IF any of Ross County's players felt that their early season woes had been addressed with a win over St Mirren at the weekend, the reception they were afforded by Derek Adams when they retreated to the dressing room at the end of this thrilling cup tie will have disabused them of any such notions.
The manager will, most likely, have raged against his side. An already arduous journey home will have felt even worse given the silence settled over the team bus in the aftermath of Adams' furious tirade.
That his side were overcome by one two divisions below them was bad enough. Worse was the fact Stranraer came from behind to advance to the third round. The SPFL League 1 strugglers trailed at the interval but goals from Sean Winter, Chris Aitken and Martin Grehan earned them the scalp of the Dingwall side, who twice led through goals by Richard Brittain and Orhan Mustafi.
Stranraer had proved a physical side in the opening stages, with Grehan proving a menace to the County backline, and the two teams traded several half chances in the first half. Kevin Luckassen managed to wriggle free from Scott Rumsby before firing a low cross along the six-yard box. Frank McKeown was hand to intercept for the hosts on that occasion but County continued to press, setting the tone for a period of sustained pressure.
However, it was not until just before the half-time whistle that County scored the goal that seemed to have set them on the way to a comfortable victory. A corner was whipped in and collected by Grant Munro, who turned towards goal and went down under a challenge from Sean Winter. It was a soft award but Brittain was not complaining as he sent David Mitchell the wrong way.
Stranraer, however, came back with some spirit. Winter gathered a ball wide on the right before cutting in and beating Mark Brown at his near post. Then, incredibly, the hosts found themselves in front just five minutes later. Brittain bundled Winter over after Aitken's corner and referee Stephen Finnie levelled the penalty count. Aitken stepped up to convert an unstoppable spot kick.
The hosts were only in front for seven minutes, Mustafi scoring from close range after a scramble, but there was still time for another twist as Grant Gallagher surged through the defence before finding Jamie Longworth. His shot was blocked and Grehan was on hand to finish.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article