Ross County demolish Hearts II 14-0 to break 33-year club record in Scottish Cup

Ross County broke a 33-year-old club record on Saturday, demolishing Hearts II 14-0 in the KDM Evolution Trophy to record the biggest win in the Dingwall club’s history. The result surpasses their previous best — an 11-0 victory over St Cuthbert Wanderers in 1993 — and sends County soaring to second in the group standings, one point behind Clydebank with a goal difference of +22.

The Young Jambos were already in deep trouble at half-time, trailing 6-0, and their afternoon worsened considerably when Robbie Flockhart received a red card with the score at 4-0. Kieran Phillips was the standout performer, netting four times before the break and adding a fifth after the interval to finish with a personal haul of five. Ricco Diack contributed a first-half brace before completing his hat-trick from the penalty spot in the second period.

Chris Hamilton also helped himself to a second-half treble, while Luke McCarvel found the net twice. Jamie Lindsay’s late strike completed the rout and rounded off a day to forget for Hearts’ reserve side.

The win was County’s fourth in the KDM Evolution Trophy group phase, with a final group fixture against Forfar Athletic scheduled for Tuesday, 13 October.

Despite the emphatic scoreline, manager Stuart Kettlewell was measured in his post-match assessment, insisting his players simply followed their instructions throughout.

“I think my biggest focus, as always, is my team,” Kettlewell said. “I think that they treated the game exactly how it should be treated. Fully professional performance. Obviously, it seems a bit bizarre at the number of goals that were scored in the game.”

Kettlewell was clear that he expected nothing less from his squad once Hearts were reduced to ten men. “The fact that Hearts go down to 10 men — I think it was at four at the time — they just continued to do what I asked them to do, which is play the game at fast pace, play to go and score goals,” he added. “If we come here and start stroking the ball about and killing a bit of time, I think we’re kidding people on.”

For those wondering how the result compares to Scottish football’s all-time records, County still have considerable ground to make up: Arbroath’s 36-0 demolition of Bon Accord in 1885 remains the largest recorded margin of victory in the game’s history.