Ross County go out of the Premier Sports Cup in Dingwall after defeat to much-changed Celtic side who saw Callum McGregor, Georgios Giakoumakis, Daizen Maeda and James Forrest render Alex Iacovitti's header no more than a consolation
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Ross County 1 (Iacovitti)
Celtic 4 (McGregor, Giakoumakis, Maeda, Forrest)
Ross County's dreams of repeating their League Cup run of 2015 are over after being knocked out of this season's competition by Celtic.
The Staggies tried to go toe-to-toe with the reigning Premiership champions early on, but wound up being outclassed and fell to a 4–1 defeat in Dingwall.
Both teams made a number of changes, with Malky Mackay bringing in five new faces compared to the trip to Ibrox last Saturday, and Ange Postecoglous fielding just four of the players who started in Dingwall a couple of weeks ago.
The Staggies were still missing long-term injury Connor Randall and suspended duo Jack Baldwin and Ross Callachan, who were joined on the sidelines by Yan Dhanda as his Premier Sports Cup suspension kicked in after two yellow cards in the group stage.
Despite almost a full team of changes from the 9–0 win over Dundee United at the weekend though, it was Celtic who started the more brightly of the two.
Twice inside the opening minutes they rattled Jake Eastwood's crossbar – first Stephen Welsh was denied a goal when he headed David Turnbull's corner kick, then Turnbull went close himself with a free kick deflected by the wall on to the woodwork.
Still, County survived the early onslaught and in contrast to the last meeting of these teams, seemed determined to harass Celtic's defenders as much as possible all over the park.
Unfortunately for the Staggies, that meant there were also more gaps for the visitors to play through, and they would open the scoring in the 21st minute.
Turnbull's quick thinking at a corner found Callum McGregor in space inside the area, and he had enough time to turn the ball home past Eastwood.
Five minutes later, it was 2–0. Again Turnbull was involved, playing a backheel into the path of Georgios Giakoumakis who finished off the slick passing move by finding the net.
From there, perhaps fearing a similar fate that Dundee United suffered at the weekend, County sat back more and reverted to their tactics against Celtic in the league.
However, they would take a further hit on the brink of half time as George Harmon, playing as a defensively-minded left winger, was forced off injured after pulling up when closing down Celtic's defenders.
The early stages of the second half picked up right where the first ended, with Celtic dominating possession and controlling the game.
However, around midway through the second half the Staggies got a lifeline.
Eastwood hammered a free kick from his own half into the visiting box, and Jordan White nodded it back into the middle of the box where Alex Iacovitti was waiting to head home.
However, whatever spark of hope had been ignited was quickly extinguished as Celtic restored their two-goal advantage.
McGregor's shot from the edge of the box was straight at Eastwood, but the goalkeeper could only parry it out it front of him, and Daizen Maeda reacted quickest to find the net and make it 3–1.
Jordy Hiwula did threaten to reduce the deficit again when he went on a mazy run and forced a full-stretch save out of Benjamin Siegrist.
There was still time for one final goal for the visitors though, as James Forrest picked out the bottom corner from a cut back to send the visiting fans back to Glasgow delighted.
Ross County: Eastwood, Purrington, Iacovitti, Samuel (Hiwula 61), Sims (Olaigbe 79), Johnson, Loturi (Edwards 46), Watson (Paton 79), Harmon (Cancola 46), Tillson, White.
Subs not used: Laidlaw, Munro, Akio, Smith.
Celtic: Siegrist, Jenz, Giakoumakis, Abada (Forrest 55), Mooy, Turnbull, Bernabei, Maeda (Haksabanovic 76), McGregor (McCarthy 76), Ralston, Welsh (Starfelt 56).
Subs not used: Bain, Furuhashi, Jota, Hatate, Juranovic.
Referee: Willie Collum
Attendance: 4801 (3786 away)
