Ross County held on to claim a 2-1 victory against Dundee United, in a thrilling game at Victoria Park.
County netted twice in the first-half, courtesy of Liam Boyce’s penalty and Andrew Davies’ strike.
United responded strongly after the break however, and reduced the deficit thanks to a wonderful long-range strike by Sean Dillon.
The Tannadice side were unable to find a leveller though, with County goalkeeper Scott Fox making numerous excellent saves throughout the 90 minutes to help his side claim all three points.
County manager Jim McIntyre went with the same side that defeated Kilmarnock 4-0 at Rugby Park the previous weekend, having made five changes to his team for Tuesday’s 2-0 League Cup victory against Ayr United.
United manager Jackie McNamara handed a debut to new signing Billy Mckay, who joined the Arabs the previous day on loan from Wigan Athletic. County had been interested in taking the former Caley Thistle attacker to Dingwall, however he was handed the task of unlocking a Staggies defence he tormented during his three and a half year spell with their Highland rivals. The Northern Irishman was looking to continue a run that had seen him find the net on his last three visits to Victoria Park.
Mckay was one of three changes made by McNamara from the side defeated 3-1 by Celtic the previous weekend. Also coming in were John Rankin and Ryan Dow, with Robbie Muirhead, Scott Fraser and Coll Donaldson dropping out.
County were first to threaten, with home debutant Jonathan Franks crossing in for Liam Boyce to nod over the bar within the opening three minutes. Boyce threatened again with another attempt, cutting in from the right channel before having his shot beaten away by goalkeeper Luis Zwick.
At the other end, Staggies goalkeeper Scott Fox was called into action to parry away Blair Spittal’s free-kick.
The hosts were gifted the lead shortly afterwards however. After Rankin had cleared Craig Curran’s close-range effort off the line, the ball broke to Franks who returned it into the middle, with defender Mark Durnan handling the ball under pressure from Liam Boyce, resulting in referee Craig Thomson pointing to the spot.
Boyce stepped up to cooly slot the penalty home, tucking it low into Zwick’s bottom right-hand corner despite the goalkeeper diving the correct way.
United looked for a quick response, with Chris Erskine firing wide after finding a decent shooting position.
Within the space of two minutes, midfielder Dow had two glorious one-on-one opportunities to level, but Fox stood tall to block on both occasions.
The saves proved crucial, as County broke away to double their advantage. Franks was again at the heart of it, having initially been unfortunate to see his shot cleared behind goal off the line by John Souttar, with the Englishman then providing the corner from which captain Andrew Davies thumped home his second goal in seven days, with a first-time volley from 14 yards.
United looked bright after the interval, with Spittal applying just too much weight on his pass towards Mckay, before McGowan fired a snapshot over the bar.
There was no stopping the goal that brought the Arabs back into the game however, as the ball fell for defender Sean Dillon to fire a 30-yard screamer into Fox’s postage stamp corner, halving the deficit.
The goal fired United right up, and they were inches away from an equaliser soon afterwards when Spittal’s free-kick was superbly tipped on to the crossbar
Spittal free-kick on to the bar by Fox.
County could have regained their two-goal deficit when Irvine ran through on goal, but saw his low shot blocked by the legs of Zwick, with the Staggies holding on for the three points.