PICTURES: Nairn County fans and players celebrate winning North of Scotland Cup after beating Ross County
NAIRN County won their first trophy in 11 years when they defeated Ross County 5-4 to win the North of Scotland Cup.
Hundreds of fans travelled to Grant Street Park in Inverness where they witnessed one of the great cup finals in the tournament’s history.
Ross County took the lead after three minutes when goalkeeper Dylan Maclean was guilty of bringing down Alex Samuel in the box. The striker made no mistake as he fired his spot-kick into the bottom right corner.
Samuel then doubled Ross County’s advantage midway through the first half with a close range header.
But Aaron Nicolson scored twice to make it 2-2 at half time.
His first came in the 32nd minute when Nicolson pounced on defender’s Josh Reid failure to clear a cross from the box and he pounced to fire home from eight yards.
He equalised for Nairn two minutes before half time when he connected with a pass from Ali Gillies and fired past Sean Munro.
Nicolson then claimed his hat-trick midway through the second half from the penalty spot.
But Calum Brown equalised for Ross County in the last kick of normal time to make it 3-3.
Two minutes into extra time, Ben Kelly scored with a curling effort from outside the box which found the top right corner.
But Samuel equalised for Ross County minutes later when he charged into the box before firing a low drive past Maclean.
Just before half time in extra time, Sam Gordon nodded home the winner to give Nairn the trophy.
