QOS 0 ROSS COUNTY 0
Ross County lost their place at the top of the Championship table to neighbours Inverness Caley as they failed to break a stalemate with Queen’s of the South at Palmerston. And co-manager Stuart Kettlewell admitted: “We never reached the standard I’d like to have seen and we certainly didn’t deserve to win. “What we did do was nullify a very good attacking side which has been free-scoring of late but we expect a little bit more from our group in terms of creating chances. “It wasn’t much of a spectacle, but we got ourselves a point and we move on.” And certainly from the start there was little for the fans to shout about with defences well on top and the forwards having little scope in advancing on goal. In fact the only chance in the opening half hour came for Queens when Lyndon Dykes turned the defenders only to shoot straight at keeper Scott Fox from close range. The Dumfries side were unlucky not to make the breakthrough when Gary Harkins caught the defenders on the back foot to slip the ball through to Stephen Dobbie whose shot from 12 yards came off the bar and was cleared. The best effort for County came just on the break when Liam Fontaine outjumped Queens defenders to a corner from Iain Vigurs only to see the ball just go outside the post. The Highland side looked the more promising on the restart and Brian Graham was unlucky to see the ball cleared from his feet as he lined up a shot from close range. Best effort at this stage came with an angular free kick from Josh Mullins which just flashed outside the post. County had the bulk of the pressure in the closing stages but the ball just would not seem to run for them. And it was Queens who came closest to breaking the deadlock when a free kick from Dobbie eluded the defenders but was cleared by Ross Draper. Palmerston boss Gary Naysmith said: “It was two evenly matched teams and we slightly edged it and if anyone deserved the three points I would have said it should have been us. “But credit to the lads who have put together three clean sheets in succession.”