Ross County 1-2 St Mirren: Oisin Smyth earns victory for visitors with late free-kick winner

Oisin Smyth was the St Mirren match-winner as they secured a late 2-1 Scottish Premiership victory over Ross County at Dingwall.

The Northern Irishman found the back of the net directly from a free-kick a minute from time to seal all three points for the visitors, who had earlier been reduced to 10 players when Scott Tanser was shown a second yellow card.

Former County man Alex Iacovitti had opened the scoring in the first half, only for Michee Efete to draw level for the Staggies immediately from the restart.

• How the teams lined up | Match stats
• Live Scottish Premiership table | Watch free Scottish Premiership highlights
• Stream Sky Sports with NOW

After a cagey start in particularly poor conditions, Noah Chilvers went close for the home side when he curled an effort just wide of the mark from the edge of the box.

The deadlock was broken in the 27th minute though, when a former County player came back to haunt them.

Jack Hamilton failed to gather Smyth's free-kick that was swung towards goal, spilling it into the path of Iacovitti, who scored in front of his former fans to put St Mirren 1-0 ahead.

Right on the cusp of the interval, Josh Nisbet let fly with an effort that summed up County's half, going closer to the corner flag than the back of the net.

Just 28 seconds into the second half though, the Staggies did level up as Efete found the bottom corner after the ball fell kindly to him inside the St Mirren box.

Ten minutes after the restart, Tanser was shown a second yellow card for a late challenge on Aidan Denholm, seeing things go from bad to even worse for the visitors.

With around 20 minutes left, Mikael Mandon showed that the visitors still had some threat about them, going close with a shot that took a deflection on the way though.

Smyth would provide another reminder of that with a curling effort in the 78th minute, shortly before Jonah Ayunga forced a good save out of Jack Hamilton.

At the other end, Kacper Lopata fired the ball across the face of goal after gathering the ball from a Chilvers free-kick, only for Akil Wright to fire wide from close range.

But Smyth became the hero as he fired a free-kick from 19 yards out into the top corner in the 89th minute to seal all three points for St Mirren.

The managers

Ross County boss Don Cowie:

"First of all, it's a massive opportunity missed. I was really frustrated at half-time with the group and I thought they reacted really well to score so early.

"When St Mirren go down to 10 men it's perfectly poised for us, but we did nowhere near enough to go on and win the game. We did not test them enough considering they were down to 10 men."

St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson:

"I think the character shown was superb. It was a real tough game and I'm sure Don said the same.

"I thought we deserved the lead at half-time but we started the second half really poorly. Our response to that was terrific. We go down to 10 men and it would be easy to hang in for a point, but we made positive substitutions, with Jonah Ayunga coming on and stretching the game.

"I thought we deserved to win. Arguably there were three penalties in the game, two for us. Killian Phillips' is a certain penalty, there's a handball as well where he saves it on the line and it hits his face. We've also seen penalties given for Ross County's claim at the other end.

"Ultimately, I believe the right outcome has come from the game."

What's coming up in the Scottish Premiership?

• Ross County fixtures
• St Mirren fixtures
• Scottish Premiership fixtures

A £1,000,000 SUPER 6 WINNER!

Tom from Southampton became a millionaire for free with Super 6! Could you be the next jackpot winner? Play for free!