ALLAN Moore failed to break Morton’s Highland hoodoo last night as Ross County came from behind to dump his side out of the Alba Challenge Cup.

The Cappielow men took an early lead through Kevin Kelbie, but County equalised just before half-time and added two second-half goals to ensure their name would be in the hat for the third-round draw.

With David O’Brien out injured, the Ton gaffer, right, decided to drop his conventional flat midfield four in favour of a compact diamond-shaped set-up, with Fouad Bachirou in the holding role, Graeme Holmes at the apex, and Allan Jenkins and Michael Tidser on the right and left.

Morton settled straight into the new system and opened the scoring in the 16th minute when Tidser sent Stewart Kean scampering through on goal with a precise pass.

The striker delayed his shot and ran into Staggies goalkeeper Michael McGovern, but the ball broke kindly for Kevin Kelbie, who swept into the empty net from the edge of the box.

Scott Boyd came to County’s rescue four minutes later when he got back to head off the line after Kean had flicked a Tidser lob over McGovern, who was stranded on the edge of the box.

The visitors were dominating possession and looked in complete control until Kevin McKinlay scored an unfortunate own goal in the 37th minute.

Paul Di Giacomo released Mark Corcoran down the left flank and the former St Mirren winger’s low cross was missed at the front post by McCaffrey, which seemed to take the inrushing McKinlay by surprise as the ball ricocheted off his shin and into the net.

Corcoran was keen to take the credit for the goal and ran to the small band of Ton supporters, who had been taunting him from kick-off, with his hand cupped to his ear.

Morton almost regained the lead a couple of minutes after the restart when Kelbie met a Tidser corner with a glancing header which shaved the outside of the post.

Jenkins had the ball in the net in the 56th minute when he raced on to Bachirou’s slide-rule pass and crashed a shot past McGovern but the goal was ruled out for offside.

Yet it was County who went ahead just two minutes later when the increasingly-influential Michael Gardyne curled a sublime effort into the top corner from the edge of the box.

In the 69th minute, Cuthbert denied Corcoran with an instinctive save at his near post and then flew to his left to tip a Martin Scott volley round the post as the home side assumed control of the match.

Corcoran had a spectacular volley headed off the line by McKinlay before County eventually scored a third in the 90th minute when Scott met Corcoran’s drilled cross with a powerful downward header to seal the win.

Moore said: “I’m delighted with the first sixty minutes as we controlled the game and played the better football, but the own goal gave Ross County a lift and Michael Gardyne’s goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of us.

“But I was disappointed with our professionalism. We were 1-0 up but still playing at 100 miles per hour when we should’ve slowed the game down. We’ll need to learn to be more professional away from home.

“We’re still trying to find our feet and hopefully next time we meet them, we’ll give a better performance.” County gaffer Derek Adams said: “It was a magnificent performance, especially in the second half.

“Tonight was an important win because we’ve beaten Morton so many times, and we wanted to keep that going.”