Ross County cinch Scottish Premiership football for another season after dramatic play-off second leg against Partick Thistle required penalty shoot-out to decide winner
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Ross County 3 (Dhanda, Murray, Harmon)
Partick Thistle 1 (Fitzpatrick)
Ross County 3-3 Partick Thistle on aggregate
Ross County win 5-4 on penalties
A dramatic relegation play-off second leg saw a penalty shoot-out decide who the final team in next season's Premiership would be.
After several VAR checks and end-to-end action, Ross County won 3-1 in 90 minutes to overturn their two-goal deficit going into the match.
That left it up to a shoot-out to determine who would be celebrating when all was said and done – and Josh Sims was the hero as Ross County came out on top.
Knowing that they needed goals from the off, County started on the front foot.
They were nearly gifted a golden opportunity to take the lead in the opening minutes as Partick goalkeeper David Mitchell spilled the ball into the path of Jordan White, but the forward was too wide to feel it was worth shooting.
Ben Purrington, making his first start since October, went close later in the half when Mitchell made another mistake.
David Cancola had sent a teasing cross into the middle, and Mitchell came to claim the ball but didn't get there, allowing Purrington to head past him towards goal – only for Kyle Turner to clear off the line.
Eventually though, Partick settled into the game and began to pose problems of their own.
Brian Graham at one stage slipped in Scott Tiffoney, who saw a half shot half cross go wide of the mark without a teammate bundling it over the line.
Then the visitors may have thought they had won a penalty, as Nohan Kenneh appeared to fell Ross Docherty inside the County box.
Nothing was given in real time, and even after VAR intervened to send Nick Walsh over to the monitor to have another look the man in the middle kept faith with his original decision.
Shortly afterwards though, Partick left no room for error as they broke the deadlock on the day.
Tiffoney's cross from the right went all the way to Aidan Fitzpatrick on the other side, and the attacker skipped past a couple of challenges to fashion space to shoot before finding the back of the net.
It would have been easy for Staggies heads to drop at that point, but Alex Samuel delivered a brilliant cross that was only inches away from being tapped in by White before the half-time whistle blew.
County were again nearly gifted one goal back right at the start of a half, as Darren Brownlie's slip allowed Alex Samuel to race through on goal after the restart.
Although the Welshman's shot beat Mitchell, Partick again managed to clear off the line, this time thanks to Aaron Muirhead.
Still, Partick would pose a threat at the other end, and Connor Randall was needed to clear one effort from Steven Lawless off his own line just after the hour mark.
VAR was called into action again in the 68th minute, asking Nick Walsh to look at a handball claim against Brian Graham that could have given County a penalty.
After a lengthy check, the spot kick was given, and Yan Dhanda converted from the spot to pull one goal back for the Staggies.
It could have been too little too late in the two-legged tie, but County followed it up immediately with a second.
White's flick on found Samuel on the right flank, and he went past his marker before putting the ball on a plate for Simon Murray to tap in, reducing the deficit on aggregate to a single goal.
The momentum seemed to be with County at that point, but it threatened to disappear when Keith Watson was shown a red card for a cynical challenge on Tiffoney that was deemed to be denying a goalscoring opportunity.
Again, though, VAR intervened, and Watson's red was downgraded to a yellow.
With the various VAR checks, there was always going to be lots of time added on, which meant there was plenty of scope for late drama.
Right as the clock ticked over 90 minutes, there was another twist in the tale as Ross County scored another goal.
George Harmon volleyed into the net, and despite a VAR check for a possible offside on White, the goal was allowed to stand – bringing the scores level on aggregate.
Harmon was very nearly involved in a winning goal too, as his cross was put back into the middle by Josh Sims towards Murray, who blazed over the bar from six yards out with the last kick of the 90 minutes, meaning the game would need extra time.
Knocks for both sides allowed for something of a reset at the start of the extra 30 minutes, but County had the first good chance to take the affregate lead.
A Jack Baldwin long-throw caused some disruption in the Partick backline, and the ball eventually came to Samuel to try and force a header goalwards – only to see it drop on top of the crossbar.
Tiffoney then went up the other end and shot from the edge of the box, forcing Laidlaw into a solid save.
Partick had another chance to finally seal the win at the start of the second half of extra time when Danny Mullen – just on as a substitute – turned into space inside the County box only to shoot well over the bar.
Stuart Bannigan then did the same when teed up to strike from close range after excellent hold up play by Graham.
With those missed chances, the sides could not be separated, and a penalty shoot-out was needed to determine the winner.
It went all the way to sudden death, but eventually Josh Sims was the hero as he scored the winning penalty to keep Ross County in the Premiership.
Ross County: Laidlaw, Randall, Baldwin, Watson, Purrington (Harmon 60), Cancola (Sims 85), Dhanda, Loturi (Tillson 85), Kenneh (Murray 57), Samuel, White.
Subs not used: Munro, Williamson.
Partick Thistle: Mitchell, McMillan, Holt, Brownlie, Turner, Tiffoney, Graham, Lawless (Mullen 106), Fitzpatrick (Bannigan 72), Muirhead, Docherty.
Subs not used: Sneddon, Dowds, Smith, McKinnon, Hodson, Owens, Mackenzie.
Referee: Nick Walsh
Attendance: 4533
