Ross County 1-0 Partick Thistle

Ross County continue to pick up the points after claiming a 1-0 win over Partick Thistle on Saturday.A Craig Curran goal, his third for the club 10 minutes before the break, was enough to secure all three points against 10-man Thistle, who had Kallum Higginbotham sent off for a lunge on Michael Gardyne just before the hour.Thistle had the first sniff at goal in the ninth minute when James Craigen threaded the ball through to Lyle Taylor who fired wide of Mark Brown's left hand postAt the other end County strung a few passes together before a Curran shot was charged down just inside the 18-yard box.The visitors broke upfield in the 11th minute and when Higginbotham cut the ball back for Steven Lawless he failed to test Brown and blasted his shot over the crossbar.After a promising start the game settled down with little in the way of goalmouth action.The next attempt on goal came at the half hour mark when a diagonal ball from Jamie Reckord picked out Jackson Irvine at the back post but the midfielder failed to get direction on his header and the ball flew well wide.But it was County who made the breakthrough in the 33rd minute. Raffaele De Vita sent a dangerous ball into the box which was chested down by Boyce and after his shot was charged down by Paul Gallagher the ball bounced up nicely for Curran to place his header into the corner of the net.County went in search of a second goal and they came close in the 53rd minute when Gardyne turned his marker but his shot was wide of Gallagher's left hand post.Abdul Osman became the first player in referee Alan Muir's book when he was shown a yellow card for a wild challenge on Martin Woods in the middle of the park.Shortly afterwards Taylor had the ball in the County net but he was ruled offside.Thistle's chances of getting back in the match were dealt a blow in the 59th minute when Higginbotham was sent off for a lunging tackle on Gardyne as he was going away from him.Thistle brought on all their subs in an effort to save the game and Ryan Stevenson made an instant impression with a run down the right and a shot into the side netting.It was backs against the wall for County for the last 10 minutes despite having a one-man advantage.But it in a breakaway move in the 87th minute, Jake Jervis headed down for fellow sub Filip Kiss but his shot was brilliantly blocked by Gallagher.Thistle threw everything at County in the dying minutes but the home side held on for another valuable win.ends