Ross County 3
Dundee 0
League (First Division)

Match Report

Another poor performance from Dundee saw Ross County coast to a 3-0 win at Victoria Park, Dingwall. Hero for the home side was John Rankin who scored all three goals before being substituted late on to a standing ovation from the local support. He was helped though by some atrocious defending from the white shirted Dee, for whom only young Scott Murray came out of the match with any credit. The seventeen year old wasn't at fault for any of the goals and made several good saves to keep out a Ross County side who played some excellent football.

Although this match made painful viewing for the several hundred Dundee fans who had made the three-hour journey north it also highlighted the fact that County play an exciting brand of football, especially at home. This was the best performance of any side against Dundee this season, and ten goals in their last three games suggest that County are genuine contenders for the First Division title. Alan Kernaghan, who was furious with his side after the defeat, told Dundee Online, "We were nowhere near up to any level, you've got a seventeen-year-old making his full (league) debut in goal, and I asked my defenders to defend properly and help him out but that only lasts eight minutes. It just got worse and worse. In the previous two games we've at least had a bit of endeavour and a bit of grit and determination but even that was missing here

"It's only three weeks since we played Airdrie and were abysmal and today we were pretty much the same. At least having been stung by the criticism after the Airdrie game they had a bit of a reaction but it only lasts for two weeks. The players need to react from now until the end of April, not just for a week or two, it has to be constant.

"They are making very hard work of it, it's nowhere near good enough.

"The second half was a slight improvement, but even then we had only two efforts on goal, there was a lack of composure and a lack of doing the simple things well and often, but I've said that often enough before."

Match report written by Dundee Matchday Programme