end of the season." But Speirs received a lift from goal scorer Don Cowie who said: "Training has been different class since Gardner took over and he is doing a great job." County showed the killer touch when they took advantage of an unhappy first 45 minutes for young Airdrie United defender Fraser Coyle--who must have been furious with himself on his his 21st birthday. Firstly, Coyle failed to cut out a Sean Higgins through ball and David Winters opened the scoring with an 18-yard drive. And after Brian McPhee headed in a Graham Holmes cross for the equaliser, Coyle again made a hash of things when he allowed Don Cowie to rob him. But credit to Cowie for taking full advantage as he sent in a superb cross for Sean Higgins to head in Ross County's second goal from close range. A sympathetic Airdrie manager Sandy Stewart took Coyle off at the interval and said: "The boy is distraught and there is nothing I can say to him. "I had no choice but to take him off as he had gone. We will have to build him up." With County now looking for the kill in the second period they extended their lead approaching the hour mark when Cowie drove home from eight yards to make it 3-1 to the visiting, far-travelled Dingwall men. Although former Aberdeen and Caley Thistle forward Bryan Prunty pulled one back for the Lanarkshire Diamonds, it was County who were happy at the end with taking three points on the road as Speir's stock increased even more.