THE celebrations were huge at Alloa, a little nervous at Arbroath, and non-existent at Dingwall, where just under 2000 fans saw Ross County miss out on promotion yet again.
That outcome was expected, as County needed an unlikely Queen's Park victory at Gayfield, where it finished 1-1.
When Kevin Tindal was brought down midway in the
second half, and Craig Cooper put away the penalty, everyone at Dingwall knew it was all over for another season.
Even when Ian Maxwell equalised, also from a spot-kick, with 10 minutes left, the County fans knew that this was just the annual teaser so that they could miss out again by the narrowest possible margin.
County at least had done their own job efficiently, although they had to recover from the loss of an early goal to Paul Patterson. An own goal by 'Shire sweeper Brian Ross levelled it and a
double strike on the interval by Billy Herd and Alex Taylor made the points safe. Neil Tarrant and Taylor raised the total to five, their goals sandwiching one by 'Shire's Tony Barr.
Alloa had a carnival occasion as they celebrated a first cham-pionship for 76 years and there was a touch of comedy about the only goal of the game, when Lloyd Haddow's 25-yarder was comprehensively fumbled by Berwick keeper Neil Burgess. Haddow somewhat blotted his copybook by earning a red card for a second booking, while visitor Neil Irvine joined him for an early bath after an off-the-ball incident.
There was high scoring elsewhere, with Albion Rovers beating Montrose for the fourth time this season. Willie Watters opened with his fourteenth goal this term, and an Ian Harty strike and Liam McIlhatton lob made it 3-0 before the break. Colin McGlashan punished a poor clearance to reduce the leeway but a Vinnie Moore free kick raised the home total to four before veteran McGlashan struck again with goal No.21 of the
season.
Martin Mooney put Dumbarton ahead against Cowdenbeath and Darren Murray's equaliser
was quickly nullified by Colin
McKinnon.
The turning point was when Sons' Steve Gow was sent off for bringing down John Paul Burns midway in the second half. Brian Welsh netted the penalty and Alan Ritchie went on to hit a winner for the Fifers.
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