Steven Craig was the goalscoring hero as he came off the bench to net two goals in the final 5 minutes of the game to ensure the Staggies picked up all three points against a determined Queen of the South side.

Despite having had the better chances throughout the game and forcing Lee Robinson in the Queens goal to pull off some excellent saves, it looked as if County faced a battle just to hold on to a draw when Stuart Kettlewell was sent off with 20 minutes of the game to go. Gus MacPherson's side tried to make their numerical advantage count as they enjoyed their best spell of the game, but they were unable to capitalise before Derek's substitutions proved the deciding factor in the match.

Richard Brittain replaced Kurtis Byrne in the wake of the dismissal, and it was his ball from the heart of midfield which picked out the run of Gary Miller who played it across to Craig to finish neatly from 12 yards with his first touch of the game less than a minute after he had replaced Colin McMenamin. The icing on the cake came in the 90th minute when determined tackling by Rocco Quinn on the halfway line won the ball back for the third substitute Paul Lawson to use a great ball to release Craig who showed great strength to hold off the defender and great composure to finish clinically from a difficult angle.

It was certainly a morale boosting victory for the County team and fans alike, with the performance over the whole 90 minutes as well as the determination shown when reduced to 10 men giving real evidence of the team's progression and gelling as a group.

However there's no chance for them to rest on their laurels, with trips to Hamilton in the Scottish Communities League Cup on Tuesday and Falkirk on League business on Saturday sure to provide a stiff test.