WITH around 37 minutes on the clock, a single moment flashed by and the difference between these teams became clear.
Livingston were 1-0 up when Stephane Omeonga drifted into space just beyond the nose of his manager and picked up the ball. He stopped, assessed his options, and pulled at the County threads, waiting for a gap to open.
Right on cue, Blair Spittal gingerly moved forward, more out of obligation than anything else. It was exactly what Omeonga wanted. Moving the ball back, he flicked it through Spittal’s legs, motored beyond him and found a teammate to sound the horn on another advance towards Ross Laidlaw’s goal. Meanwhile Spittal, now 10 yards behind the play, was still trying to figure out exactly what had happened.
A fine Ayo Obileye penalty had given Livi the lead at the time, but Omeonga’s flick was an hour of this game in a nutshell. The Lions looked up for the all-Premiership clash in the key moments and Ross County, assembled as some sort of makeshift Lego which didn’t have all the pieces, took an age to get going. When they did, it was too late.
With 173 miles already on the tank, the travelling Ross County fans were making the most of their day out and it’s a shame their team didn’t do the same. The supporters were in fine voice, despite the fact that, as far as draws go, this wasn’t exactly one with the “oooooft” factor.
Those were elsewhere, but the chance of a “sexier” tie must have been one of the carrots on the end of the managers’ sticks. As was the opportunity for both to pop their Scottish Cup cherry.
County’s 2010 final is the closest either have come to winning the thing, which made it all the stranger that Malky Mackay set his team out so passively. With his much-changed side - he made six in total from the midweek win - bursting to the brim with full backs and the usually influential Ross Callachan shunted onto the right, they struggled to find any sort of rhythm in the first-half, a deflected shot from Ben Paton and Jack Burroughs effort about all they could muster.
But this was as much down to County as it was to Livi. Maybe it was the sliver of reassurance of their extra two points in the league, but they could not have been more chalk to their guests’ cheese.
After a relatively quiet opening 15 minutes they went for County’s throats. Omeonga was at the heart of it all, drifting into pockets of space to pick up the ball and orchestrate the play.
There was a sense of the inevitable about the opener, but it was totally avoidable from Mackay’s point of view. Jack Fitzwater’s ball over the top should have been cleared by Declan Drysdale, but as Bruce Anderson appeared from thin air to nip in ahead of him, he panicked and barged the striker over in the box. Obileye stepped up and, with about as much certainty as it being cold in West Lothian in January, he slotted beyond Ross Laidlaw.
At least County were better after the break. Alex Samuel, who had earlier failed to beat Max Stryjek when the odds were in his favour, did the same with a point-blank header just five minutes into the second-half. Jake Vokins’ scooped cross had been perfect but the effort was anything but.
Stryjek was forced into another fine save down his right from Callachan and Dominic Samuel lived up to his namesake in heading a fine chance wide as County looked to make the most of their new-found urgency.
The loss of Omeonga - taken off after 55 minutes having clearly run his race - will go some way to explaining the changing of the tide. Still Livi had efforts of their own.
Bailey drove wide after a fine run and had they not been so wasteful when in good positions - substitutes Forrest, Jack McMillan, and Joel Nouble, impressive in his cameo, were all culpable - they might not have faced a nervous wait as the clock ticked down.
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