retired_marcias

Champions League R2 review (part 3)

Ross County vs Newcastle

Wednesday 11th March 2009

So there we were, 2 minutes gone, a goal down at home, 1-4 down on aggregate, one of our best players stretchered off and young Paul Harris on. It wasn't going to weaken the team much because Paul is an excellent young player who has made 70 appearances either from the start or as a sub since coming through our youth ranks, but it still meant an early change that we didn't want to have to make. The Newcastle players were all celebrating infront of their fans as our players trudged back to the centre circle to kick off. I told Paul as I sent him on to just do his best - whatever happened he wouldn't be judged harshly tonight, but that he did have a chance to make a name for himself on the big European stage.

On 17 mins, Richard Rhodes found Steven McGarry and the striker cut infield before firing over the bar. 3 minutes later and it was Newcastle's turn to come close as Jermaine Jenas fired narrowly over our bar. With 27 minutes on the clock we won a freekick in a dangerous position. McGarry lined it up, 25 yards out and fired it around the wall, Shay Given stretching, but turned it over the bar. It was going to be one of those days!

Deja vu on 37 minutes as this time Steven Taylor brought down Ian MacSween on the edge of the area. Slightly closer this time and McGarry stepped up to curl in a lovely shot - Given wasn't to have a chance this time. 1-1 on the night and we were matching Newcastle. Few chances for either side, but we weren't being outclassed. As the second half drew to a close we were on the attack again, winning another freekick. McGarry fired in the cross and Newcastle scrambled it behind for a corner. As the Magpies cleared the resulting corner downfield, Ross O'Donoghue collected in midfield and fed a perfect pass through to Ian MacSween to sidestep the 'keeper and slot home to put us 2-1 up. Suddenly we were back in the tie, just 3-4 down on aggregate and knowing one more goal would send us into extra-time and we had a whole 45 minutes to fight for it.

The hour mark came and went and the home fans were getting jittery, but so were the away fans. Both sides were playing well and chances were appearing in equal measure. Suddenly, David Dunne sent the ball down the wing for Richard Rhodes to chase onto and we were looking dangerous. Rhodes whipped in the cross and the 'keeper came for it, but Ian MacSween beat Given to the ball to knock it down and Keigan Parker poaching in the 6-yard box tapped in the loose ball. The crowd were going wild. Having been down and out so early in the game the atmosphere had been subdued early on, but now it was amazing. 3-1 to us on the night and now 4-4 on aggregate. Away goals were not an issue if the score stayed the same and we'd be into extra time. A goal for Newcastle though would mean we'd have to score twice to win.

The tension was amazing for the last 30 minutes, both sides knowing just how much this meant - a chance of a place in the last 8 of Europe's Premiere competition. Maybe it was that tension that caused the attacking play to deteriorate, but for the next 17 minutes neither side had a shot on goal as Lucio for Newcastle and Nick James and Mark McGlynn for Ross County were in imperious form, cutting out everything, winning headers, winning tackles and generally stopping the opposition from getting a sight of goal.

Just 10 minutes to go and we won a throw-in. Dunne took it, found the head of Darren Ambrose, but as the ball came back, McGlynn fired it forward into the path of young Richard Rhodes. The winger collected the ball in the area and fired in a fantastic shot, beating Shay Given from the angle. This was truly astounding, 0-1 down to 4-1 up and the atmosphere now was like nothing I'd experienced before in our tight packed little ground.

The last 10 minutes were the most tense of my career. We've conceded numerous late goals recently and I was left fuming on the touchline as Rangers netted a 94th minute winner in our last league match. Today though we were inspired and McGlynn and James continued to mop up anything and everything despite a few close shaves with our other players missing clearances. When the full time whistle went the players fell to their knees - this was the greatest moment in the club's history and it was all too much for our young team as the adoring fans chanted and cheered. The Newcastle fans were on their feet too applauding our performance and showing that their reputation as being some of the best fans in Britain is well warranted.

I could write pages and pages about our emotions at the end, but all football fans know the type of feelings, whether it is just a small domestic cup or the Champions League or even a league match - those ups and downs that every football fan goes through, whatever your team.

Another point of note and great credit - we were the only one of the 8 group runners up to get through the 2nd round. Next up we face PSV Eindhoven in the Quarter-finals!

FT: Ross County 4-1 Newcastle United (5-4)

Betis 1-0 Chelsea (2-4)
Juventus 1-1 Dinamo Kiev (2-3)
Lazio 0-1 PSV (0-4)
Lyon 0-0 Inter (0-4)
Man Utd 1-3 Stuttgart (2-4)
Milan 1-0 Arsenal (1-1) - Arsenal win on pens
Real Madrid 4-2 Bayern (4-4) Bayern win on away goals

retired_tonytranbg79

Damn you

retired_marcias

:p

Wednesday 27th May 2009

6 years now I've been at Ross County. After the 1st, this is perhaps my most disappointing. Champions League runs are great, but the league is the bread and butter as far as I'm concerned and our bread was well and truly buttered by Glasgow Rangers this season.

So we had headed into February 4th in the league, the title only mathematically still possible and even that was on a fast timer that soon ran its course. Thanks mainly to Celtic's strong performances in Europe over the past seasons, Scotland still has 3 places in the European Cup for next season so our aim was to take one of those. I am one of those managers who, having been champions for the last 2 seasons feels there's coming 1st and then there's the rest - where we come amongst them doesn't matter - it isn't first. But of course, the way football is nowadays, it's all about getting into those "Champions" League qualifying spots, so top 3 it was that we had to aim for and it wasn't going to be easy.

4 successive away league matches as we turned from January into February didn't help our situation much. 3 of them came before the end of January so are covered earlier, with defeats at Motherwell and Dundee followed by a victory at Dundee United leaving us 3 points behind 3rd placed Dundee Utd. To say that our 3-0 defeat away to Celtic in the first league match of February was inconvenient would be a slight understatement, but at least we had that match out of the way now and Livingston's defeat a day earlier had kept our hopes up that 2nd place was still up for grabs...or at least that Livingston might get dragged down into the scrap so that there were 2 places to fight for rather than just 1.

Between those 4 away games, we hosted Ayr United in the FA Cup. 2-0 up at half time and playing well, we were looking good...2-2 at full time and we were left feeling a little embarrassed, but Ayr are a good side. With the draw for the Quarter-finals pitting the winners of our tie away to 3rd division Airdrie United we were kicking ourselves and were focused strongly on our replay down at Somerset Park. Unusually for us away from home we were confident and quite attack-minded and when Ian MacSween netted in the first minute and again on 7 minutes we were on our way and won 1-3 in the end.

Back in the league we desperately needed to hit some form and off the back of our encouraging away performance at Newcastle we beat Hibs and Hearts, the latter 0-3 away from home! Then came Rangers to Victoria Park and a 94th minute winner from Stephen Hughes that had me hopping mad. We had defended excellently with 10 men since John MacDonald was sent off for a cynical foul on Dean Ashton on 28 minutes - MacDonald evidently realising it was a choice between us going 1-0 down or down to 10-men and he chose the 10-men option! Not that it mattered in terms of our relative position to Rangers - even a high-powered telescope would struggle to pick them out from our league position, but in terms of our battle for a top 3 finish we were looking far from clever.

The victory over Newcastle breathed new life into the players and we embarked on a 10 game unbeaten run that was only ended on the last day of the season by...yes, you guessed it - Rangers. Our played 4, lost 4 record against them in the league this season is a great source of irritation for me, especially having only scored 1 goal and conceded 10. That run of 10 games was far from simple though and whilst the results came, our performances were at times quite appalling!

We hung on for a 2-3 win at Livingston in a crucial match before a highly disappointing 0-0 draw at home to Dunfirmline. A narrow 3-2 home win over Motherwell was followed by a late winner for a 1-0 at home to Kilmarnock. I would have really appreciated at some point a nice comfortable home win were I could relax a little on the touchline, but the players clearly wanted the tense option instead!

And so, having disposed of Airdrie United we headed to Hampden Park for the FA Cup semi-final with Dundee. Quite where our performance that day came from I have no idea - there was no indication in the league matches leading up to it of what was to come. Dundee I guess were just pretty woeful! We only had 12 shots on target, but 7 of them hit the back of the net as Ross O'Donoghue bagged a hat-trick, Paul Harris hit 2 in 2 minutes and Nick James and John Rankin each got in on the action too - quite amazingly for a 7 goal win, none of our strikers was on the scoresheet, although having said that we did only play 1 striker!!

Back in the league and Dundee were the visitors to Victoria Park next. No problem - we just hit 7 against them so this would be easy...or maybe not. 82 minutes on the clock this time as David Winters netted us another unconvincing 1-0 home win. A 1-1 draw at Pittodrie followed before Glasgow Celtic travelled north for another pivotal fixture. Zalayeta gave them the lead on 10 minutes and with 12 to go it wasn't looking good, but in a great rally late on, Ian MacSween equalised before an injury time winner from Mark McColl had me leaping up and down on the touchline like a maniac! I guess I shuld be pleased that we ground out these results whilst not playing well, but a series of late narrow winners in home matches takes its toll. I'm a manager who likes to see his teams perform and entertain maybe even ahead of results and watching us at the moment was like chewing on cardboard. Nevertheless, our fight for a top 3 finish was looking much brighter and Livingston were doing their best to put 2nd place up for grabs too. 3 wins on the trot - 0-3 at Dundee United, 2-1 at home to Livingston (79th minute winner this time!) and 1-2 at Aberdeen saw us secure a top 3 finish and despite getting thrashed on the final day of the season we held 2nd place as Livingston went down at Dundee United.

The final league table shows a 20 point gap between the top 2, but in truth that could have been even larger. Rangers secured the title with 7 games to go before easing off to the season's close. I am looking constantly to progression and our league performance over the last 3 years makes worrying reading:

2006/7 - 80 pts, 98 goals scored
2007/8 - 71 pts, 82 goals scored
2008/9 - 67 pts, 60 goals scored

If that's progress then I'm a Welshman!

And to end on a low note, I must conclude the Champions League story and FA Cup Final. PSV came and played us off the park in Dingwall as we drew 0-0. We headed to Eindhoven and despite playing defensive style played them off the park in the first half, creating 9 shots on goal. We didn't score any though so it remained 0-0 into the second half. Then Andre Ooijer scored on 52, then Theo Lucius scored on 56, then Leandro Bonfim scored on 63, then Mateja Kezman scored on 68. Can't really argue with that - we got hammered 4-0 and to try and claim anything other than that the better team won would be futile. We should have played better at home and taken a lead to Holland, we should have converted some of those chances in the first half in Eindhoven, we should have defended better in the second half, etc, etc, but 4-0 is 4-0 - it's not close, it's not lucky, it's a comprehensive win! The season ended with Aberdeen outplaying us for a 2-1 win in the FA Cup final. The papers said Aberdeen were quite lucky, but I don't know what game they watched. The better side won, we were rubbish, end of story.

I'm not a quitter and don't want to walk away from Ross County, but this season has been full of frustrations. The league is what matters to me and if we fail again next season I may well bid the club goodbye and let someone better take them forward on the next step.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Holders - Rangers Pos Inf Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag G.D. Pts ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st C Rangers 38 27 6 5 82 33 +49 87 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2nd Ross County 38 19 10 9 60 42 +18 67 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Livingston 38 18 10 10 64 42 +22 64 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4th Celtic 38 18 8 12 61 41 +20 62 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5th Dundee Utd 38 16 6 16 48 61 -13 54 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6th Aberdeen 38 13 12 13 55 63 -8 51 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th Kilmarnock 38 12 12 14 45 47 -2 48 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8th Motherwell 38 13 6 19 52 60 -8 45 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9th Hibs 38 10 11 17 48 63 -15 41 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10th Dundee 38 12 4 22 47 70 -23 40 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11th Dunfermline 38 9 12 17 42 49 -7 39 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12th R Hearts 38 7 11 20 43 76 -33 32 </pre>

retired_marcias

Interview from the Dingwall Times on Wednesday November 4th 2009

Ian MacSween speaks to Hamish Brodie on injury, Scotland and Ross County's start to the season

Hamish: Thanks for the interview Ian. It's been a busy start to the season!

Ian: Hi Hamish. Yes, Ross County have started really well this year unlike our last 2 seasons!

Hamish: First, I must ask how your recovery is going Ian. You broke your leg in a pre-season friendly almost 4 months ago now - are you close to a return yet?

Ian: Yes, I'm back in training now and starting to regain fitness, but it'll take me a while to get back to full match fitness. The gaffer is very good about it though and tells me not to rush things and the club are clearly doing fine without me so far!

Hamish: You are the top scorer from the last 2 seasons though so I imagine you are raring to get going again this season?

Ian: I can't wait to get back playing, but I know I have to be patient. It was a real low point for me when I was stretched off at Southampton and I knew it was bad, but I'm looking forward positively now

Hamish: So, onto Ross County so far this season...played 11, won 8, drawn 2, lost 1 so far in the league - you must be delighted with that start after the disappointment of finishing so far behind Rangers last season.

Ian: Yes, it's been a great start and I hope we can continue it. The defeat at Hibs was disappointing because it's always nice to keep an unbeaten record, but we've been solid away and good at home so far. Beating Celtic and Rangers so far feels good too!

Hamish: 9 goals in 2 games Dundee so far this season too!

Ian: Aye, I think both sets of fans in Dundee are sick of the sight of us now. We were delighted with those performances because we've had problems away from home in the past.

Hamish: You're in the League Cup quarter finals as well having fielded a second string to beat Alloa 5-0. Livingston away will be tough though?

Ian: Yeah, we were hoping for another home draw, but we're confident we can win at Livingston again - we won there in a crucial match to take 2nd spot in the SPL last season and we've beaten them at home this season so we'll just have to see how it goes. We would like to win some cup silverware soon though and the league cup is a realistic trophy for us to aim for.

Hamish: Finally on Ross County - you must be delighted with how easily you've qualified for the 2nd round of the Champions League this season with 2 games still left after last night's great win in Stuttgart?

Ian: To be honest Hamish we were really surprised to find that we were through after just 4 games! We knew, like last season that we needed a point at least away from home, but with Porto and Stuttgart both underperforming we find ourselves through already. The defeat in Turin was disappointing, but fully expected and the 2-0 scoreline wasn't too bad. We could yet top the group if we can beat them 3-0 at our place!

Hamish: I must ask you about Scotland also. You won your first cap last year and we all feel should have won more, but you must be ecstatic at Scotland qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in such style.

Ian: Yeah, that match in Italy was amazing - Nick (James) and Mark (McGlynn) were at the back for us just like they have been for Ross County the last 3 seasons and they did a great job to help keep a clean sheet and you can always rely on Kenny (Miller) to score a goal and then to score another for a 0-1 win in Belgium and to remain unbeaten across all our 10 matches conceding just 3 goals was fantastic. Everyone said Italy were favourites for the group and that it was between Belgium and Scotland for 2nd, but we showed them what the Scots can do

retired_marcias

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Holders - Rangers Pos Inf Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag G.D. Pts ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Ross County 11 8 2 1 26 10 +16 26 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2nd Livingston 11 6 3 2 16 9 +7 21 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Dundee Utd 11 5 4 2 18 11 +7 19 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4th Rangers 11 5 3 3 15 10 +5 18 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5th Celtic 11 5 2 4 16 13 +3 17 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6th Kilmarnock 11 4 4 3 16 16 0 16 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th Hibs 11 3 6 2 13 14 -1 15 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8th Aberdeen 11 2 5 4 15 17 -2 11 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9th Falkirk 11 3 1 7 15 16 -1 10 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10th Motherwell 11 1 7 3 10 15 -5 10 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11th Dunfermline 11 2 4 5 16 26 -10 10 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12th Dundee 11 1 1 9 7 26 -19 4 </pre>

retired_tonytranbg79

looking good

retired_marcias

Wednesday 27th January 2010

Football management can be infuriating at times. You have a team that are playing really well and starting to pull clear at the top of the league and then the wheels fall off spectacularly. It's not that we weren't playing well in December, we were dominating games, but the results were totally at odds with the balance of play.

We ended November in a somewhat mixed manner with a disappointing 2-2 draw at home to Aberdeen, a narrow 1-0 defeat at Falkirk and a 2-0 win over Motherwell. Inbetween times we had already secured our place in the 2nd round of the Champions League so defeat in Porto having been 0-2 up was not a big problem.

December saw us fail to win a single game as Juventus came to Victoria Park and won to comfortably top our Champions League group and Livingston knocked us out of the league cup. We also managed only a 0-0 draw away to Kilmarnock before 3 defeats on the trot saw us drop off the top of the table. The successive home defeats against Dundee United (0-1) and Hibernian (2-3) were really frustrating - we created so many chances and should have won both, but we just didn't put away our chances whilst Hibernian's front two were in lethal form. We ended the month with an inevitable defeat, 3-1 at Celtic to leave us 2nd in the league heading into the New Year.

The turn of the year has brought with it a slight change in our fortunes. A Richard Rhodes brace gave us a 1-2 win at Dunfirmline before Raith Rovers were sent packing, 4-1 in the FA Cup 3rd Round as they conceded 2 penalties and had a man sent off in 3 seperate incidents. The home league match with Dundee saw Keigan Parker add to his 2 penalties in the cup match with a 14 minute hat-trick to send us well on our way, Ross O'Donoghue netting twice to round off a comfortable 5-0 win.

A disappointing defeat at Livingston in a match in which we again create more chances than the opposition saw Richard Rhodes put through his own net for Livingston's second before scoring in the correct end 2 minutes later, but it wasn't enough as we went down 2-1. We headed to Ibrox with some trepidation after our recent form, but our performance there was outstanding. John MacDonald and Richard Rhodes gave us two early goals, with Stephen Hughes pulling one back just before half time to send us in 1-2 in front. Dean Ashton scored a late goal for Rangers, but by that time Ross O'Donoghue had fired in twice to put us in an unasailable position, giving us an excellent 2-4 win.

The Champions League 2nd Round draw saw us pitted against Arsenal again after our 2 group matches against the then champions last season. It will be a tough match, but we beat them, scoring 4 goals at Victoria Park last season and our 4-1 win over Newcastle gives us confidence that we can perhaps cause an upset. We'll have to defend better than we did in that 4-3 home win last season though. We also have a home cup tie with Albion Rovers upcoming next month which should see us into the Quarter-finals of the SFA Cup.

Having completed our Youth Acadamey over the Summer and beginning to see the fruits of that now, the extension to our South stand is now also complete giving us a capacity of over 10,000 now.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Holders - Rangers Pos Inf Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag G.D. Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Dundee Utd 22 11 8 3 35 19 +16 41 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2nd Ross County 22 12 4 6 45 25 +20 40 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Livingston 22 10 8 4 29 21 +8 38 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4th Rangers 22 9 6 7 35 25 +10 33 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5th Celtic 22 9 6 7 38 32 +6 33 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6th Hibs 22 7 11 4 29 30 -1 32 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th Falkirk 22 7 7 8 32 26 +6 28 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8th Aberdeen 22 6 8 8 34 38 -4 26 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9th Kilmarnock 22 5 9 8 23 35 -12 24 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10th Dundee 22 6 3 13 26 46 -20 21 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11th Dunfermline 22 3 9 10 25 41 -16 18 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12th Motherwell 22 2 11 9 27 40 -13 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- </pre>

retired_marcias

Match report from the Dingwall Times on Wednesday February 24th 2010

Sensational County crush ailing Arsenal

Hamish Brodie reports on an historic night at Victoria Park:

This was one of the greatest, if not the greatest results in Ross County's history. County played and beat Arsenal 4-3 at Victoria Park in the group stages of last season's Champions League so were confident of scoring goals today, but worries persisted about the defence. These worries seemed to be borne out on 27 minutes when substitue Vierinha, on for the injured Owen Hargreaves cancelled out Nick James' opening header.

Ross County were in no mood to hang around though and bossed Arsenal with a free-flowing style of attacking football, taking risks, but attacking with such pace and panache that Arsenal struggled to halt the tide. Playing with what people considered to be a negative 5-4-1 style formation, County poured forward, attacking down the wings with devastating accuracy.

With 29 minutes on the clock, David Dunne, backtracking in the left-back position turned and played a sumptuous 70-yard pass down the left wing for man of the match Richard Rhodes to chase on to. The County left winger has been in awesome form in recent matches and continued his form tonight, starting with a pinpoint cross for Ross O'Donoghue to fire past Jerzy Dudek.

Just 7 minutes later, Stephen Dobbie rose to win a header, knocking the ball down into the path of Rhodes who charged into the box and blasted home County's 3rd. As the first half drew to a close, County won a throw in on the right wing. Kerr Dodds found John Rankin who fired in a brilliant cross into the 6-yard box for an un-marked Richard Rhodes to fire home the fourth.

Heading in 4-1 up at half time there was a buzz around the 10,000+ fans in the newly extended ground and a great expectation for the second half, but also fears of an Arsenal comeback - many fans remembering being 4-1 up before finishing 4-3 last season. That day, it didn't matter, being a group match, but today every goal would matter for the second leg down at Asburton Grove.

Ultimately, the second half couldn't live up to the excitement of the first and the only true moment of entertainment came as Arsenal's Senderos was sent off. Arsenal defended well with 10 men, but rarely threatened the County goal and despite having lots of possession, the home side failed to create any more true goalscoring chances and had to settle for a 4-1 lead to take to the second leg. Whether they can hold on in 2 weeks time remains to be seen, but fans will travel South with hope that their in-form side can pull of a famous result. County headed into this game off the back of some fantastic league form and if they can carry that through to the away leg they could yet complete a great victory and match last season's performance.

FT: Ross County 4-1 Arsenal (Attendance 10,810)

Elsewhere, Juventus were the only away side to take a lead back for the home leg of their tie.

Newcastle 2-1 Panathiniakos
Deportivo 0-3 Juventus
Ross County 4-1 Arsenal
Dinamo Kiev 2-1 PSV
Real Madrid 5-1 Chelsea
Man Utd 2-0 Olympiakos
FC Bayern 2-0 Genk
Shakhtar 0-0 Ajax

retired_marcias

Article from the Dingwall Times on Friday March 12th 2010

County stonewall Arsenal to setup PSV re-match

Hamish Brodie reports:

In a match with very little of note to report, Ross County defended stoutly at Ashburton Grove on Wednesday with 'keeper Craig Samson in excellent form and right-back Kerr Dodds deservedly winning man of the match. Arsenal's assault on the Champions League title which they won 2 seasons ago shuddered to a halt in a dull, but effective for Ross County, 0-0 draw.

The draw for the Quarter-finals sees Ross County matched against PSV Eindhoven for the second year running, the Dutch side having overcome Dinamo Kiev in the 2nd round. Manager Adam Eckersley was very happy with the draw, saying it would be a chance to avenge last season's defeat and would be a great test to measure how far the club has come over the last year. Eckersley also commented that at this stage of the tournament all teams would be tough to play, but that last season's matches showed him that the club can match PSV, despite having lost 4-0 eventually. The first leg will take place this time at the Philips Stadion in Eindhoven on March 24th.

The full quarter-final draw is as follows:

Newcastle vs Juventus
PSV vs Ross County
Man Utd vs Real Madrid
FC Bayern vs Shakhtar

retired_marcias

Match report from the Dingwall Times on Saturday March 13th 2010

MacSween returns to down Hibs

Hamish Brodie reports:

Ross County continued their excellent recent form with a comfortable 1-4 win at Easter Road today having gone a goal down in only the 2nd minute to Derek Riordan's strike. Ian MacSween, making just his 4th start of an injury ravaged season showed he has lost none of his clinical finishing ability, scoring twice before the half hour to ease County on their way. MacSween missed the first 4 months of the season after suffering a broken leg in a pre-season friendly with Southampton and after briefly returning suffered a knee injury which saw him out injured for another 2 months, but today he returned with a vengeance to score his first 2 goals of the season and will be looking to fire Ross County to further success this season.

Nick James converted a penalty after MacSween was brought down in the area on 39 minutes, before John Rankin wrapped up the win with a neat finish after 50 minutes. This win sees Ross County move 7 points clear of Dundee United who have a game in hand and 8 points clear of Livingston who have played a game more than County.

FT: Hibernian 1-4 Ross County