Hard-fought draw sets up intriguing Highland derby

It is often said that there are no easy fixtures in league football. Falkirk started the match rooted at the bottom of the Championship table their fans had not even seen a goal scored for their team at their home ground, let alone a draw or a win.

A risky summer transfer strategy left Paul Hartley with a score of players with little or no experience of playing at this level and it has left Ray McKinnon with a lot of work to do.

Nonetheless Ross County treated them with respect, with County’s co-managers naming an unchanged team from Saturday’s resounding win against Greenock Morton.

County started brightly and dominated possession, but couldn’t find a breakthrough in the opening period.

However Falkirk posed a threat against the run of play, with a lot of pace and movement from their forwards Zak Rudden and Deimantas Petrivicius.

A dangerous cross flashing across goal was an ominous sign for what happened after, where a dangerous cross from the left was met by an oncoming Don Cowie, who inexplicably cushioned a header right in the corner of his own goal.

County continued to impose themselves, but with Falkirk sitting very deep and County’s wide midfielders tucking in there was not enough penetration.

It was Falkirk who ended up looking the more dangerous with their pace up top and Andy Irving’s surging runs from midfield. County went into the break a goal down and in my opinion needed to make an early change, with Brian Graham the obvious Plan B.

They made hard work of it but eventually ground out a good result in the circumstances.

It sets up what could be a fascinating Highland Derby on Saturday. and were rewarded with the real moment of quality with Iain Vigurs’ goal.

He’s capable of that – he can do the special things and we needed it tonight.

Thankfully he delivered. We’ll take the point and it won’t be a game that we talk about very often.

Fair play to Ayr United, that’s a great result for them.

The boys are aware that if you don’t win, this league can change so quickly.

Ayr have won and we haven’t and it’s game on – the scrap continues.

We’re only a quarter done in the season and it won’t just be us and Ayr.

There’s a lot of teams in the mix.

It’s a great league. As soon as there’s a chink in somebody’s armour, there’s teams waiting to exploit that.