Liam Donnelly’s red card turned the game in Ross County’s favour as they defeated Kilmarnock 2-1 to leapfrog the Ayrshire outfit in the Scottish Premiership table.
It had looked like the visitors were in control in Dingwall after taking the lead in the 39th minute through Corrie Ndaba.
A second yellow card for Donnelly on the hour mark changed the game completely though, with Jordan White’s goal immediately afterwards and an own goal from Joe Wright in the 82nd minute ensuring the points remained in the Highlands.
In wet and windy conditions, it took half an hour in for the game to come to life.
Marley Watkins connected with a cross from Daniel Armstrong first to go close for Killie, who then saw Robbie McCrorie called into action immediately afterwards at the other end to keep out a long-range effort from Ronan Hale.
The visitors nearly benefited from a moment of magic from Stuart Findlay with just under 10 minutes to go until the interval, as he waltzed through half of the County team and into the home box before being denied by Ross Laidlaw.
Shortly afterwards though, an excellent strike from Ndaba from the edge of the box broke the deadlock, powering the ball past Laidlaw and into the bottom corner to give Kilmarnock a 1-0 lead.
Although Kilmarnock appeared to be in control of the game, it all changed after an hour.
Donnelly, who had already been booked for kicking the ball away, cynically pulled back a charging Noah Chilvers and was given his marching orders.
From the resulting free-kick, taken by Chilvers himself, the ball eventually fell to White to fire in from close range after the visitors failed to clear their lines.
With just under 10 minutes to go, County completed the turnaround.
Again it was a set-piece taken by Chilvers that did the damage, swung in towards Akil Wright, but it was Killie’s Joe Wright who got the final touch to send it into his own goal and put the Staggies ahead.
Killie thought they might end the game with nine men when Joe Wright was shown a red card on the pitch, but referee Matthew MacDermid was called over to review the decision by VAR Andrew Dallas and downgraded the punishment to a yellow card.
What the managers said:
Ross County manager Don Cowie: “I spoke to the group prior to the game about fighting your corner against
Kilmarnock.
“They make it difficult for you and for the first half-hour we did the basics really well. We came off it slightly for 10 minutes and that’s where we got punished.
“In the second half it was about having a bit more intent and threat, and the sending-off has a bearing on that, but we earned that with Noah Chilvers turning and running away from his opponent.
“His qualities are different to the other attacking midfielders we have and it’s about him showing that on a consistent basis.”
Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes: “Connor Randall had a two-footed challenge against David Watson.
“The first booking for Donnelly is poor, and you don’t always see those being given a yellow card.
“I think the second one is harsh – he does everything he can not to pull the boy back.
“The Randall challenge is worse than the one Brad Lyons got sent off for at Pittodrie, so we’ve got to look at ourselves, but we’ve been harshly dealt with.
“I don’t know how they think Joe Wright’s challenge at the end is a red, but thankfully the right decision is made in the end.”