Ross County Relegated in Shock Turnaround as Livingston Complete Stunning Comeback for Promotion
Losing to Livingston FC in an intense Scottish Premiership play-off second leg, Ross County was sent tumbling down to the Championship as the latter sculpted out a phenomenal comeback to clinch a 5-3 aggregate match win and their promotion.
With the draw in the first leg, the tie was evenly balanced as both teams arrived at Dingwall for the decider. Early indications pointed to a dominant Ross County display, rapidly going 2-0 up on the night. Josh Nisbet got to the ball first to open the scoring with the help of a splendid pass from Ronan Hale, the latter then sealed the lead by his calm finish after taking advantage of a mistake made by Stephen Kelly with a quick flash.
At that point, it seemed like County was definitely winning through the play-offs and maintaining their top-flight status for the third consecutive season. However, Livingston put in an outstanding performance and created a huge upset to change things.
It all started towards the end of the first half when Lewis Smith conjured up a moment of pure genius as he carried the ball nearly half the length of the field before hammering a low shot into the corner of the net. That was a game-changer.
A little more than ten minutes into the second half, Livingston came level on aggregate. After the ball had been cleared off the line, Danny Wilson was there to nod home the rebound and make it 3-3 on aggregate across both fixtures.
Only four minutes later, the second knockout punch was landed by Livingston through Robbie Muirhead’s beautiful curling shot into the top corner, which returned to their aggregate lead for the first time in the game.
During the dying embers of the game, Ross County surged forward in a bid to cut the deficit.
However, when almost no time was left, Tete Yengi ran away on a counter-attack and scored impressively to seal the result as well as Livingston’s place in the Premiership.
That was really cruel for Ross County who had to see its top-flight status taken from them. The return of Livingston is definitely a happy one, of course.
