Mountains, lochs, moors...back to The Highlands (The Lisbon Lions Challenge)

[glamdring]

21:11

Jonathan Pearce: It's a goalkick for Inter, Arteta is still off the pitch receiving treatment after his collision with John Rankin. Pazzi plays it short to the substitute Barrone, Barrone looks up, looking to build from the back as he picks out Emre in the centre of the midfield, the Turkish winger turns plays a fantsatic pass through the Ross County defence and Martins has got away behind the defence here - this is real danger for County...It's MARTINS and it's 2-2!!!!!! A fantastic defence-splitting pass from Emre Belezöglu and Martins was onto it like grease lightening to fire the ball past Craig Samson in the County goal. The Inter fans are going wild, but the County fans look dejected away to our left - they know this is suddenly a lot more difficult again now with under 25 minutes left...it's Ross County 2 Inter Milan 2.

John: Well, what can I say Jonathan? A wonderful passing move from Inter, starting with the goalkeeper Pazzi, to Barrone, on to Emre and a delightful throughball to Martins, the Ross County players didn't get a touch during the entire move. This will be really tough for the County players to come back from now - having been ahead twice against a side creating more of the chances this goal will really floor them. They have to recover quickly here Jonathan or else I can see Inter going on to get a 3rd and maybe even a 4th the way they are playing now.

21:13

Jonathan Pearce: ...and that's a great ball through there from Emre again...he's set Pinga away into the penalty area, Pinga shoots and it's turned away brilliantly by Craig Samson, but PANDEV IS THERE!!!! Ohhh, how on earth did the substitute miss that?!! He had the goal at his mercy from Samson's outstanding save and he pulled it back wide from just 7 yards out...

John, how on earth did Pandev miss that?!

John Collins Ohhh, Jonathan, I really thought that was in - I can't believe Pandev missed that! He's only been on the pitch 2 minutes, but that was a gilt-edged chance - it was easier to score than pull it wide as he did there. It was another great ball through from Emre to set Pinga clear and it was a good shot from the Brazilian and Samson did superbly to turn it away, but straight into the path of Pandev...ohh! I just can't believe he missed that, even you could have put that away Jonathan!!

21:22

Jonathan Pearce: Well, we're heading into the last 12 minutes now and it looks like another Ross County substitution. It's Steven Davidson who is coming on and it looks like the substitute Andy Williams coming off so it's a defender for a striker...

John, what do you make of that?

John Collins: Well, I'm pretty sure Adam is doing what I suggested earlier Jonathan, I don't believe he'll switch to 5 at the back and just 1 up front - I'm almost certain he'll throw McGlynn upfront now and Steven will slot in at the back...and yes, it looks like that is what is happening...

21:27

Jonathan Pearce: Almost 83 minutes on the clock here and Ross County have won a corner - it's still Ross County 2 Inter Milan 2...David Winters is trotting across to take it and the big central defenders are coming forward - Nick James and Steven Davidson are both up there looking to position themselves in the box for a bullet-header. This would be a perfect time for Ross County to score a 3rd. Here comes David Winters then with the outswinging corner...

[glamdring]

21:27

Jonathan Pearce: Winters swings it in and Pazzi gets there to fist the ball away, but he didn't get much power on that punch...Nick James collects on the edge of a crowded penalty area - he's looking for the gap, but can't find one...Martins gets in there with the tackle, but only as far as Davidson who picks the ball up and turns to pass back to John MacDonald in the centre circle - this move seems to be petering out here. MacDonald feeds a great ball wide to Richard Rhodes though and this is a great opportunity for Ross County...Rhodes collects the ball on the left of the area, he's being shadowed by Iván Córdóba, but he cuts inside brilliantly and squares the ball...and that's a fantastic save by Pazzi in the Inter goal and it's scrambled away for Martins to pick up and bring the ball away...

Oh John, what an opportunity that was for Keigan Parker?

John Collins: He should have scored Jonathan - it was a top class save from the 'keeper, but Parker fired it straight at him. I have to say though that that was truly brilliant play from Richard Rhodes - we've seen him do it so often in Scotland, but it's the first time today he's really got into the box, he just dropped his shoulder, left Córdóba for dead and layed it across the goal to put it on a plate for Keigan Parker and ohhh Keigan should have put that away - he'll not get a better chance to score the winer in a cup final than that and County may really come to regret that miss...

21:28

Jonathan Pearce: Sorry to interrupt John, but van der Meyde is coming away down the right here with the ball as Inter look to break upfield...it's still van der Meyde, coming forward with purpose unopposed down the right...it's still van der Meyde and he gets the cross in and Emre is there with the header, but that was an outstanding save by Craig Samson from a point-blank header by Emre - that was a real opportunity for Inter and a worldclass save from Samson

John, a quick word on that chance before the corner...

John Collins: Again, he should have burried it Jonathan - we've seen two top class saves in the last 2 minutes, one at either end, but to be honest both chances should have been put well beyond the reach of the goalkeepers...

21:29

Jonathan Pearce: So it's a corner to Inter now with just 6 minutes to go, the score still level, Ross County 2 Inter Milan 2 as Emre steps up to swing in the corner...

[glamdring]

21:29

Jonathan Pearce: Here comes Emre with the corner towards the near post, it's MARTINS WITH THE HEADER, turned away desperately by Craig Samson, but DE MARTINO IS THERE!!!!!!! That surely has to be the winning goal, and it's the substitute, scoring on his debut with 5 minutes left of the European cup final, I don't believe it!! Raffaele De Martino!!! He's been at Inter for over a season without playing a game, but now he's come on as a substitute and surely scored the winner!! The Ross County players are on their knees...there was nothing Craig Samson could do about that - he got to Martin's header to turn it away, but there was no way he could get to the tap in from De Martino and surely now Inter Milan have taken the European Cup back to Italy...oooh this is such cruel luck for Ross County having lead twice on the night, to concede a goal just 5 minutes from time - surely there's no way back from this?

John, what can I say?

John Collins Oh, Jonathan, I'm gutted!! All credit to Inter - they've battled back from a goal down twice, having created far more of the chances and to try and give an honest unbiased view, they do deserve to win the cup I think, but this is such a cruel way for it to all end for County after such a brave effort. We shouldn't write them off yet though - remember the Borrussia Dortmund game and the 2 goals in the last 7 minutes, but that was a 2nd Round match, this is the European Cup final and the Ross County players just look absolutely shattered.

21:31

Jonathan Pearce: Ross County kick off and they have just 5 minutes to try and get an equaliser here - it's Ross County 2 Inter Milan 3...Rankin receives the ball from Parker and sprays it wide to Alan Reid, Reid looks up and looks to play a return pass, but Rankin has been fouled there by Pinga in the centre-circle - it'll be a freekick to Ross County...

21:32

Jonathan Pearce: Steven Davidson takes the freekick and that's a great ball wide to Richard Rhodes on the left...Rhodes whips the cross in and it's McGLYNN!!!!! Inches wide from McGlynn!! I thought that was in and so did half the stadium!! That was such a perfect opportunity - McGlynn rose ahead of his marker 8 yards out and powered his header just inches wide of the goal...

John, County's last chance do you think?

John Collins: Well, you never know what is to come until the final whistle blows Jonathan, but they won't get an easier chance than that to get the equaliser - it wasn't a trivial header, but a player of McGlynn's aerial ability should have put that beyond the 'keeper Jonathan...9 times out of 10 he'd have scored that no problem...

21:37

Jonathan Pearce: And there's the final whistle!! Inter Milan have won the European Cup! It's heartbreak for Ross County who twice lead the Italian giants, but in the end, not even the heroics of Craig Samson in the County goal could keep the Italians out. On the balance of play it was a deserved win for Inter, but County pushed them all the way and can hold their heads high after this performance. The County players are all looking utterly dejected and it will be hard for them to pick themselves up from this, but they will learn huge amounts from this experience and I have no doubt that they will be back next year stronger and who knows, they might even make the final again.

John, final thoughts on the match from you?

John Collins: Yeah, I'm gutted that County's team of Scots couldn't bring the cup back for us, but you have to say Inter deserved the victory on the day - both sides had a fair few chances and the score could have been even higher. County will be back next year, no question Jonathan - Winters and Parker are their oldest players, but they are only just turning 30 - they have a few years left in them yet and for the rest of the team - they'll carry on getting better and better...bitter disappointment tonight, but they can look back on the run to the final and on their performance tonight with great pride.

Jonathan Pearce: Ok, thank you John. We'll be back soon with reaction to the game, but for the moment we'll hand back to the studio for the news headlines with the news from here that the final score is Ross County 2 Inter Milan 3

[This message was edited by glamdring on 19 March 2004 at 1:55.]

[glamdring]

21:42

Jonathan Pearce: Welcome back to the Lerkendal Stadion in Trondheim, where Inter Milan have just beaten Ross County by 3 goals to 2 in a truly memorable cup final to win the Champions Cup for the first time since 1965. Ross County twice took the lead, but Inter came back strongly and won with a goal in the 85th minute...Roddy Forsyth has recovered a little from his sore-throat and I think he's down in the tunnel with some of the Ross County players now. Roddy?

Roddy Forysth: Thank you Jonathan. Yes, I'm here with Nick James and Keigan Parker. Nick, I know you used to stand on the terraces at Victoria Park as a young lad and watch Ross County back in the 3rd Division. Could you ever have believed you'd be involved in such a great European cup final?

Nick James: It's only great when you win Roddy. Maybe tomorrow we'll feel some sense of pride in what we've done, but at the moment we're all just totally shattered. We didn't just come here for the day out - we came to win and we've failed.

Roddy Forsyth: I know you and Kerr Dodds are very close friends. Do you think the team missed his presence today?

Nick James: Of course Roddy. Young Alan Reid is a great player, but he's played further forward for us most of the season so we had to do without him in a more creative role and he had to do his best in an unfamiliar position. Kerr is a really talented player and we grew up together through the Ross County youth team - he's 3 years older than me and broke into the senior side before me, but he's been a great friend and mentor for me and he was sorely missed today - we can't deny that. We wanted to win it for him and for our other lads who missed out - David, Paul and Ian, but we didn't.

Roddy Forsyth: Keigan - you scored a great goal today - is that some consolation for losing in the way you did?

Keigan: None whatsoever Roddy. It doesn't matter who scores the goals when we lose - if we win then we can take individual pride in who scored the goals, but when we lose, the goals don't matter. I missed a great chance late on that could have put us 3-2 up so the goal really isn't any consolation at all.

Roddy Forsyth: Do you think things could have been different if you'd had Ian MacSween upfront with you?

Keigan: It's pointless to speculate Roddy - Ian was out injured, James came in and did his best, but on the day none of us were good enough. All teams have players out injured at times - the truly great teams still manage to pull out the performances and win, but we didn't.

Roddy Forsyth: Well, thank you lads. Back to you Jonathan.

Jonathan Pearce: Roddy Forsyth there with two clearly bitterly disappointed young lads. I think Nick will perhaps look back on today more favourably once the bitterness of defeat has settled down a little - this is a great achievement for Ross County and for someone who has supported the club since he was a young lad, Nick probably feels the pain of this defeat more than anyone. I think Keigan is being a little too hard on himself there too - he did miss a good chance, but all players do from time to time and the goal that he scored was quite superbly taken.

21:47

Jonathan Pearce: And I think we can go back to Roddy now...Roddy, you have County manager Adam Eckersley with you I believe?

Roddy Forsyth: I do indeed Jonathan. Adam, we just spoke to Nick James and Keigan Parker and they were clearly upset and dejected. We saw you run onto the pitch after the final whistle to console your players - I guess it wasn't easy at the end there.

Adam No, I have to say, of all the tasks I've had in 8 years at Ross County this was one of the toughest. There was nothing I could say to console the lads really - words were just empty. I don't blame any of them - they all played their hearts out and in the end were beaten by the better team on the day, but when you're a player, that just isn't good enough sometimes - you want to believe that there are no teams of players better than you. They'll grow stronger from ths though and I think tomorrow they'll be able to look back on today with a bit more pride and a little less pain.

Roddy Forsyth: I have to say, I thought your goalkeeper Craig Samson was outstanding today.

Adam: Oh yeah, Craig has very rarely let us down - he's been my first choice goalkeeper since I signed him in my first season when we were back in Division 1 and he is a top class 'keeper. He might blame himself for some of the 3 goals, but he shouldn't - he had no chance with that winner and the other two were excellently struck goals. If it hadn't been for Craig we could have conceded 5 or 6 tonight.

Roddy Forsyth: And at the other end? I know you were missing a few players so you had very few options upfront. Do you wish you'd started with Mark McGlynn up there now instead of James Graham?

Adam: It's easy to make good decisions with hindsight Roddy, but I don't know to be honest. James did his best for us and to be honest, he just didn't get enough of the ball to be able to get a sight of goal and young Andy Williams is a talented player, but this is a big occasion for two players who haven't scored this season. Maybe we'd have won with Mark upfront, but I just wanted him to keep the defence solid at the back...as it turns out, he made a couple of costly errors and he's devastated - he knows he had a bad game today and he doesn't need anyone to tell him, but it's a team performance - we win as a team and we lose as a team.

Roddy Forsyth: To end on a positive note - 2 great goals scored tonight?

Adam: Yes, for sure - Ross has scored a fair few freekicks for us this season, but none better than that - it was sweetly struck with superb skill around the wall and their 'keeper had no chance. Keigan I know is disappointed at missing a chance he feels he should have scored near the end, but his goal too was out of the top drawer and he should be justly proud of that, whatever about the rest of the game.

Roddy Forsyth: And you'll be back next year?

Adam: We'll be back in the Champions League certainly...whether we can make the final again or not is rather less certain - we did brilliantly to get here this season, but we'll have to lift the players for next season and it'll be a tough journey again against some top teams, but we'll do our best - we have a taste for it now and the lads want that trophy.

[This message was edited by glamdring on 19 March 2004 at 2:36.]

[glamdring]

Author's note

For those who are interested, I've finally managed to get a few images up on the web, only for 7 players though because I didn't have anywhere to host before!

Mark McGlynn, Nick James, Alan Reid, David Dunne, John MacDonald, Paul Harris and Richard Rhodes are the 7 main ex-youth players, although Mark McGlynn actually came through the Aberdeen youth system and I signed him as a 16 year old

[glamdring]

News from the Dingwall on Tuesday 28th August

County reject Celtic bid for Rhodes

Hamish Brodie reports:

The Dingwall Times understands that Ross County last night rejected a bid from Glasgow Celtic for their left winger Richard Rhodes, telling the Glasgow side that he is not for sale. No-one from the club would confirm the exact amount of the bid, but it is thought to be in the region of £9 million with all cash upfront.

Many people were surprised both that Celtic bid such a vast amount for the player out of the blue and also that Ross County rejected the bid for a player who cost them nothing from their youth academy. Manager Adam Eckersley however is well known to be fiercely loyal to his players and doesn't like to move players in and out of the club when he doesn't need to.

Rhodes' agent Paul Smith today stated that his client was very disappointed that his manager rejected Celtic's bid, a statement that will worry the Ross County supporters and management who justifiably believe that a move to Celtic would be a step backward for the player, despite the obvious huge potential of a club Celtic's size. Whilst Ross County were competing in the European Cup Final against Inter Milan having won their 5th title in 6 years last season, Celtic completed their worst season for many years, finishing 8th and out of Europe for the new season.

[glamdring]

Match report from the Dingwall Times on Wednesday 31st October 2012

Celtic downed in 9 goal cup thriller

Hamish Brodie reports:

Every once in a while, one of those games comes along that everyone there will always remember and numerous people not there will claim they were. This was one such night - one of the most entertaining games in the history of the Scottish League cup between two attacking teams intent on progressing to the 4th round. The drama was played out infront of a 52,000 crowd at Celtic Park in an atmosphere the league cup hasn't seen for many a year.

At half time it didn't look like this would be anything special, just another good win for Ross County away to Celtic, as the visitors went in 0-2 up at the break thanks to Ian MacSween's jinking run and shot and Alan Reid's deft header from a Paul Harris cross. Richard Rhodes, the target of a £9 million bid from Celtic earlier in the season, was taken off injured at half time to be replaced by John Rankin and County certainly missed his darting runs down the wing.

Approaching the hour mark, a County throw-in was cleared upfield to leave Daniel Braathen up against County's 16 year old right-back Steven Blake, the result being a neat finish from Braathen to put Celtic back in the tie. With just 8 minutes remaining, Braathen won a header and knocked the ball down for Shaun Maloney who beat John MacDonald before curling a beautiful shot round Craig Samson for 2-2.

The match appeared to be heading for extra time, but in the 92nd minute, Braathen broke down the left, cut infield and squared for Sam Dalla Bona to fire home what everyone thought was sure to be the winner as the home fans went wild at their comeback. The story wasn't over yet though as County won a corner in the 5th minute of injury time, Alan Reid took it, the goalkeeper came and flapped and the ball fell to John MacDonald who stabbed it through a ruck of bodies into the empty net for an amazing equaliser with the last kick of normal time. Having been 2-2 into the 92nd minute, the match now headed into time as had been expected then, but now at 3-3!

With just 5 minutes remaining of extra time, a penalty shoot-out was looming large before County ran riot, Steve Blake feeding a superb pass through for Keigan Parker who played a neat one-two with John Rankin on the left before firing in what was surely to be the winner. Celtic, without European football this season after their 8th placed finish last year weren't ready to bow out of the cup though and threw men forward in search of a last gasp equaliser. So it was that County shreaded the home defence 3 minutes later, MacSween pulling wide to receive the ball, jinking infield and laying the ball back for substitute Michael Reid to blast in the 5th. With Celtic throwing men forward for a freekick in the 121st minute, Alan Reid broke upfield with lightening pace to thread a pass through for Ian MacSween to put past the helpless 'keeper for a truly amazing scoreline.

FT: Glasgow Celtic 3-6 Ross County a.e.t

Elsewhere, cup heroes from last season Albion Rovers were at it again, this time in the league cup, with a sensational 2-6 win at Falkirk who have been playing in the Champions League this season. Other teams through to the last 8 were Dundee United, Forfar (who put out Livingston), Heart of Midlothian, Kilmarnock, Glagow Rangers and Motherwell.

[glamdring]

Match Report from the Dingwall Times on Wednesday 28th November 2012

Profligate County throw away 2 more points in crucial Vienna fixture

Hamish Brodie reports:

Ross County's Champions League hopes were left hanging by a thread after tonight's match in Vienna as, astonishingly for the second time in the group, they yet again threw away a 2 goal lead to draw 3-3 with a stubborn Austria Vienna side. Back in September, John MacDonald was crucially sent of with County leading 2-0, Vienna netted the penalty and despite Alan Reid making it 3-1, Vienna fought back for a 3-3 draw which instantly set County's Champions League campaign off on a very rocky foot in a tough group.

Having lost 1-0 away to Newcastle, County put in one of their best performances ever in winning 0-2 away to Juventus, a shock result, but an important one, without which County would now be out after the Italians grabbed a 1-1 draw the following match in Dingwall. So it was that Ross County came to Vienna today, lying 3rd in their group, 2 points adrift of Newcastle and Juventus and really needing 3 points.

After a goal-less first half, County started the second half in brisk fashion with David Winters netting on 49 and Mark McGlynn firing home from a John Rankin knock down to double the lead. Vienna were in a resolute mood however and County badly missed the influential Nick James, suspended after his yellow card against Juventus, as the Austrians pulled a goal back through Sascha Dietz. On 73 minutes young midfielder Alan Reid received from McGlynn and in trademark fashion charged forward to put County into a 1-3 lead. Bad defending however allowed Vienna to score twice in 2 minutes to see the score level at 3-3 with 14 minutes left. Both sides had chances in the dying minutes, but neither could take the 3 points.

FT: Austria Vienna 3-3 Ross County

Juventus' narrow 0-1 win at St. James' Park means the equation is simple for Ross County - they must beat Newcastle United in their final group match at Victoria Park else they are out of the Champions League. Juventus meanwhile host Austria Vienna having already won the group.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">

Holders - Inter

Pos Inf Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag G.D. Pts

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1st Q Juventus 5 3 1 1 7 3 +4 10

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2nd Newcastle 5 2 1 2 7 6 +1 7

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3rd Ross County 5 1 3 1 9 8 +1 6

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4th Austria Vienna 5 0 3 2 8 14 -6 3

</pre>

[glamdring]

Saturday 9th March 2013

Updates in my diary have tailed of of late as our domestic form has taken on a new level over the last couple of seasons with the rest of the league being left trailing in our wake as we comfortably retain our SPL title. Of course we can't take it for granted at the start of the season, but as our team continues to improve while remaining settled, those around us continue to make changes in a futile attempt to catch up - they bring in players from all over the place, kick out managers after only a season and ignore for the most part any young kids coming through their own youth systems. If the likes of Celtic and Rangers could find a manager whom they could put some faith in and give the reigns to for a good period of time to turn things around maybe they can return to challenge us, but not the way they are now. Their boards and fans have to accept that for the moment, Ross County have stolen a march on the rest and are the dominant side in Scottish football - sacking their managers constantly because they fail to win the title is ridiculous - they need stability and an acceptance of their current position if they are to turn things around and once again become the dominant force in Scottish football. This may sound cocky from me as manager of a team of upstarts, but we have firmly established ourselves now and I feel I am in a position to be critical - I want more competition and I want Scottish football in general to improve.

Onto the action itself then and from the moment the season kicked off we were right on it with some good wins and just a few points dropped as we stormed clear at the top of the SPL. 4 straight wins to start the season, 1-3 at Rangers, 2-1 against Dundee, 1-2 at Dundee United and 6-1 over Hearts saw us comfortably on our way before Hibernian fought back from 0-2 down with 2 goals in the last 15 minutes to share the points at Easter Road. Heavy wins over Falkirk and Motherwell were followed by a series of 4 away games in a row domestically and in Europe - the 2 league games resulting in a draw at Kilmarnock and a narrow win at Livingston.

Clyde, Celtic, Rangers, Dundee and Dundee United were all despatched in the league as October turned to November as well as our 3-6 cup win away to Celtic before, on December 1st Hearts' Andy Kirk netted 7 minutes from time to send us to our 1st league defeat of the season, 2-1 the final score. December was a busy month for us, both domestically and in Europe; more of the latter later, but back in Scotland we bounced back from the Hearts defeat to avenge our FA Cup final defeat last season by putting Albion Rovers out of the league cup. Hibernan (4-1) and Livingston (3-0) were comfortably beaten at Victoria Park before we travelled to Falkirk who have beaten us on numerous occasions over the past two seasons and so it was that they did so again with Craig Samson setting them on their way to a 2-1 win with an own goal. The year ended with a narrow win at Motherwell and a 3-0 victory at home to Kilmarnock which saw us into the New Year well away at the top of the SPL.

2013 began with 4 successive away games, Clyde subduing us for a 0-0 at their place before a trip to Ayr in the Scottish Cup saw us ease through to Round 4 with a 0-2 win courtesy of strikers Mark McGlynn and Ian MacSween. Back to back visits to Glasgow to face the Old Firm followed as we again put on an entertaining display at Celtic Park. Craig Samson managed his second own goal in the space of a month, adding to strikes from Daniel Braathen and Shaun Maloney to more than cancel out McGlynn's opener. Defeat would have been vastly unfair on us as we pummelled the Celtic goal with 25 shots during the course of the match, only half were on target, but more than enough for Alan Reid to find the net and McGlynn to score an injury time equaliser - Celtic must really hate that dreaded injury time against us The trip to Ibrox was rather less entertaining for the neutral as Craig Samson saved Michael Ball's 19th minute penalty before McGlynn (twice, including another in injury time!) and Keigan Parker saw us to a 0-3 win, the scoreline somewhat flattering us, but I was more than happy with it!

February came and went with a flurry of goals as we beat Dundee 4-0, edged past Dundee United with a 121st minute Keigan Parker strike to put us into the league cup final and won 0-3 at Dunfirmline to head through to the 5th round of the FA Cup and all that with just 9 days of the month gone! Dundee United (a) and Hearts (h) were ruthlessly beaten before we fielded a slightly weakened team for an amazing match away to struggling Hibernian who were (and still are) 11th. Derek Riordan netted twice in the opening 10 minutes before a Mark McGlynn hat-trick saw us into half time with a 2-3 lead. In the second half, Steven Davidson gave away a penalty which Chris Kerr slotted home and David Dunne did likewise, but not before McGlynn had put away his 4th of the game to send us back infront...lost yet? well, Hibernian certainly weren't as we failed to clear an Ian Murray freekick, the ball being played back to Murray who slotted home the final goal of the game to give Hibs a much needed 5-4 win. We fielded an even weaker side last week as Falkirk came to Dingwall, but the lads did us proud with a 2-0 win.

So we come to today's match which saw us host Glasgow Rangers in the FA Cup Quarter-finals. With Kerr Dodds and John MacDonald injured and Nick James, Richard Rhodes and Ian MacSween all rested, it was a slightly unfamiliar line-up that took to the field to face the Glasgow side, but just as they had against Falkirk, the players we brought in did their chances of future selection no harm at all as young centre-back Scott Griffin won man of the match with Steve Blake and Peter Fitzgerald also impressing. McGlynn and Parker put us 2-0 infront before a 30-yard effort from youngster Michael Reid squeezed into the net for a 3-0 win. Reid (Michael) has been introduced to the first team this season with Ross O'Donoghue tending to make way for the 21 year old who is being groomed as his possible successor.

Finally, but by no means the least, we had Europe. An unconvincing set of performances, with 2 points twice thrown away in a pair of 3-3 draws with Austria Vienna saw us head into our final group game having to beat Newcastle United to qualify for the knock-out stages. Despite the poor results against Austria Vienna we had stunned both ourselves and the wider footballing world with a clinical 0-2 win in Turin against Juventus which kept us in with a chance. Newcastle competed well and created as many chances as we did, but failed to finish them off, perhaps lacking the belief they could win after Richard Rhodes with a stunning freekick and David Winters had put us 2-0 up after just 8 minutes. Rhodes rounded off a 3-0 win on the 51st minute to send us through to the knockout stages were our opponents would be Inter Milan...time for some revenge from last seasons Champions League final perhaps!

[This message was edited by glamdring on 22 March 2004 at 17:55.]

[glamdring]

Wednesday 17th April 2013

Well, it's a week after the match now, but I'm still as disappointed and irritated as I was then. Sometimes in football clubs just seem to have a bogey team - not necessarily the best team they've ever played, but a team who just always seem to get the results against them. We have proved that we can beat the best on our day - our 0-2 win in Turin against Juventus was a truly superb performance - but when it comes to that one team, our nemesis, the bane of our recent existence, we just can't beat them!

I should recap on what has happened with us since my last update though first. We won our first trophy of the season back on March 17th as we beat Glasgow Rangers 3-1 in the League Cup final. The Gers lead at half time with a Danny Russell penalty, but in the second half we swept them aside with two from Ian MacSween and one from Mark McGlynn. Our league form following that and in amongst our European matches was extremely unimpressive, but there was never any doubt of us securing our 4th title in a row and 6th in 7 years and ultimately a 1-1 home draw with Motherwell, a 1-1 away draw at Kilmarnock and a narrow 1-0 win against bottom of the table Clyde in which I rested ~7 first team regulars saw us secure the title with 7 games still to play.

So why did I rest 7 first team players against Clyde? Well, first I need to take the reader back to Wednesday 27th February when Inter Milan came to Dingwall in the Champions Cup 2nd Round 1st leg. Having been beaten by them so frustratingly in the final last season we were really up for this match and in a howling gale at Victoria Park even Nick James' missed penalty in injury time did little to dampen our spirits as earlier goals from Alan Reid, Mark McGlynn and Ian MacSween eased us to a 3-0 win on the night and a healthy lead to take to Milan. Of coure we could take nothing for granted in Milan, they are a top class side and we have been known to collapse away from home in the past so we had to remain focused. And focused we were as Ian MacSween fired in like a dagger through the heart of Inter Milan with just 4 minutes gone to leave them needing 5 to go through. Inter Milan didn't score 5, in fact they didn't even net once - it was another truly excellent away performance in Italy from the lads as we held on for a 0-1 win and avenged our defeat in the final last season in great style with a 4-0 aggregate. Dinamo Kiev, Juventus, PSV Eindhoven, FC Bayern, Parma, Manchester United and HSV would be joining us in the last 8.

So it was that we came to the draw for the Quarter-finals and I guess in this season were we have already avenged our FA Cup defeat by Albion Rovers last season by knocking them out of the League Cup (more on Albion Rovers to come later) and our defeat by Inter Milan as well as knocking both Celtic and Rangers out of the league cup and Rangers out of the FA Cup for good measure, it was inevitable that we would be drawn against PSV Eindhoven.

The match in Eindhoven was a frustrating one. PSV have an ageing team now, but still a team full of stars, not least the lethal Serbia & Montenegro striker Mateja Kezman and Kezman it was who finished clinically either side of half time to leave us with a huge task for the second leg in Dingwall. We had chances in Eindhoven, but failed to take any so 2-0 is how it finished as we made it 5 games against PSV without beating them yet. There's not a lot to say about the match in Dingwall really - if those players rested against Clyde benefited from their short break they certainly didn't show it that night. We were awful - over half our passes went astray as we struggled to take any kind of control of this match we had to win. PSV came knowing a draw would see them comfortably through and they marshalled us to perfection, frustrating us and at times outplaying us despite creating just one scoring chance all game. We had 8 shots on goal, half on target but we never really looked like getting even 1 of the 2 goals that we would need to even take this match to extra time. So PSV came, saw and conquered as they yet again held us to a goal-less draw in Dingwall, just as they had that first time we met, now making it 3 draws in Dingwall to go with 3 defeats for us in Eindhoven. PSV were through and we were left cursing our performance and wondering just why we struggled so much against PSV Eindhoven when we had beaten, at some point, almost every other team we had played in Europe. I am a huge fan of PSV in general, but at the moment they rank No. 2 I think in my most hated teams (well, maybe No. 3 because I've never liked Celtic!).

So, to round off this diary entry, my most hated club - Albion Rovers! Albion Rovers are a club who were relegated a few weeks ago, 15 points adrift of safety in the Scottish Division 1 yet in the cups they are the ultimate giant killers - last season they hammered Glasgow Celtic, Dundee United, Livingston and ourselves as they won the Scottish FA Cup. This season we avenged that defeat with a narrow 1-0 win at their place in the League Cup Quarter-final, but not before they had recorded an amazing 2-6 win in Falkirk! Their FA Cup progression this season in defence of their title was a little less spectacular, but nonetheless, progress they did as Raith Rovers were narrowly beaten in an away replay, Alloa despatched in a 0-1 away win and Aberdeen beaten 2-1 in the Quarter-finals to set up a semi-final again against Ross County.

We travelled down to Hampden confident that we could put the disappointment of the PSV defeat and our recent unimpressive league form behind us and ignore last season's final defeat to beat the relegated 1st Division no-hopers. That's not quite how it turned out though as Paul McManus gave Albion the lead on just 3 minutes. No problem, Keigan Parker levelled things for us 8 minutes later, but on 32 minutes we weren't looking too clever as Iain Diack netted the second of two goals to put Albion Rovers 3-1 up having given them the lead 15 minutes earlier. The Ross County players were fired up and a 3 goal salvo in 4 minutes either side of half time saw Mark McGlynn (twice) and John Rankin with an exquisite curled shot from 25 yards put us back in the driving seat 4-3 up. Ultimately though we had to settle for a ridiculous 4-4 draw as they equalised on 62 and we were back to Hampden 4 days later. This time we played the irritants off the park as Alan Reid and Keigan Parker slotted home just before half time to ease us to a 2-0 win in which we created 21 efforts on goal and they created 1 - a rather more accurate reflection of our relative league positions!

So that's it for now. An FA Cup final against Motherwell awaits after 7 fairly meaningless league games. If we win it we will record our first domestic treble which will be a great achievement, but at the moment everyone at the club is still smarting from the PSV defeat - we have proved ourselves to be the best in Scotland now and whilst the treble would be excellent as something we haven't achieved, there is no doubt that after our appearance in the final last season it is in Europe that we now wish to prove ourselves as the best.

[Terk]

this really is top stuff, glamdring good to see you got to the final (eventually ) hope you can complete the treble.

(oh, and you'll be making an appearence in my cms utd story soon [/plug] )

[glamdring]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Terk:

this really is top stuff, glamdring good to see you got to the final (eventually )

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Bah @ "eventually" - it takes time with these small clubs rather than Celtic()

Glad to see you are still enjoying it - I've started updating rather less often of late since updates on the league are getting boring now

[glamdring]

Article and Interview from the Dingwall Times on Saturday 6th July 2013

Ross County celebrate 10 years of Eckersley management with treble

Hamish Brodie reports:

10 years ago, Ross County chairman Archie MacLaren made the surprising decision to appoint a totally unknown manager named Adam Eckersley to take charge of his side with big talk at the time of an all Scottish team repeating the success of Celtic's Lisbon Lions in 1967. Fans and media alike were sceptical about the appointment, scepticism which looked well-founded as Eckersley's team lost 5-0 away to 3rd Division Gretna in his 1st match in charge. From that point on however, Ross County have gradually built themselves into the dominant force in Scotland and perenial European challengers over the last 10 years with much credit for the turnaround going to the manager Adam Eckersley. It was a brave decision from Archie 10 years ago, but as his manager completed his 10th season in charge of the club by winning County's first ever domestic treble few can argue that it was a risk well worth taking. County's 4-2 win against Motherwell at Hampden in May was Eckersley's 11th piece of silverware in his 10 years in charge, including 6 SPL titles in the last 7 years. I caught up with Adam and found him in an expansive mood as we discussed at length his 10 years at Ross County and his plans and hopes for the future.

Hamish: So Adam, 10 years in charge. Could you ever have imagined being in charge for this long when you first took charge?

Adam: Well, it was all a bit like a dream when I first took over and any thoughts of longevity were far from my mind. That day at Gretna I really did consider giving up then and admitting that it was all a big mistake and I was clearly not cut out for football management, but having got through that I guess I could always see myself remaining a long time if I was successful enough, if the fans still wanted me and if my relationship with Archie continued well. I have to admit I never thought we would be so successful, but I had of course hoped we could be. There were a lot of rumours that Archie was drunk and all that when he offered me the job and that he had just got nostalgic with talk of the Lisbon Lions and taken leave of his senses in appointing me just because I made the bold comment that I felt an all Scottish team should again finish top of Europe. Today we are much closer to that dream...last year we were even closer as we lead Inter Milan, but we have to just keep trying again and aim to be in the final next season.

Hamish: You are now the longest serving SPL manager. Do you think the success of the club is down to the fact that Archie has kept you as manager throughout and that your playing staff is generally very settled?

Adam: For sure, I mean you know well Hamish that I've been openly critical over other clubs (especially Rangers and Celtic) replacing their manager too often and not being able to get any kind of consistency or settled feeling. The other aspect of that of course, as you said, is the players - The Old Firm seem to bring in a load of Bosman signings from all over the place every season - how is a team supposed to really gel when there are changes so often?

Hamish: You on the other hand are well know for being extremely loyal to your players and that has certainly paid dividends.

Adam: Definitely, although you have to remember Hamish that loyalty is a two way thing - I can be loyal to my players, but if they aren't loyal to me it doesn't work. Happily most of my players have been and it is why we have kept such a settled side. Many managers just allow certain players to leave at the end of their contract if they are demanding a wage increase and bring in someone else, but I prefer to keep the same players so long as their wage demands are within our pay structure - which is why the likes of David Winters and John Rankin have remained despite asking for pay rises when they renew their contracts - maybe I could have replaced them with good players on cheaper contracts, but I like to keep faith with my players and so long as the wage structure is still there and we have youngsters on cheaper contracts to balance out the higher earners that is fine.

Hamish: You mentioned two of your older players there - John Rankin and David Winters have both been at the club the whole time you have been in charge, as well as Ross O'Donoghue and Kerr Dodds I think I'm correct in saying?

Adam: Yep, I think they are the only 4 left from right back when I started, O'Donoghue of course being my first signing, the other 3 already at the club. Craig Samson also I signed in my first season and he's been first choice in goal pretty much ever since. They've all done very well for me though. David, Ross and John all know they are starting to approach the end of their careers now and have accepted that they will sometimes have to settle for a pplace on the bench as I look to bring through players as their long-term successors. All 3 still have a few seasons left in them yet though and I'd love to see them win a Champions League medal. Kerr Dodds currently holds the record for most league appearances for Ross County with 309 (412 appearances in total) and he's only 28 so I see no reason why he can't continue to be my first choice right-back for another 5 years.

Hamish: And of course, one of the major features of your success has been bringing through the young players, mostly from the youth academy with some picked up from elsewhere as youngsters?

Adam: Aye, I tend to like to keep an eye on youngsters all across the country to look at bringing the best talent to Ross County, but most of it does come through our youth system. The obvious exception who has been a star for us is Mark McGlynn who we took from Aberdeen as a 16 year old - he's in his 8th season with us coming up and is a highly skilled and versatile player to have around. I am pleased though that we've managed to integrate a number of our youth academy products into the side - Nick James and John MacDonald are now our first choice centre-back pairing and both have been at the club for 9 seasons now. It seems strange to think that Nick is entering his 10th season with us already and has 38 international caps at just 24 years old, but he is a really talented lad. I was delighted John finally broke into the Scotland squad too - he's developed a lot more slowly than Nick and is actually 26 now despite only having had 3-4 full seasons in the first team. David Dunne at left-back has been one of the stalwarts of my team together with Kerr at right-back for 8 seasons since coming out of our youth system - we desperately missed both our full-backs when we lost the Champions League final. And then in the midfield, Paul Harris has been making appearances on and off interchanging with John Rankin for the last 8 seasons too and will likely be John's successor, while Richard Rhodes on the left wing has been inspirational for us in his 7 seasons and is a really tricky customer...

Hamish: And then you have the Reid brothers...they look very exciting?

Adam: Yes, I think everyone in Europe knows about Alan Reid now after his fantastic season last year scoring > 40 goals from midfield including 2 at Old Trafford - he is a very versatile player and has played for us on the right wing and in the central midfield attacking role as well as filling in at right-back if needed. Another 21 goals for him this season and 24 assists as well as having become a regular for Scotland with 13 caps now. I think he is probably the most exciting player our academy has produced so far. His brother Michael Reid actually came through our youth academy a year earlier in 2008, but has only really broken into the first team this year and has certainly caught the eye. I see him as a potential successor to Ross O'Donoghue when David Winters retires also and Alan Reid takes over on the right wing. He's a superb passer of the ball and perhaps our most creative player with exquisite technique too. His 30-yard curler for our 4th goal in the Cup final this year was sublime and it wasn't his first long-range effort either!

Hamish: You mentioned the cup final there. Talk us through how you saw it because it looked for a while there as though Motherwell might deny you the treble?

Adam: Yeah, we were a bit nervy I think with so much riding on the result and to go a goal down after just 6 minutes wasn't good, but we fought back well and Alan (Reid) equalised fairly soon and then it was very tight well into the second half...

Hamish: Then Mark Allison scored with just 20 minutes left and you must have wondered if this just wasn't to be your day again?

Adam: Well, I was still confident we could turn it around, but of course we were in the same position the previous year against Albion Rovers and they scored a late 3rd as we chased the game. We were fortunate though - Motherwell's 'keeper made a howler that he won't want to see again allowing Mark (McGlynn) an easy tap-in and then their defence made another error and suddenly 5 minutes after going 2-1 down we were 2-3 up thanks to Mark again. And then the 4th goal...well, it was a decent corner from Alan (Reid), but cleared away to Michael (Reid), he played it wide again to Alan and made space for himself to receive the return ball and then just curled in an exquisite shot from 30 yards out - it was a fitting goal I think to secure us the treble and he'll feature even more this coming season.

Hamish: I won't go over the PSV game again because I imagine you've thought about it too much already. You're now the treble holders though, but still you want that one big remaining prize - do you think you have enough quality in the squad this year?

Adam: Ideally I'd like some more strength in depth upfront so I'll be looking at that and if possible some more backup for Richard (Rhodes) down the left because he is our only truly left-footed winger for that position for our big games. As for the rest of the team I think we are pretty settled - it's too early yet to see if any of this year's academy products will make the breakthrough soon, but we're hoping some will...

Hamish: Can you give us any names of potential future stars?

Adam: Well, as I said Hamish it's quite early yet, but I guess if you want a name, look out for Kevin Smith - he's a left winger so he may get more of a chance to prove himself for the first team than in other positions since we do lack depth there.

Hamish: The quadruple then this year maybe?

Adam: (laughs) I don't think we'll be doing that Hamish, but of course we'll be doing our best to retain all our titles and win the Champions League - we'll just have to see - I think we might struggle if we are competing on four fronts all season!

[This message was edited by glamdring on 28 March 2004 at 19:53.]

[Tyrone the Magazine]

10 years eh?....i rember those days back in 2003

KUTGW

[glamdring]

Saturday 2nd November 2013

It seems a good day to update my progress so far this season, a day which makes me feel strangely happy with things despite the fact that it is the day our latest 22 game unbeaten run in the league came to an end. In fact, it is because of that that I feel strangely pleased - it doesn't do to get carried away with our dominance of domestic football and to see that there are still fires smouldering elsewhere and teams fighting hard to catch us up and bring us down makes me feel the game in Scotland is still strong. I like winning, I like to win every game, but to be honest I'd feel much more sense of pleasure and achievement if we were to be pushed all the way by one or more teams which hasn't been the case for a long time really in the league. Today it was Dundee who ripped into us and shreaded our defence...ok so we rested Mark McGlynn, Nick James and Richard Rhodes and started with Alan Reid, John Rankin and Ian MacSween on the bench after our midweek exertions at Aberdeen, but that shouldn't matter really - we have a good squad and there are no excuses - we were soundly beaten. Our chief executioner was the brialliant David Bell, 2 perfect corners delivered onto the heads of Andy Smart and John Voight who duly put them away before his piece de resistance, winning the ball from David Dunne's throw-in before blasting in an astonishing 30-yard pile-driver from the right wing. On the touchline I couldn't help but admire the quality of such a fantastic strike. We lost 3-0 and just weren't in the match at all, but it's not the end of the world - it's refreshing, it's good for Scottish football and it's great for David Bell who deserved the glory he received.

So that was today. I guess I should recap on the earlier part of our season having dived in the deep end and started with the end, so here is the beginning. Indeed, we started the season in a generally sluggish manner despite 10 games unbeaten before today in the league. It began back in August as debutant Derek Riordan, signed at last from Hibernian having long been a player I have admired, rose to head home a freekick in the 92nd minute to spare our blushes and give us a 2-1 home win over Kilmarnock. We went to Falkirk on the 31st of August looking to stamp our authority on the SPL having been held 1-1 at home by Glasgow Rangers and drawn 1-1 away to Hearts with a 78th minute equaliser from only our 2nd shot on target. We were not playing well and I was distinctly unimpressed, struggling to decide how to involve my various strikers, having signed youngster Steve Bennett, released by Osasuna in the summer and chased by a number of clubs including Barcelona, as well as Riordan. It was Bennett and MacSween who began upfront at Falkirk and we brushed aside our recent lack of form with a classy performance. Bennett didn't score and MacSween only got on the scoresheet in the 89th minute, but it was our wingers who drove us forward with Richard Rhodes and David Winters firing us 0-2 up after 27 minutes. Alan Reid put away the 3rd before MacSween's 4th after Falkirk were reduced to 10 men and we were back on form. Well, ok so maybe we weren't...a 1-1 home draw with Dundee United in our next match after a fortnight's break for international matches was hardly vintage Ross County, the best that could be said being that we were still unbeaten.

It was after the Dundee United visit that we began our European Champions Cup campaign for this season, having been drawn in a group with Arsenal (again), Lokomotiv Moskow (again) and Sparta Prague (again). It was a group I didn't like the look of much - I don't like playing the Eastern European teams because we seem to struggle against them far more than their Western counterparts (PSV excepted!). It was in Prague that we began and we were somewhat disappointed to come away with a 1-1 draw after Ian MacSween had given us a 1st half lead. 2 weeks later, Arsenal came north to Dingwall again, as we still looked to find our best strike partnership upfront - Riordan and MacSween were given the starting berths, but it was substitute Mark McGlynn on for David Winters on the right wing who netted twice to give us the victory and show his versitility having usually played upfront or at centre-back. We then had a 3 week gap before a frustrating home match, yet again, against Lokomotiv Moskow who cane to Dingwall and left having blanked us out for a tedious and possibly highly damaging draw with trips to Ashburton Grove and Moscow still to come. We travel to Moscow in 3 days time as the reverse fixtures begin with us sitting 2nd, level on 5 points with Sparta Prague, Arsenal on 3 and Lokomotiv Moscow on 2.

The pressure was on us domestically after the Sparta Prague match was out of the way and we would have to bounce back fast because it was to Celtic Park that we travelled next. At last we began to show what we are capable of with our two strikers Derek Riordan and Ian MacSween bagging a goal in either half to see us to a morale-boosting 0-2 win. Next up, a rejuvenated Hibernian came to Victoria Park for a top of the table clash and we rose to the occasion superbly to stamp our authority on the division with a 5-0 win that had the fans purring. The holes were again in evidence however as we rode our luck, coming from 1-0 down to lead 1-2 with a Nick James penalty and a David Winters strike at Livingston before Keith Preston scored an injury time equaliser for the home side - they deserved it to be honest, from a very even match. 2 Ian MacSween goals in the first 11 minutes were enough to sink Motherwell at Fir Park 4 days before the visit of Lokomotiv Moscow.

Fixtures came thick and fast towards the end of October and I rotated various players in and out of our squad in an attempt to avoid fatigue later in the season. 15 year old Kevin Smith made an assured debut on the left wing in the cauldren of a local derby against Inverness Caledonian Thistle who finally won promotion last season to join us again in the same division after 8 years apart. It was a scrappy match and despite creating a number of chances it was a Paul Harris penalty 11 minutes from time that squeezed us to a 1-0 win. The final match of October came at Aberdeen were we began the defence of our league cup title with an assured 1-3 win, courtesy of Richard Rhodes and another 2 goals from Ian MacSween. The draw for the 4th round sees us at home to St. Johnstone in a match which we should win to progress to the last 4.

So here we are at the start of November and with a crucial match in Moscow coming up this week followed by a trip to Ibrox next Saturday. Off the back of today's 3-0 thrashing at Dundee we'll need to pick ourselves up quickly if we are to keep our European hopes on track and maintain our 3 point lead in the SPL. Only time will tell if we can negotiate our way through this tricky group and into the knockout stages of the European Cup - if we don't it will be a huge disappointment after or recent performances, but I am a little concerned about trips to Arsenal and Lokomotiv to get through.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">

Holders - Ross County

Pos Inf Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag G.D. Pts

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1st Ross County 11 6 4 1 21 9 +12 22

2nd Hibernian 11 5 4 2 24 18 +6 19

3rd Hearts 11 5 3 3 20 22 -2 18

4th Celtic 11 5 2 4 18 15 +3 17

5th Inverness C. Thistle 10 5 1 4 16 17 -1 16

6th Kilmarnock 11 4 2 5 13 12 +1 14

7th Dundee 11 4 2 5 15 15 0 14

8th Dundee Utd 11 3 4 4 15 13 +2 13

9th Motherwell 11 3 4 4 14 15 -1 13

10th Livingston 11 3 4 4 8 11 -3 13

11th Rangers 10 3 3 4 12 15 -3 12

12th Falkirk 11 1 3 7 8 22 -14 6

</pre>

[This message was edited by glamdring on 05 April 2004 at 1:12.]

[glamdring]

Sunday 9th February 2014

It has been a disappointing season so far in the league. Whilst I welcome competition and more of a title race than a procession, the competition this season I feel is only in evidence because we have failed to impose ourselves as we have in recent seasons, rather than any particular recovery by Celtic or indeed anyone else. I have rotated my squad far more this season however so it is understandable that we lack the consistency that we have with a settled side. The focus this year is firmly on Europe though so I want to make sure my top players are fully fit for the big matches and give some other youngsters and fringe players chances in "lesser" matches.

After our 3-0 defeat away to Dundee at the start of November, we pulled ourselves together and kept 6 successive clean sheets to see out November and welcome in December, with our away form looking better than at home. 0-3 wins away to both Rangers and Hearts were impressive, a 0-0 draw with Hearts and a narrow 1-0 win over 1st Division St. Jonstone in the League Cup QF rather less so. In amongst those domestic matches, we ground out 2 decent results in Europe, drawing 0-0 away to Lokomotiv Moscow and picking up a crucial 1-0 win over Spartak Moscow courtesy of Derek Riordan's second half strike. That result saw us confirm our place in the knockout stages before our final game away to Arsenal.

December was a busy month, seeing us play 6 matches, 5 domestically and that final group match in Europe. Having narrowly disposed of St. Johnstone in the league cup thanks to an 84th minute own goal, we welcomed bottom of the table Falkirk to Victoria Park for a match that we were widely expected to win comfortably. The reality was somewhat different though as Falkirk came north defying their lowly league position and played us off the park to create numerous chances and shackle our players efficiently. We rested numerous players in readiness for the midweek Arsenal tie and the replacements just didn't do the job as Dean Armstrong popped up to net an 89th minute winner for the away side - our first home defeat of the season and not the best way to prepare for a trip to Ashburton Grove.

So we headed across the border and almost the entire length of Britain to the England capital for a final group match which meant very little to us. I played with a fairly standard 4-4-2 formation with a defensive mentality, but to watch the game you wouldn't have thought so. Tuesday 10th December 2013 was the day we sent shockwaves reverberating around the world of football. Europe knew we were good of course, we've been there or there abouts for a number of seasons now including in the final 2 years ago, but this was another level up from anything we had achieved before. The home fans were stunned with just 1 minute 14 seconds on the clock as County scored with a corner routine straight from the training ground, David Winters floating in the corner onto the head of Ross O'Donoghue who headed past the Arsenal 'keeper for 0-1. 7 minutes later we broke quickly upfield as Nick James won the ball from an Ashley Cole throw-in and punted into space upfield for Mark McGlynn to chase onto wide right, McGlynn cut inside and crossed, missing everyone except Richard Rhodes who steamed in to fire in at the far post. On the stroke of half time McGlynn won the ball in midfield and charged forward with purpose, squaring across the 6-yard box for David Winters to tap in and send us in 0-3 up. Into the second half and we were relaxed and playing some sublime football, Nick James adding a 4th from the penalty spot on 53 before a Winters corner 4 minutes later was cleared as far as Kerr Dodds who strode forward, lined up his shot and curled in an exquisite goal from 25 yards out to put us an amazing 0-5 up with still over 30 minutes to go. Jermaine Pennant netted twice, but the final word went to Mark McGlynn who tucked away a Winters cross at the near post to make the final score Arsenal 2-6 Ross County. The draw for the 2nd Round sees us face Besiktas in a match we must be confident to win after this result, but we can take nothing for granted. One other point of note, for the first time in 10 seasons PSV Eindhoven failed to qualify from their group - semi-finalists for the last 6 seasons and the bane of our European existence, we certainly won't miss them!

We carried our form through December and into January with a 2-2 draw away to Dundee United followed by 4-1, 3-0 and 2-0 wins at home to Celtic, away at Hibernian and home to Livingston before Inverness Caledonian Thistle held us 1-1 at their place. Falkirk again provided feisty opposition as they came to Victoria Park for out Scottish Cup 3rd Round clash, twice taking the lead before Alan Reid added to goals from McGlynn and O'Donoghue earlier to give us a narrow 3-2 win and a 4th round tie away to Raith Rovers. We followed our cup win with 3 successive home matches, Motherwell holding us 1-1 before wins over Dundee and Rangers saw us edge back top of the table ahead of Celtic.

So I bring the reader up to today with news of 2 cup games in 4 days as we aim to retain all legs of our domestic treble from last season. First up was a trip to Hampden Park to face Motherwell. A routine 2-0 win courtesy of goals from Michael Reid and Keigan Parker saw Motherwell reduced to 10 men as we eased through to the League Cup Final where our opponents will be Clyde who defeated Arbroath in the other semi-final. Next up, Raith Rovers away and a fairly dominant performance saw us avoid a giant-killing, but only thanks to an early Alan Reid strike as we failed to turn any of our other chances into goals. We were the penultimate team out of the hat for the quarter-final draw, meaning that we knew full well who we would be playing and were thankful for a home draw which will see title rivals Celtic travel to Dingwall.

The title race is a little closer than I would have liked with European football returning at the end of the month, but we'll just have to keep going and rely on oour squad. I'll still be resting key players for league matches just before/after the big European ties so if the replacements don't perform we'll lose our league title and there'll be changes to the squad for next season, if they do perform I'll have a pleasant selection headache and hopefully another league title come the end of the season. Nehind our title fight with Celtic, an amazingly close battle is being fought for the remaining positions with just 6 points covering 3rd down to 11th and Motherwell beginning perhaps to fall adrift, but not terminally so.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">

Holders - Ross County

Pos Inf Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag G.D. Pts

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1st Ross County 23 13 8 2 45 16 +29 47

2nd Celtic 23 14 3 6 44 24 +20 45

3rd Dundee Utd 23 9 6 8 35 29 +6 33

4th Hibs 23 9 5 9 42 40 +2 32

5th Inverness C. Thistle 23 9 5 9 34 39 -5 32

6th Livingston 24 8 7 9 25 29 -4 31

7th Dundee 23 8 6 9 32 28 +4 30

8th Kilmarnock 23 8 5 10 23 29 -6 29

9th Falkirk 24 7 7 10 25 35 -10 28

10th Hearts 23 7 7 9 38 50 -12 28

11th Rangers 23 8 3 12 29 39 -10 27

12th Motherwell 23 5 6 12 22 36 -14 21

</pre>

[glamdring]

Wednesday 23rd April 2014

February and March brought mixed results for Ross County, but on the whole it has been a good time for us with the league looking wrapped up now after a strong string of results, although of course we can't take it for granted until we have mathematically secured it.

Off the back of our narrow cup win at Raith Rovers, we headed to Tynecastle in the league needing to find some good form to keep Celtic at bay and we certainly succeeded - Richard Rhodes, Mark McGlynn and Ian MacSween all netted in the first 23 minutes to set us on our way and a bizarre own goal from Hearts 'keeper Alan Murphy sent us in 0-4 up at the break. Quite often that would be enough and without consciously easing off necessarily the players would attack with a little less purpose in the 2nd half, but not this day. McGlynn wrapped up a hat-trick with Michael Reid and Alan Reid also getting on the scoresheet for a classy 0-8 win. Celtic's defeat at Motherwell gave us some breathing space as we followed up with a 4-1 home win over Kilmarnock as Celtic dropped two more points with a 2-2 draw away to Hibernian. February's league fixtures ended with a second string County side going down 2-0 at Falkirk as we prepared for our midweek trip to Besiktas. Celtic's recent dip in form meant we had a few points in the bag however to be able to risk resting a lot of first teamers.

March saw us play just 3 league games with numerous cup games interspersed also and didn't get off to the best of starts as Dundee United came to Victoria Park and left with a 1-2 win against a near full strength side. Having beaten Livingston at the end of February, Celtic only managed to draw with Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Rangers and lose at Dundee during March to ease the pressure on us substantially. Meanwhile, we brushed aside Hibernian with 3 goals in the first 26 minutes and came from behind to win 2-4 at Livingston with one of 2 first time hat-tricks from non-strikers in March as midfielder Michael Reid produced a 1-man demolition performance with our first 3 goals, Keigan Parker adding an injury time 4th.

The other unexpected hat-trick of the month came in yet another truly superb Ross County-Celtic clash as the Glasgow giants came to Dingwall intent on ending our hopes of retaining the domestic treble. In a match that saw Celtic have 8 out of 8 shots on target and us only put a couple of our 13 shots off target late in the game, Celtic came and attacked with gusto, heading in 1-2 up at the break having gone a goal down. With 52 minutes gone Cherno Samba added a 3rd and I re-arranged things, pushing wingers forward and throwing on a 3rd striker, as well as pushing emergency centre-back Alan Reid forward late on leaving just 2 centre-backs and a whole host of attacking players. As can be expected with such tactics, we pulled a goal back for 2-3, but within 6 minutes were 2 goals behind again. That we scored 3 goals with such an attack-minded formation is no surprise, as isn't the fact that we conceded 4, that it was centre-back Nick James who fired in for his hat-trick in the 90th minute was quite astonishing since he was one of just 2 players at the back for us at the time - all 3 of his goals were the result of corners however! So our dreams of retaining the treble ended, but maybe, just maybe we will be on for a different treble this year.

The League Cup final against Clyde was a very one-sided affair, Nick James missing a penalty was instantly forgotten, us being 3-0 up at the time and with 2 goals in the last 5 minutes wrapping up a comfortable 5-0 win over the 1st Division side to retain the league cup and the first leg of a domestic double hopefully and possibly a treble if we can achieve our dreams in the Champions Cup.

Speaking of the Champions Cup, the resumption of the tournament with the 2nd Round came at the end of February as we headed out to Turkey to face Besiktas. It was a superb night for us...Basaran Irfan netted an injury time goal for Besiktas, but that was just a minor irritation for us after two goals in the last 10 minutes sealed a hat-trick for Mark McGlynn with Michael Reid having earlier put us 0-2 up before Besiktas pulled one back. The 2-4 full time score left us very confident that we could finish the job off back in Scotland. The return leg saw Nick James again miss a penalty, but again his team-mates rendered it a complete irrelevence as Alan Reid, Ian MacSween, John Rankin and Mark McGlynn sent us through 8-3 on aggregate, Besiktas again bagging a late consolation goal. With PSV already out, the only other team to have beaten us in the knockout stage, Inter Milan crashed out on away goals against Galatasaray, but holders Parma ominously cruised through.

Back in the league, April has seen us play 4 games so far to head into the split comfortably top of the table, 12 points clear of Celtic after our pivotal 0-1 win at Celtic Park was backed up by wins against Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Motherwell (5-1 with another McGlynn hat-trick) and a draw at Dundee. Rangers' form picked up substantially after they hit rock bottom in the division after 30 games; any hope and excitement that one of the big 2 might get relegated seems to have evapourated now though with Rangers sitting 8th, 6 points above the drop with 5 games left.

The Quarter-final draw for the Champions Cup paired us with Borrusia Dortmund whom we narrowly beat on a memorable night 2 years ago en-route to our first European final. This season's contest was equally close in the end despite us taking a 0-2 lead in the away leg through Alan Reid and a Nick James penalty (yes, he does put them away sometimes!). Leading 1-2 from the away leg, we would be favourites to go through with our excellent home form from the past seasons in Europe, but the second leg was far from impressive as we failed to hit the back of the net and were left hanging on for an away goals win after Emmanuel Krontiris added to his goal from the first leg to give Dortmund a 0-1 win. So it wasn't pretty, but who cares? Results are what matter and we were in the draw for the semi-finals, Dortmund weren't. Sparta Prague would be up next with Galatasaray and Parma contesting the other semi-final. After the first legs a Parma vs Ross County Champions Cup final looks increasingly likely as an Adriano brace saw Parma remain unbeaten this campaign with a 0-2 away win and we eased to a 3-0 home win over Sparta which should be enough to see us through.

[This message was edited by glamdring on 28 April 2004 at 15:54.]

[glamdring]

Wednesday 28th May 2014

Well, today could be our day of destiny, 2 years after we so disappointingly lost to Inter Milan in the European Champions Cup final we face their compatriots Parma in what will certainly be a difficult match, taking place as it does at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. Sitting in my hotel room here in Rome though I should first update my diaries with the season ending news domestically which certainly had fireworks - not for us, for us it was fairly boring, but elsewhere tensions were running high.

We lost 2-1 at Falkirk as the first games after the split got underway, meaning we would have to wait to mathematically tie up the title, but we did so in style the following match with a crushing 1-4 win at Kilmarnock securing our 5th successive SPL title, Nick James and Mark McGlynn each scoring twice. With the title wrapped up, all attention moved to the dramatic finish to the season at the other end as we spluttered to the finishing line with 3 successive home draws - ok so we were more interested in what was going on elsewhere too!!

Heading into the last 5 games of the season, the bottom 5 teams were still very close:

8. Rangers - 41 pts

9. Inverness - 40 pts

10. Livingston - 36 pts

11. Motherwell - 35 pts

12. Hearts - 35 pts

Hearts having yo-yo'd between the SPL and Div 1 over the last few seasons were favourites for the drop, but Motherwell and Livingston were still close, despite or perhaps because of Livingston's fantastic performances in Europe, beating Barcelona to make the UEFA Cup Final.

Just 2 days after the split, Hearts pulled off a shock 1-2 win at rivals Hibs to move off the bottom and up 2 places while Rangers were held 1-1 by Motherwell who dropped to the bottom. The following Wednesday saw Hearts' hopes recede again as they lost 2-0 at Motherwell and Livingston hammered Inverness 4-1 to leave the Edinburgh side a point adrift of Motherwell and Livingston.

Onto the next Saturday and all 6 bottom teams were in action, Hearts beating Rangers 2-0, Motherwell crucially getting the better of a late goal glut to win 2-3 at Inverness and Livingston went down 0-2 at home to Hibernian, closing the gap up to just 3 points covering the bottom 5, with UEFA Cup finalists Livingston now facing the prospect of dropping into Division 1 before facing Juventus. Inverness' midweek draw at Hibernian plunged Livingston further into trouble, now 2 points adrift, but still with 3 games left for Livi who would have to travel to Rangers after the season officially finished due to their UEFA Cup exploits.

Saturday 10th May yielded a 2-0 win for Inverness over Rangers and the same score for Motherwell over Hibernian with Livingston and Hearts due to meet on Wednesday - results which all but secured the safety of Inverness and Motherwell. A 1-1 draw did little to help either side as Livingston visited Tynecastle and the situation heading into the official last day of the season saw Rangers having been dragged deep into the relegation mire:

8. Motherwell - 45 pts

9. Inverness - 44 pts

10. Rangers - 42 pts

11. Hearts - 42 pts

12. Livingston - 40 pts

For Hearts, whose goal difference was the worst of the 3 bottom sides, the Sunday match at Inverness would be their last throw of the dice, leaving Rangers and Livingston to fight out for whatever would be left a week after the rest of the teams had finished. On one of the most tense days the SPL has ever seen, goals swung back and forth amongst the key protaganists and up in Dingwall I have to shamefully admit I was more interested in the radio reports from those games than our lively 2-2 draw with Dundee.

It was to be Livingston who would strike first with an all-important goal at home to already safe Motherwell, moving them provisionally level on points with Rangers and Hearts and crucially above both on goal difference. Hibernian struck next, taking the lead from the penalty spot against Rangers, leaving the Glasgow side heading in at half time sitting bottom of the table with Hearts still 0-0 at Inverness. Into the second half and at the City Stadium, Livingston's player of the season and top scorer Jerome Gomez was securing his side the all-important win which would see them still in the fight for their delayed trip to Rangers. Speaking of Rangers, it was they who stepped onto stage next with an equaliser and then a 2nd goal at Hibernian, goals which would see them safe if things stood.

Heading into the last 6 minutes, the tension at all 3 grounds was palpable, Livingston knowing they had done all they could for their chances with 3 points against Motherwell, Rangers knowing that if they held on they'd be safe and Hearts knowing that they had to score. Unfortunately for Hearts, it was Inverness' Peter Palmer who played out the next act, almost condemning the Edinburgh side to relegation. However, the action wasn't over yet, 85 minutes on the clock saw action at Easter Road as Hibernian's Chris Kerr fired in an equaliser to put Rangers back in the mix. Hearts still had to score though and score they did with a dramatic 87th minute equaliser at Inverness from their top scorer Louis Dodds - with an inferior goal difference it still didn't look enough for Hearts though as the final whistles began to blow revealing the dramatic league table:

8. Motherwell - 45 pts

9. Inverness - 45 pts

10. Livingston - 43 pts

11. Rangers - 43 pts

12. Hearts - 43 pts

Unfortunately for those of us wanting an ultra-dramatic showdown at Ibrox a week after Hearts' last game, Hearts' goal difference of -25 compared to Rangers' -19 and Livingston with -7 meant that the relegation fight was all over bar the shouting for Hearts.

A week later Livingston put in a brilliant performance leaving people all across the country wondering what if...on numerous questions, mostly concerning if Hibs had beaten Rangers, but ultimately Livingston's 0-3 win at Rangers changed nothing other than Livi's final finishing position, moing them up to 8th and sending Hearts down. Inbetween those final matches, Livingston went down 1-0 to a dominant Juventus side who could have scored far more in the UEFA Cup Final.

And so now the spotlight falls on Rome where Champions Cup holders Parma host Ross County, aiming to become the first side to retain the title since Arsenal in 2008.

[glamdring]

Ross County vs Parma - 28th May 2014

Team selection:

It is always difficult picking a team for a huge game such as this. We now have a fairly big squad so it is inevitable that some players will be left out who many feel should be included. We don't have the problems we did last time regarding players being missing so this season we do have choices. Keigan Parker is out with shin splints which is a blow, but apart from him we have a full strength squad to choose from. Most of the first 11 does pick itself, it's more the substitutes that are hard to pick. The only big decision for the first 11 was who to play in midfield really and after his recent form, Michael Reid gets the nod to play the holding role alongside Alan Reid. James Graham misses out on the bench, but he has yet to star for us so I have opted for more midfielders instead and can move players around if I need more options upfront.

GK: Craig Samson

DR: Kerr Dodds

DC: Nick James

DC: John MacDonald

DL: David Dunne

MR: David Winters

MC: Alan Reid

MC: Michael Reid

ML: Richard Rhodes

SC: Mark McGlynn

SC: Ian MacSween

Substitutes:

Steve Hunt

Steven Davidson

Paul Harris

John Rankin

KevinSmith

Ross O'Donoghue

Derek Riordan

[This message was edited by glamdring on 28 April 2004 at 20:03.]

[glamdring]

Author's Note

If the above links don't work too well (they seem to shrink the images a little) the direct link to the full album were they can be viewed at full size I think is here

[glamdring]

Ross County vs Parma - 28th May 2014

Match Report

It was an emotional night at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome as we took on cup holders Parma in the Champions Cup final. We came out of the blocks very fast and even I was suprised by how good we were to start, totally outplaying Parma for the opening 10 minutes. Alan Reid and Michael Reid both had shots saved, but into the 14th minute it was still 0-0 as Ian MacSween charged off down the left wing. MacSween jinked inside fullback Simone Padoine superbly and laid the ball across the goal for Alan Reid who fired straight at Sebastien Frey, the French goalkeeper however was only able to parry the shot and Reid collected the loose ball and turned it past Frey to put us 0-1 up!

14 mins: Parma 0-1 Ross County (Alan Reid)

It was a dream start for us, but we were wary, knowing that we had twice taken the lead against Inter 2 years ago before losing so we couldn't take anything for granted. Just 2 minutes later, Alan Reid received the ball from a Parma clearance and fired an opportunistic shot just over the bar from 30 yards out. 10 minutes later, a long ball through our defence caught us cold though and Adriano ran on to collect the ball and pull it back for a neat finish across Craig Samson by Alberto Gilardino for 1-1.

26 mins: Parma 1-1 Ross County (Alberto Gilardino)

With the half coming to a close, MacSween was again sent clear down the left wing and continued to cause Parma problems, crossing into the danger area, Michael Reid collecting the clearance to curl a shot over the bar that he probably should have done better with. Just 2 minutes later, Kerr Dodds took a right wing throw-in, finding Mark McGlynn who headed back to Alan Reid on the egde of the area. Reid curled in an amazing shot that everyone in the ground thought was sailing well wide, but it continued to curl inwards with Frey totally beaten as the ball bounced off the near post and across the goal to were Simone Padoin was able to clear the danger - if only we had had someone following in we could have been 2-1 up, but the signs were promising - the Reid brothers really taking control of the game in midfield and creating numerous chances - in fact all 7 of our shots on goal so far had come from the midfield duo. Another Dodds throw-in a minute later found David Winters who squared across the box for Michael Reid to fire again over the bar.

Into the last minute of normal time at the end of the first half, David Dunne picked up the ball on the left and laid on an exquisite 50 yard crossfield pass for David Winters to pick up almost on the byline, the winger, even at 32 was too quick for Paulo Cannavaro who, before realising what was happening had brought Winters down for a penalty. I was a little nervous as Nick James stepped up to take the penalty with him having missed a few already this season, but today it was a confident strike into the bottom-left corner to restore our lead and send us in a goal up at the break.

Half Time: Parma 1-2 Ross County (Nick James pen)

There was very little in the way of goalmouth action for the first quarter of an hour of the second half, but it was Parma who struck first on the hour mark, a pinpoint Moretti cross finding the head of Paulo Cannavaro who made up for conceding the penalty with a bullet header past Craig Samson in our goal.

61 mins: Parma 2-2 Ross County (Cannavaro)

I'm not generally one to dwell too much on the past, but I didn't like the similarities between this game and our match against Inter Milan where the first 4 goals went in in the same order before the Italians grabbed a late winner. Would the same happen today?

[glamdring]

Ross County vs Parma - 28th May 2014

Match Report (Part 2)

With a little over 70 minutes gone, it was still 2-2, Inter having already made 3 substitutions while I continued to keep faith with those who started the game for us. On 72 minutes, Kerr Dodds won the ball and cleared upfield for Alan Reid to pick up and begin one of his trademark runs at the opposition defence; Reid sent McGlynn clear with a perfect through ball, but the striker fired a weak shot straight at Sebastien Frey. Chances were few and far between and it wasn't until the 88th minute that the next big chance arrived as substitute Isaah Eliakwu broke away down the right for Parma with acres of space in front of him and our left-back David Dunne floundering out of position behind him. Eliakwu took the ball to the byline before cutting into the box and firing over the bar from a narrow angle - on the touchline I was just thankful that he went for the selfish option when a well played pass across the area could have put Gilardino in for the winner. As it was, the whistle went for full time with the score still locked at 2-2 and 15 minutes of extra time to come.

Full Time: Parma 2-2 Ross County

Into extra time, with John Rankin on for Michael Reid in midfield I pushed our wingers forward hoping to finish the game within the first 15 minutes, both wingers beginning to look tired and not wanting 30 minutes more. Just 3 minutes into extra time, John MacDonald collected a Frey clearance and laid the ball forward to John Rankin, Rankin spun through 180 degrees and moved the ball on to Alan Reid who charged forward and fired a curled shot over the bar from 25 yards out. 3 minutes later, Dodds knocked on for MacSween who let the ball run for Winters. Winters wasted no time in playing the ball through for Mark McGlynn to run clear and blast an unstopable shot past Frey to put us back infront with 9 minutes to hang on!

96 minutes: Parma 2-3 Ross County (Mark McGlynn)

We were really beginning to pile on the pressure now, sensing that we could crack Parma and with 97 minutes gone, McGlynn was fouled by Paulo Cannavaro, giving us a freekick ~30 yards out just left of centre. Parma lined up the wall with Kerr Dodds, Ian MacSween and Alan Reid all getting in there to cause problems as Richard Rhodes eyed up the freekick. Whatever about the positioning, Rhodes calmly stepped up and curled the ball round the wall and into the net with superb skill to send us into raptures 4-2 up. Richard was rightly delighted with his strike, finding the gap between the wall and the next player superbly, leaving Frey with no chance.

98 minutes: Parma 2-4 Ross County (Richard Rhodes)

The final 7 minutes brought little in the way of chances, Parma knowing they were beaten and us knowing that we just needed to keep the ball to win the game. Richard Rhodes fired over the bar with almost the last action of the game and as the final whistle went, the players fell to their knees, some of them in tears, others with their hands in the air, facing their adoring fans.

105 mins FT: Parma 2-4 Ross County (Ross County win on silver goals rule)

We had waited so long for this day and I was beginning to think some of our players would never lift the trophy with seasons running out, but now we have done it. I guess I should have given Ross O'Donoghue a runout in extra time, but I was so busy concentrating with what was on the field I didn't want to disrupt things by making any more substitutions. 30 year old John Rankin in his 10th full season as a first teamer and 32 year old David Winters now in his 11th season as a first team regular both featured however and I was delighted, especially for David who has often dazzled down the right wing in seasons past with 97 goals and 185 assists to his name now. As one of the most consistent and loyal performers for Ross County over the last decade I couldn't be happier to see him pick up a Champions League medal before retiring. Kerr Dodds is also now in his 10th full season, the final marking his 50th appearance of the year, but at 29 he should have a good few years left in him yet to maybe win another. I could go through the whole side, many of whom have been with us the best part of a decade, but perhaps the last word should go to Craig Samson - our first choice goalkeeper for 11 seasons from the 1st Division now to the European Cup Final - he may not be the most talented goalkeeper in the world, but he is undoubtedly a very good 'keeper who has rarely let us down and deserves this medal, having conceded less than a goal per game in each of the last 2 seasons and 4 of the last 5 seasons.

What lies in the future for me now I'm not sure...whether I'll stay on to try to retain the trophy or move on in search of a new challenge remains to be seen. I still have the hunger, but maybe that hunger is becoming more and more a hunger to start again at the bottom and build up another club...

[glamdring]

Pre-season 2014/5

It has been a relatively quiet summer for us at Ross County as we basked in the glory of our Champions League victory whilst watching the 2014 World Cup unfold, or in the case of 8 of our players taking part in the tournament. Unfortunately for us all, Scotland were beaten in the Quarter-finals by Spain having knocked out Ireland in the 2nd Round. Spain themselves went on to lose 0-2 to Argentina in the World Cup final which was, as ever, followed by the usual rash of international team sackings and new job opportunities. As before I find myself linked with numerous international jobs despite my having done nothing to encourage such rumours - with Micky Adams having been sacked as England manager I am apparently favourite with the bookies to take over...shows how little they know!

Back on the domestic front, our youth academy brought through another bunch of youngsters for us to assess over the coming seasons, but I am a little concerned by the lack of good strikers coming through our ranks, or even any at all - this Summer we had just the 1 striker promoted into our U19s and with Keigan Parker now 32, Derek Riordan 31 and Ian MacSween having just turned 30 we really need to see some promising young forwards coming through our ranks if we are to maintain our position as Scotland's premier club and annual European contenders. Veterans David Winters, 32, John Rankin, 31 and Ross O'Donoghue will likely begin to play lesser roles in the side from this season on as we look to bring through younger players to fill their roles - indeed O'Donoghue was already becoming a bench player mostly last season as Michael Reid was given a chance to shine as well as Alan Reid in the creative midfield role. For the future, I see Alan Reid playing more on the right wing as David Winters heads towards retirement, allowing Michael Reid to make the central role his own alongside Paul Harris who is first choice to take over from John Rankin in the more defensive holding role in midfield. With Richard Rhodes on the left wing we will have an entire midfield of Dingwall-born ex-youth team players to join our back-line of 3 of the same plus Kerr Dodds who has spent his entire playing career at Ross County and as such is considered a Ross County kid through and through. That just leaves the goalkeeping role and the striker berths which are less likely to fill with ex-youth team kids in the near future, Craig Samson remaining our No. 1 goalkeeper as he begins his 11th full season at the club.

Pre-season friendlies have seen the usual mixed bag of results as we took on a few French teams as well as some domestic teams, but I'm not too interested in those really - they are there to give the players match fitness more than anything - I have a settled team and I know what my players are capable of in league and European situations. Off the pitch, the stadium is being expanded yet again (for the 5th or 6th season running), up to ~25,000 capacity which will be good for us in Europe, but won't be filled for domestic matches or even close.

I guess it is about time I updated the reader on our current squad having not done so for a while, although many of the players are now household names having shown great loyalty to the club and to myself in exchange for the loyalty I have shown them. Next up I'll take a look at the squad's goalkeepers and defenders.

[Dark_Soccer]

good to see this still going.....what do you see yourself doing over the next few seasons? staying with Ross County?

KUTGW

[glamdring]

The squad

Goalkeepers

Craig Samson: Heading into his 12th season with Ross County now, Craig has been our first choice 'keeper for the vast majority of that time, culminating in his Champions League winners medal last season. Will begin the new season again as 1st choice

Steve Hunt: With Daniel Freeman being released this summer, Dingwall-born ex-youth team player Steve Hunt will be our main backup goalkeeper and may well challenge Craig Samson for the No. 1 shirt during the season. Steve is still yet to make his full debut, having made just a single substitute appearance 2 seasons ago, but has developed into a very talented prospect.

Simon Reed: Amazingly this will be Simon's 10th season with the club having come through our youth ranks in the summer of 2006, but has yet to break into the first team and is unlikely to do so this year barring injuries to Samson and Hunt.

Gareth Edwards: 17 year old Gareth is a product of our 2011 crop of youth players who is still developing.

Kevin Costello: Our newest goalkeeper, Kevin came through our youth academy this summer and will be looking to put in some good performances as he begins to develop in our U19s.

Full-backs

KerrDodds: One of my favourite players even though I know I shouldn't have favourites. Kerr's loyalty and consistency at right-back over the last 10 years speaks for itself. Rejected by Hearts at a young Age he arrived at Ross County before I did and having broken into the first team towards the end of my first season in charge he hasn't looked back. His 462 appearances for the club with 341 league appearances is a Ross County record and at 29 years of Age there is no reason why he can't maintain the right-back berth for a further 5 years. 27 international caps further underline his class.

DavidDunne: David Dunne has made the left-back berth his own in his 9 seasons since being promoted from our youth academy, making the step up to first team football instantly at the tender age of just 16 and together with Kerr Dodds has been and will continue to be my first choice full-backs. That David has done so well is a testiment to his fantastic ability since his lack of pace and his right-footedness don't make him a natural in my eyes - usually I demand pace and a left foot in the left-back position!

Steve Blake: As main understudy to Kerr Dodds at right-back, Steve Blake came through our 2010 batch of youth academy kids and has yet to make much of an impact, largely because of Kerr's excellent injury record, but at only 18 he will continue to develop and is our first choice backup and currently the player likely to step up when Dodds finally retires or drops from first choice.

Steve Taylor: Stevie Taylor is to left-back what Steve Blake is to right-back, albeit having come through the ranks as early as 2007 making sporadic appearances in the seasons since when David Dunne has been out. With no other recognised left-backs having come through our ranks in recent seasons, Steve plays a very important role as backup for David with John MacDonald being our only other real option at left-back and he is preferred as a centre-back.

Neil Savage & Lee Dawson: Probably the best of our plethora of young right-backs who have come through the youth ranks over the past few seasons. Both will continue to develop in the reserves with a view to challenging Steve Blake for the role of first choice backup to Kerr Dodds. Savage however appears to have reached somewhat of a plateau in his development and it remains to be seen if he'll ever manage to break into the first team - at present he isn't quite good enough.

[glamdring]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Dark_Soccer:

good to see this still going.....what do you see yourself doing over the next few seasons? staying with Ross County?

KUTGW <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Part of the reason I left it for quite a while was because I was unsure - I was tempted to move to a 3rd Division club and try to do a double Lisbon Lions within the same game, but I just can't leave my beloved Ross County now - I had no particular affinity with the club before I chose them for this challenge, but now they are my baby With so many young players I've developed and whatnot I want to see their careers develop too all the way until the first crop of youth players retire maybe - I don't think I can ever quit Ross County though for a new club in this game - I'd just end the story rather than that I think

[glamdring]

The squad

Centre-backs

Nick James: It is impossible to speak highly enough of Nick James - one of our first bunch of youngsters who came through in the summer after I joined the club, he broke into the first team towards the end of that successful Division 1 campaign and has gone on from strength to strength in his 9 seasons since. One of the most consistent performers both for club and country for whom he won his first cap at a very early age and now has 49 at just 25 years old as well as 443 club appearances with an impressive 60 goals. Originally a midfielder where he still sometimes plays for Scotland, I immediately felt he was more suited to centre-back and converted him to play there the moment he exited the youth academy. As a centre-back he will never quite make the headlines that some of our more attacking youngsters do, but he is a truly superb player who gives his all for the club he supported as a child every match. Will remain first choice centre-back for the foreseeable future having already passed his testimonial year - he could conceivably have a 20 year one club career with us.

John MacDonald: An interesting contrast to Nick James with whom he came through our youth system in 2004, John went straight into the first team in our Division 1 season, but then dropped back into the reserves on our promotion as Mark McGlynn came in to partner Nick James before moving upfront a few seasons later giving MacDonald a second chance as a slow developer to again prove his worth which he has now done and has been first choice centre-back partner to Nick for the last 3 years. Having recently broken into the Scotland side too, John now has 8 caps and is firmly established in the side. He may have been a late developer, but he has developed into an outstanding defender and alongside Nick played a huge part in our Champions League winning run, allowing our creative forward players to concentrate on their business at the other end.

Steven Davidson: Signed from Gretna as a 19 year old, Steven is rather an enigma - he is a player who I feel has the potential to go right to the top as a centre-back - he has pace, stamina, determination and great positional sense, is a brilliant header and can tackle and mark with the best of them, yet he has never really performed for us. To be fair he has never really had the chance of a good run in the side with Nick James being partnered either by Mark McGlynn or John MacDonald as my firm first choice, but in his position he really needs to grasp the chances he gets and perform when he is called upon, but he struggles to do so. Currently out of contract he is being offered a new deal because I still believe in him and his ability and he will be a useful backup again this season.

Scott Griffin, John Jones, James Adams, Declan Flanagan & Scott Perkins: Following in behind Steven Davidson in the pecking order for the centre-back positions are 4 young players who have come through our youth system at various times over the last few seasons together with James Adams, a promosing young player signed from Southend United 2 years ago. With an increasing reliance on our youth academy these are the guys who will be looking to establish themselves over the coming years.

Wingers

Alan Reid: Probably the most talented player I have ever managed - Alan Reid is a brilliant young player, equally at home on the wing or in the central midfield creative role despite having come out of our youth academy as a full-back/centre-back. Having come through our youth system in 2009, Alan spent a season maturing with the U19s before bursting into the first team in place of the injured David Winters on the right wing where he made a huge impact. The following season he displaced Ross O'Donoghue in the central midfield creative role as Winters returned on the wing and has put in a string of magnificent performances over the last few seasons. Having firmly established himself as well as being a Scotland regular, Alan will again be a key player for us either on the right wing or in the centre.

Richard Rhodes: If Alan Reid is the most talented player I have ever managed, Richard Rhodes is not far behind. What he lacks in pace he more than makes up for in technical ability with superb dribbling skills and accurate crossing. Slightly inconsistent in terms of goals scored and assisted in his 8 seasons so far since moving straight up from the youth team to fill our problem left-wing role, but enjoyed arguably his best season last year and has been very consistent in terms of quality of performance year in year out. Richard was out of contract this Summer, but thankfully signed a new one and will begin the season as our first choice left winger again.

David Winters: If there was one player I really wanted to win that Champions League for above all others it is David Winters - a consistent, loyal and highly skilled winger who has given the best years of his career to this club, claiming 185 assists and scoring 94 goals in his 412 Ross County appearances on the right wing. Winters is a little too prone to picking up yellow cards and suspensions, but when it comes to getting the crosses in from wide and driving infield to score goals there are few better in the business. That he has never won a single Scottish cap is a traversty and perhaps the biggest disappointment I have from my management career - he has been called up to the national squad on a small number of occasions, but was never given his chance to shine and his chance has surely passed now unless I suddenly find myself as Scotland manager which isn't going to happen. David will likely play a major role again this season, but possibly alternating more with Alan Reid to allow Michael Reid more opprtunities in the centre.

Kevin Smith: A promising young winger who came through our youth academy last summer and made 13 appearances on the left wing as Richard Rhodes was rested for the less important matches. Kevin will continue to provide backup for Richard this season as he continues to develop.

Simon Williams: Simon has perhaps been a victim of circumstance, being a right winger at a club where David Winters has performed so well and Alan Reid tends to slide across to the wing if Winters is unavailable. He has undoubted talent though, having been promoted from our youth academy in 2005 and made sporadic appearances he has slowly developed into a very good winger who may well begin to feature more as David reaches the end of his career.

Alan Anderson: Newly signed as I write this during the Summer, Alan will give us yet more options on the left wing where he will likely battle with Kevin Smith for the opportunity to fill in for Richard Rhodes when he is rested. Signed from Leicester who no longer wanted him, he has the potential to become a very good winger.

[glamdring]

The squad

Central Midfielders

John Rankin: At 31, John Rankin is in the twilight of his career now, but still has a few years left to compete for places in the Ross County midfield. In competition with Paul Harris, John has filled the holding midfield role for the last 10 years, putting in solid performances throughout to keep out an undoubtably talented youngster in Harris. Like David Winters it was great to see John's loyalty to this club repaid with a Champions League winners medal last season.

Ross O'Donoghue: Having spent many fruitful seasons partnering John Rankin in the more attacking midfield role, Ross has found himself playing a lesser role in recent years as youngsters Alan Reid and Michael Reid have burst onto the scene. Still a very valuable player however with a lot of experience, Ross is another who has been at Ross County for over 10 years and was one of my first signings, helping to guide the team out of Division 1 and to our successes in the SPL and Europe. 122 goals and 76 assists from a little over 400 appearances is an excellent return from Ross and our young pretenders can still learn a lot from him over the coming seasons.

Paul Harris: Paul has been chomping at the bit ever since he came through the youth team to replace John Rankin in the midfield holding role and in recent seasons has started more matches as I look to blend him in as a long-term replacement for Rankin. Paul is a tenacious tackler with superb passing ability who is ideal for the role of breaking up enemy attacks and spreading the ball around to begin our own attacks. Is likely to begin this season as first choice ahead of John Rankin to partner one of the Reid brothers in midfield.

Michael Reid: Michael broke into the side slightly later than his brother Alan, despite coming through the ranks a year earlier. Like centre-back John MacDonald he developed more slowly than some of his counterparts, but 2 seasons ago he made his breakthrough to the first team, making a big impact and notched up over 30 appearances for the club last season, scoring 7 goals, most of them exquisite long distance efforts. I have high hopes for Michael in the future - he is a creative genius with superb technique and passing ability whom I see as a long term partner for Paul Harris in the centre of midfield where they should form a formidable partnership.

Steven Kavanagh: Steven is another who has been at the club for a long time since coming through our youth academy without ever managing to truly break into the side. He is a superb dribbler and crosser of the ball, but lacks the pace of David Winters and Alan Reid to play on the wing and doesn't quite have the talent of the Reid brothers or Ross O'Donoghue to really make a push for the central role, but he may feature in some of our less important matches this season as we look to rotate the squad.

Brian Heffernan: Yet to make the breakthrough into our first team squad, Brian has been developing in the reserves and U19s since coming through the youth academy in 2010 and the jury is still out as to whether he has what it takes to make the grade at the highest level - my gut feeling is that he doesn't, but behind John Rankin and Paul Harris he is our next best bet in the holding role currently - with the injury records of those two however it is unlikely he will be called upon this season and it is likely we would sign someone else ahead of him.

Scott Miller: Picked up last Summer plying his trade with Tigres in Mexico, Scott is a with great flair and ability whom we took a chance on in bringing him back to Scotland. Competition is fierce for the creative midfield role and Scott is unlikely to displace the Reid brothers this season, but if he continue to develop he may force his way in.

Chris Thomas: Yet another creative midfield player, the same applies to Chris as to Scott Miller, although Chris is a product of our own youth system so I guess I may be more willing to give him a chance to prove his worth. He is still learning so we will have to keep a careful eye on him to see if he can make the step up to the first team.

[glamdring]

The squad

Strikers & Forwards

Keigan Parker: Our record signing for £2 million back in 2008, Keigan Parker has been excellent for us in the 6 seasons he has played for Ross County, scoring 79 goals and will likely continue to figure in the coming season despite being 32 now.

Ian MacSween: First choice upfront ever since signing from Falkirk in 2005, Ian MacSween is a prolific goalscorer whose goals have been crucial to our successes in recent years and will continue to be in the coming season. Surprisingly Ian wasn't on the scoresheet in our 4-2 win over Parma, but contributed nonetheless. 5 goals in 10 games for Scotland whom he has only represented on and off is an excellent return and his 183 goals in 370 appearances for Ross County warrant a more regular starting spot at international level. With 143 league goals to his name, Ian is Ross County's all-time leading league goalscorer.

Derek Riordan: Signed at the start of last season from Hibs, Derek Riordan is a player I have long admired. Approaching the end of his career now I would have loved to have had him 5 years earlier, but he should still play a part in the coming season and his 8 goals last season were invaluable.

Mark McGlynn: Former Aberdeen player Mark McGlynn has it all - equally happy anywhere on the centre or right of the pitch and has been a massive player for us with his aerial prowess allied to pace and lethal finishing as well as an ability to tackle and mark. Mark joined us as a defender/defensive midfielder and it was in the position that he played for 4½ seasons before being converted to a target-man striker role in readiness for the departure of Mark McColl for the 2011 season. One of our most consistent performers wherever he plays, Mark first partnered Nick James very successfully in defence before forming a lethal little and large strike partnership with Ian MacSween which has propelled us to multiple SPL titles and now also the Champions League. Mark will again be the focal point of our attacks for the coming season.

Jim Gibson: Jim came through our youth system in 2006 and has been on the fringes of the first team squad ever since, never really quite good enough to displace our regular strikers or regularly make the bench. He may still prove useful in the future however.

James Graham: A prolific goalscorer at Wigan previously, James has never really been able to live up to his undoubted abilities for us - again he has had few chances, but whilst some players can perform instantly when they get those chances, James is a player who seemingly needs a settled run to produce his best. It is unlikely he will have that run this season and he is infact on a rolling contract currently so the jury is very much out.

Eddie Pilkington: Spotted by one of our scouts, Eddie was surprisingly transfer-listed by Glasgow Rangers so we decided to take the risk and spend ~£1 million on bringing him to Victoria Park. Whether he'll break into the first team or not this season is debateable, but we'll give him a chance and see how he performs.

Kevin Watson: Another who is very much here for us to see what he is capable of - on loan from Ajax for the season, he is a player we may make a permanent move for at the end of the season, but it all depends how he does for us.

Eddie Charles: Another of our youth academy products, Eddie is developing nicely, but I'm unsure as to whether he'll ever develop into a player worthy of a first team spot or not.

David Campbell: A member of the 2013 class of youth academy players, David is a youngster with great pace and physical presence - we just have to see how his technical abilities develop over the coming seasons.

[Brian of Nazareth]

Congratulations on the Champions League victory glamdring. Having teared myself away from my own attempt I've been catching up on the other LLC efforts. The affinity with players when you're with a club for a such a long time is surprisingly touching. This is excellent

[glamdring]

Thanks

I've always been a big fan of loyalty and it seemed to kind of fitwith the whole Lisbon Lions ideal really, going back to a bygone era almost when clubs did have players from their local area and players did still have loyalty and would spend their whole careers at a single club - I guess I'm just a romantic at heart and I get too attached to my players, but only if they continue to perform together I would add - I have been ruthless with one or two as well

[glamdring]

Just realised I left out one of my strikers!

The Squad

Strikers & Forwards

Steve Bennett: Signed from Osasuna last Summer, Steve has yet to make the big breakthrough into the first team, but was on the fringes last season and may make an impact this season if he takes his chances when he gets them.

[glamdring]

Match report from the Dingwall Times on Friday August 29th 2014

Juve edge out County in 5 goal thriller

Hamish Brodie reports

A crowd of 15,813 turned out at the Stade Louis II stadium in Monaco tonight to watch the European Super Cup contested between UEFA Cup holders Juventus and Champions League winners Ross County. The match was given an extra dimension of interest with the announcement last week of this seasons Champions League groupings which see Ross County drawn with Juventus, Borrusia Dortmund and Vardar of Macedonia. Whilst the Macedonians will clearly be the weakest of the 4 teams, with 3 "big" teams in the group it will be tightly contested with one sure to miss out on the knockout stages.

So to tonight's match and Ross County manager Adam Eckersley appeared not to be taking this match 100% seriously as he made a number of changes to his so far settled side from the first 3 league games of the season. Upfront, Mark McGlynn and Ian MacSween were both dropped to the bench with Steve Bennett making just his 4th start for the club alongside youth academy product Jim Gibson who has so far netted 3 times in his 9 years since exiting the youth setup. In the midfield, David Winters returned in place of John Rankin, Alan Reid and Michael Reid filling the two central midfield roles.

A tight opening half finally saw County make the first breakthrough as Alan Reid pelted down the right wing to the byline from where he crossed into the box for Steve Bennett to head home his first goal for the club. County looked to be heading in 0-1 up at the break, but in 1st half injury time Juventus broke upfield from a Kerr Dodds throw-in, Montolivo finding Ziocchi who squared for Miccoli to measure an exquisite chip over stranded 'keeper Steve Hunt.

The second half was just 27 seconds old when Ross County fed the ball wide right for David Winters to whip in a cross, the resulting stromash saw Steve Bennett hit the crossbar and Kevin Watson turn in the rebound to open his County account, on-loan for the season from Ajax. The match continued to be very close however and it was no real surprise when Juventus equalised through Ziochi, turning in a Miccoli cross on 56 minutes. 12 minutes later Riccardo Montolivo fired in the winning goal to give Juventus their first European Super Cup triumph since 1996 and leave County ruing missed chances and a questionable team selection.

Manager Adam Eckersley was pleased with the team's performance however and quick to point out that his 2 strikers both scored which would give the pair of them increased confidence for the upcoming season.

[glamdring]

Match report from the Dingwall Times on Saturday September 20th 2014

Reid wondergoal compounds Celtic woe

Hamish Brodie reports:

There were 88 minutes on the clock, Ross County were 3-1 up against Glasgow Celtic and with the 3 points all but wrapped up. Mark McGlynn took a throw-in in his own half, on the right and found the head of Celtic's left-back Danny Robinson. Robinson's header however didn't get very far as Alan Reid whipped in to pick up the loose ball wide on the right wing. Reid turned, looked up and accelerated into the Celtic half, leaving Daniel Braathen and Danny Robinson for dead, jinking around Brian Scott with superb skill and evading John Kennedy to unleash a fiersome 25-yard curler which hit the back of the Celtic net before 'keeper Tim Grothuysen had even moved. It was a truly stunning goal from a player of the greatest quality which lit up an already impressive performance from Ross County.

The Dingwall side found themslves a goal up after just 18 seconds after intercepting the Celtic kick off to move the ball rapidly forward via the left wing for Ian MacSween to tuck away at the second time of asking. Just 5 minutes later County were 2-0 up, left winger Alan Anderson finding Michael Reid who perfectly judged his lob over the Celtic goalkeeper. With 27 minutes on the clock, Nick James stepped up to fire home a County penalty to see the home side go 3-0 up. It wasn't until the 84th minute before a stunning curled shot from Cherno Samba gave Celtic a glimmer of hope, but 5 minutes later it was quickly extinguished. As injury time wore on, David Dunne played a 50-yard pass forward for Keigan Parker to knock down into the path of Michael Reid who neatly sidestepped the 'keeper to put away the 5th.

FT: Ross County 5-1 Celtic

This defeat leaves Celtic reeling with just 3 points picked up so far from their opening 6 games, a disastrous start for the Glasgow giants whose neighbours Glasgow Rangers are also struggling with just 6 points from 6 games after a crucial 4-2 win over Clyde today. With 4 Champions League qualifying spots available for the first time in SPL history, this is certainly not the start the Old Firm were looking for to their league season.

Elsewhere, the Dundee derby ended in a 0-0 draw to drop Dundee to 2nd in the table behind new leaders Motherwell who won 0-2 at Falkirk, with Ross County up to 3rd. Hibs were 0-1 winners at Inverness whilst Kilmarnock won at Livingston.

[glamdring]

Sunday 2nd November 2014

Well here we are again at the 11 games gone point of the season at which I like to update my diaries - it seems a sensible time since we have completed the first of 3 rounds of fixtures before the split as well as having played half our Champions League Group games. Just to be annoying and topsy turvy I'll start my round up at the end - yesterday in fact and a breezy day in Dundee...well, first I should just pass comment on today's match which was worthy of note as Inverness Caledonian Thistle won the bottom of the table clash away to Glasgow Rangers to send their beaten opponents to the foot of the SPL...at the other end of the table meanwhile, we were at Tannadice to face a Dundee United side sitting firmly mid-table, although if they are a mid-table side it doesn't say a lot for the 6 teams below them on yesterday's showing!

Kerr Dodds has been out for some time attending physiotherapy for a nasty cruciate ligament injury he picked up earlier in the season - early estimates said he could be out for 9 months, but that was thankfully shortened to more like 3 months on further examination. This did however leave us without our first choice right-back and since we have a plethora of strikers I decided to move Mark McGlynn back there rather than try Steve Blake in previous matches. McGlynn did well of course as he does wherever he plays, but for our visit to Tannadice I decided to move him back upfront, giving Scott Perkins who had impressed in the midweek league cup match (of which more later) a chance at right-back. It turned out to be an inspired change as McGlynn returned to what he does best - scoring goals! It's always good to have an excellent right-back, but a player of McGlynn's all-round ability is perhaps wasted there as yesterday showed. Within 8 minutes he had his name on the scoresheet twice, firstly picking up an Alan Reid header to go on a mazy run into the area to fire in on 6 minutes, then 2 minutes later heading home a nod on from John MacDonald. By the time the half hour was up his hat-trick was complete, this time with a diving header after a superb run down the left and cross from Richard Rhodes. 2 further goals came in the second half as a Richard Rhodes freekick was feebly cleared and McGlynn picked his way through the crowded penalty area to curl in his 4th followed by a great breakaway goal - Michael Reid picked up the ball in the right-back position, fired it down the wing for brother Alan Reid to go on a trademark dribbling run followed by a neat cross which McGlynn duely diverted into the net for a full time score of Dundee United 0-5 Ross County. A video of this one will certainly be adorning the shelves of the Ross County training centre as a teaching aid in the strikers art for our young up and coming goalscorers!

Well, after such a long-winded description of a single game I should return to the start of our season and rattle through our earlier league form rather more quickly. It all began on a hot August day in Falkirk as our Champions League winning side looked anything but as we ground out a 1-2 victory with a Nick James winner despite Keigan Parker missing a penalty. Another unimpressive 2-1 win followed, Kilmarnock this time the opponents at Victoria Park as we saw David Dunne sent off early on and Nick James this time miss a penalty, but at least he managed to put away the rebound! Motherwell were next up at Fir Park and we were slowly beginning to get into our stride as a dull 1-1 match burst into life on 72 minutes with a goal from Keigan Parker followed 5 minutes later by Eddie Pilkington's first for the club - he looks a real livewire player and an exciting one for the future and given Rangers' current predicament I would have to question the sanity of their manager Zinedine Zidane (who has since been sacked) letting him leave! I guess he is Scottish rather than some fancy foreigner who can't settle in Glasgow though

Our defeat to Juventus in the European Super Cup maybe knocked us out of our stride even though I didn't really care what the result of that match in itself was - the following week we headed to Dundee for a top of the table clash and lost 1-0 leaving them clear and our unbeaten record gone. Midweek after the Dundee game the Champions League began again, but I'll come onto that later. Back in the league we finally hit more convincing form as we trounced Glasgow Celtic 5-1 with a wonder goal from young Alan Reid, even a 2-2 draw at Hibernian from 0-2 up didn't dampen our spirits and we bounced back with a late show 3-0 win over Inverness Cally Thistle - goals on 79, 84 and 89 minutes from Derek Riordan, Keigan Parker and Nick James. Newly promoted Clyde were confounding all the critics and doom merchants by comfortably holding their own in the SPL and took a point which could easily have been 3 from Victoria Park. A crushing 4-0 victory over Glasgow Rangers (Rhodes, 2 for Alan Reid & Kevin Watson the goalscorers) and a 2-0 win over Livingston sandwiched our midweek trip to Turin to face Juventus. And so that brings us up to date domestically with just the League Cup 3rd round tie at Falkirk to comment on - not a lot to say though really - I rested all my top players bar Paul Harris and Craig Samson and the reserves and kids haled Falkirk 0-0 for 120 minutes before winning a scrappy penalty shoot-out which was more a case of who missed fewest than who scored most!

As for Europe, well, a short summary will suffice really - Dortmund came and disappointingly, but deservedly held us 1-1 in Dingwall and probably should have taken all 3 points. Vardar, as expected, didn't prove much of a problem as goals from Alan Reid and Eddie Pilkington saw us to a 0-2 victory. Then our trip to Juventus and a defeat, but one which gave us some hope with our second half performance having been played off the park 2-0 down in the 1st half. Keigan Parker netted a penalty as Juve saw Paulo Silvestri sent off, but we couldn't quite grab the equaliser. At the halfway stage of the group, Juventus jave 7 points, we have 4, Dortmund have 3 and Vardar 1 so it is still all to play for.

On the player front, we had somewhat of an injury crisis in recent weeks and months with as many as 8 first team potential players out at once sometimes, but we managed to ride the storm with our relatively large and deep squad and currently are just without Kerr Dodds & David Winters (both due back in around a month) and Steve Bennett who is only out for a week.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">

Holders - Ross County

Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag G.D. Pts

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1st Ross County 11 8 2 1 29 8 +21 26

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2nd Clyde 11 5 5 1 14 8 +6 20

3rd Motherwell 11 6 1 4 22 13 +9 19

4th Dundee 11 5 4 2 12 8 +4 19

5th Kilmarnock 11 5 2 4 14 14 0 17

6th Dundee Utd 11 3 5 3 11 13 -2 14

7th Hibs 11 3 4 4 12 20 -8 13

8th Livingston 11 3 3 5 11 13 -2 12

9th Falkirk 11 3 2 6 15 17 -2 11

10th Celtic 11 3 2 6 13 19 -6 11

11th Inverness C. Thistle 11 3 1 7 7 17 -10 10

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

12th Rangers 11 2 3 6 12 22 -10 9

</pre>

[glamdring]

Match report from the Dingwall Times on Tuesday November 4th 2014

Sweet revenge for brave County

Hamish Brodie reports:

They say fortune favours the brave, but on many occasions in football there is a thin line between the brave and the foolish when a team is chasing a game in which they desperately want a victory - sometimes it is better to settle for a single point rather than lose all 3, but not today. Today Ross County manager Adam Eckersley made a statement of intent that he wanted 3 points against Juventus and would throw all caution to the wind in pursuit of his aim - a single point just wouldn't do.

County made the worst possible start however, finding themslves a goal down within 30 seconds and playing some of their worst football of the season as Juve controlled the match for large spells with > 50% of County's passes failing to find their own players. County headed in 0-1 down at the break, but at least having started to turn the tables in terms of who was running the game giving some hope for a 2nd half fight-back.

With just 6 minutes gone in the 2nd half, County made the breakthrough as Nick James hoofed the ball upfield for Ian MacSween to battle for, the nippy striker losing out to the Juventus defender for the header, but reacting fastest to pick up the lose ball and feed Michael Reid who smashed the ball in from 15 yards out to draw County level. On 65 minutes, another long punt upfield, this time from John MacDonald found the head of Michael Reid who cushoned his header beautifully into the path of Mark McGlynn, the striker who scored twice in Turin last season again finding the back of the net to give his team the lead.

Knowing the importance of the 3 points, Eckersley switched from his extremely aggressive tactics to a rather more defensive 4-4-2, bringing on John Rankin for Paul Harris to shore up the midfield. It was all in vain though as Juventus equalised as Ziocchi beat Craig Samson to a through ball with just 5 minutes remaining. Ross County are an exciting attacking side and playing at less than full pelt to try and defend a lead just isn't their style. Eckersley reacted immediately, throwing caution to the wind to switch to what appeared to be, in essence, a 3-2-5 formation, sacrificing his full-backs for centre-back Steven Davidson and the rather more attacking option of Keigan Parker. Just 3 minutes after Juve's equaliser, Richard Rhodes fed a pass through to John Rankin whose superb first touch pass found Ian MacSween who charged forward with only one purpose to fire in the winning goal and give County the crucial 3 points.

Speaking after the match, manager Adam Eckersley admitted that sitting back trying to protect the 2-1 lead was probably a mistake against such a good side - County are at their best pouring forward whoever the opposition and Eckersley was delighted that his late bravery paid off when it could so easily have led instead to a breakaway winner for Juventus which would have almost certainly sent County crashing out of the Champions League.

FT: Ross County 3-2 Juventus

[glamdring]

Match report from the Dingwall Times on Wednesday November 26th 2014

Dortmund left mesemerised by brilliant Reid

Hamish Brodie reports:

If anyone in the European footballing world has been away on Pluto and hadn't already heard of Alan Reid, they will certainly know all about him after today. Borrussia Dortmund outplayed Ross County at Victoria Park in the reverse fixture and were unlucky to come away with just 1 point, but today they were ripped apart in stunning fashion with young winger Alan Reid being their chief executioner with his unstopable dribbling runs, crosses and powerful shooting. That said, the first 37 minutes of the game were relatively quiet with more shots finding the stands than troubling the opposition goalkeeper as both sides struggled to take the game by its throat. Into the 38th minute however, young right-back Scott Perkins fed a long ball forward which Alan Reid headed down neatly into the path of Mark McGlynn, the prolific frontman making no mistake with a fierce shot past Peter Cech in the Dortmund goal. It wasn't all plain sailing however and the home side came back strongly as the half drew to a close with Toledo finding Éwerthon whose shot squeezed past Craig Samson for the equaliser. With Vardar holding a shock 1-0 lead over Juventus at half-time, a draw would be enough to see Ross County go top of the group, but more importantly would keep them 3 points clear of Dortmund.

Into the 2nd half, Ross County moved up through the gears as they began to show just why they are the European Champions. Just 4 minutes into the 2nd half, the lively Scott Perkins again fed Alan Reid down the right, Reid charged into the box and flashed a cross into the danger area, missing everyone to be collected by Richard Rhodes at the far post, the left-winger pulling it back for Ian MacSween to have 2 bites at the cherry before putting County into a 1-2 lead. Dortmund were by no means out of it though and it was important that County didn't sit back trying to defend their lead - they may have been away from home, but even there their best style is to keep moving the ball forward and so they did, as Paul Harris found Rhodes down the left with a delicious 50-yard pass in the 69th minute. Rhodes took the ball forward down the left before swinging in a trademark dangerous cross which missed McGlynn and the Dortmund defenders in the centre, but was swept in by Alan Reid at the far post to give County the 2 goal cushion they were looking for. When you are in form though why stop at a 2 goal lead? The 92nd minute saw Steven Davidson win the ball at the back and head on to Alan Reid who turned, 40 yards out and drove forward past Sebastian Kehl and Jong Kook-Song before blasting a 25-yarder past Christoph Metzelder and Peter Cech into the top right corner to put the seal on a magnificent performance by the talented winger.

FT: Borrussia Dortmund 1-4 Ross County

In the other match in the group unfancied Vardar, having drawn twice with Dortmund, held on for a historic 1-0 victory over Juventus which sees Ross County qualify for the knockout stages with 10 points whilst Juventus are left on 7, Vardar 5 and Dortmund just 4. Juventus are hot favourites to take the second place as they play host to Dortmund whilst Vardar face a daunting trip to Dingwall in their final match, although it may not be a full strength Ross County side they will be hot favourites to vanquish Vardar.

[glamdring]

Match report from the Dingwall Times on Saturday January 10th 2015

Woeful County annhilated by rampant Thistle

Hamish Brodie reports:

Ross County manager Adam Eckersley was fuming on the touchline today as his table-topping SPL side and Champions League holders crashed out of the Scottish Cup in humiliating fashion. Eckersley had rested some of his first choice players, but was blunt in his comments after the match, stating that the players who were on the fringes of the first eleven and who were given a chance to stake their claim for a starting berth in the future could forget it after that performance. Whilst he admitted his side fully deserved their defeat and resting some of his top players was risky, Eckersley felt the team he put out should still have been comfortably strong enough to at least hold the Division 1 leaders to a draw. Richard Rhodes, Michael Reid and Ian MacSween were all rested completely with Alan Reid starting on the bench as Alan Anderson, Ross O'Donoghue, Kevin Watson and David Winters took the starting positions.

Within just 6 minutes of the kickoff County were reeling as Conal Platt and Matt Donnelly fired Partick Thistle 2-0 up. 10 minutes later David Dunne brought down Conal Platt in the box and Donnelly stepped up to fire home the penalty and leave County 3-0 down with just 16 minutes gone. In 15 years of watching Ross County and 11½ years under Eckersley's management, this was one of the worst performances I have ever seen from a County side and the travelling fans were not at all happy.

As the second half began, Eckersley rang the changes with a triple substitution, Eddie Pilkington, Keigan Parker and Alan Reid coming on for Anderson, Winters and O'Donoghue as County switched to an aggressive attacking formation. With 58 minutes gone however, Partick put the result beyond all sensible doubt as Matt Donnelly was sent clear to fire a great shot past the hapless Craig Samson in the County goal. County finally began to get their act together and actually had more attempts on goal and more on target than Partick, but clearly the players had left their shooting boots at home. Mark McGlynn's 71st minute goal gave County a glimmer of hope, but it wasn't until the 84th minute that the 2nd went in from on-loan Ajax striker Kevin Watson by which time there was no hope of a comeback.

In truth, the final score of 4-2 somewhat flatters County despite their dominance of large parts of a game in which statistics gave all sorts of conflicting views, but ultimately the only one that mattered was that County had been dumped out of the 2nd domestic cup of the season, leaving them to concentrate fully on the league and their attempts to retain the European Cup.

FT: Partick Thistle 4-2 Ross County

[glamdring]

Match report from the Dingwall Times on Saturday January 17th 2015

Reid brothers inspire County back to form

Hamish Brodie reports:

With a near full strength side selected for this match, Ross County manager Adam Eckersley was in no mood for a repeat of the performance against Partick Thistle. John MacDonald was out injured and replaced by Steven Davidson whilst Alan Reid returned on the right wing, Michael Reid in the creative midfield role and striker Ian MacSween returned to his partnership with Mark McGlynn upfront.

So to the match itself and the first half was a little edgy as County attempted to banish the memories of their Fir Park horror show. The nerves were calmed a little in the 9th minute as McGlynn headed on a Kerr Dodds long ball for Alan Reid to unleash a curled thunderbolt into the back of the Dundee United net for 1-0. Disaster struck on 38 minutes however as Paul Harris pushed Neil Armstrong to concede a dubious penalty, Ryan Shawcross duly despatching the spotkick for the equaliser.

Whilst the fringe players selected last week may have underperformed, 2 players who play their hearts out week in week out for their home town club are brothers Alan Reid and Michael Reid and it was Alan who was onhand again to fire in yet another knock-down from target-man Mark McGlynn to restore County's lead as they headed in 2-1 up at half time. The second half began in lively fashion and by the end of the 57th minute it was all over bar the shouting as midfield maestro Michael Reid bagged 2 in 2 minutes, first timing his run perfectly to tap in a McGlynn knockdown, then straight from the Utd kick-off, a flowing Ross County move saw Michael Reid head the ball wide for Alan Reid who whipped in a cross for Michael to follow in to put County 4-1 in front. The scoring was completed in the 80th minute as Michael again fed Alan who breezed down the right wing before crossing for Mark McGlynn to side-foot in.

It was a tough choice between the Reid brothers and Mark McGlynn for man of the match - all 3 were truly outstanding today, but Michael Reid got the nod in the end as he ran the game from midfield.

FT: Ross County 5-1 Dundee United

[glamdring]

Sunday 25th January 2015

A nice short update this time since I have pasted various of Hamish Brodie's Dingwall Times match reports into my diary to keep the reader upto date with many of the key moments since November. Managing a team with some talented young players can often be quite challenging, not necessarily on the field, but off field matters and man management often need careful balancing. The media scrum surrounding Alan Reid in recent months has been a little overwhelming for the young lad who is by nature very shy. I have tried to shield him from too much press attention as he concentrates on his football, whilst allowing him to give certain selected interviews and so far he has been a model professional and does have his brother to share the pressure with somewhat. There is always the worry though when a young player becomes a star too fast that the media circus can get too much and their career begins to suffer from the pressure.

So on to the on-field stuff and November saw us record 5 straight wins in the league, the 0-5 victory at Dundee United being added to by 4-1 home wins over Falkirk and Motherwell sandwiching a 0-2 win at Kilmarnock before the month came to an end with a 0-3 win at Clyde. Champions League victories at home to Juventus and away to Borrussia Dortmund, as reported by Hamish, saw us ease through to the knock-out stages with surprisingly 1 game still to play.

December began with a disappointing 0-0 draw followed by a penalty-shootout defeat at home to Hibernian in the League Cup Quarter-final followed quickly by defeat to Santos in the Inter-Continental Cup - another competition which to be honest really doesn't interest me much, along with the European Super-cup! A dull 0-0 draw at home to Vardar completed our run of 3 cup games in 6 days and brought to an end the group stages of the Champions League - the draw for R2 seeing us pitted against French side Lyon. As we resumed in the league our slight dip in form continued as a narrow 1-0 win over Dundee marked our only win from 5 matches as we drew 2-2 at Celtic with an injury-time equaliser and 0-0 again at home to Hibernian. The year finished on a high note however as our Boxing Day trip to local rivals Inverness Caledonian Thistle saw us return the short distance north with 3 points after a comprehensive 0-4 victory courtesy of a goal from Michael Reid and a hat-trick from Ian MacSween.

Into the New Year and the goals have been flying in inmatches involving ourselves, beginning with a 2-4 win at Livingston in the league, MacSween again netting twice with a rare Kerr Dodds goal also. The less said about our trip to Partick Thistle in the Scottish Cup, the better so I'll leave the reader with Hamish Brodie's words on that pathetic capitulation and move swiftly on to the brilliant 5-1 win over Dundee United - again there's little to add to Hamish's report, 3 players stood out with top class performances that day and all 3 know exactly what it means to play for this club and take pride in their performances. And finally for the 2nd round of fixtures, we faced a bottom vs top clash as we headed to Ibrox to face a Rangers side in crisis, 4 points adrift at the bottom. Whilst Dundee United recorded a crucial 1-0 win at home to Livingston and Inverness drew 1-1 at Falkirk, Rangers were looking lively as they took a 26th minute lead which they held well into the 2nd half. Hints as to why they are struggling so much came in the second half however as a vicious 4 goal salvo in a 15-minute spell from ourselves sunk the Glasgow giants, Kevin Watson and Alan Reid netting twice each to leave Rangers 7 points adrift in the SPL and facing the very real prospect of relegation with 16 games of the season left.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">

Holders - Ross County

Pos Inf Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag G.D. Pts

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1st Ross County 22 17 4 1 62 16 +46 55

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2nd Motherwell 22 11 4 7 36 25 +11 37

3rd Kilmarnock 22 11 3 8 25 27 -2 36

4th Dundee 22 7 9 6 23 19 +4 30

5th Livingston 22 8 5 9 31 24 +7 29

6th Clyde 22 7 8 7 23 24 -1 29

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7th Celtic 22 8 5 9 28 30 -2 29

8th Falkirk 22 7 7 8 31 30 +1 28

9th Hibs 22 7 6 9 26 40 -14 27

10th Inverness C. Thistle 22 6 5 11 21 34 -13 23

11th Dundee Utd 22 5 8 9 20 36 -16 23

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

12th Rangers 22 4 4 14 25 46 -21 16

</pre>

[glamdring]

Wednesday 22nd April 2015

Well, it's that time of the season again when the league splits and so time to update my diaries again. This update will be slightly different from recent ones though with much more focus on our European campaign since the league campaign looked after itself to be honest. We had a bit of a slump straight after the 1-4 win at Rangers reported in my last update as we had 3 away games in a row, losing the next two 4-0 at Falkirk and 3-1 at Motherwell, but we still had a very big cushion at the top. Form picked up again however as we beat Kilmarnock 4-0 and Clyde 3-1 before Dundee held us 1-1. A 2-0 win over Celtic was backed up by further wins, 0-3 at Hibs, 4-1 at home to Inverness and 0-3 at Dundee United. 1-1 draws at home to Rangers and Livingston brought the 3rd round of fixtures to a close, but by then the title was already ours without us playing as 2nd placed Motherwell lost at home to Falkirk on the Sunday, ourselves having played the previous day. 6 SPL titles in a row and 8 in 9 years for us now is beginning to bring us onto a par with the great Celtic and Rangers teams of the past. Rangers' 2009 championship means we'll have to win the next 3 for the great 9 in a row, but we'll have to see - I see no reason why we can't win the next 10 if we continue to play as well as we have.

And so to Europe and the knockout stages of the European Cup which began in Lyon.

Wednesday 25th February

It wasn't our most convincing performance in Lyon, but whilst in some games we have created a vast array of chances, but only put away a couple, on this day we did the opposite - a fairly average performance with only a relatively small number of chances created, but our finishing off of those chances was clinical. Lyon were a big disappointment, putting just 2 of 11 shots on target, neither of them finding the back of the net. Meanwhile we put 4 of our 6 shots on target in the back of their net - Alan Reid opening the scoring on 4 minutes with typical brilliance, picking the ball up in his own half and charging forward unstopably on a 70 yard run before slotting past the Lyon goalkeeper. The remainder of the 1st half was relatively quiet, but in the 2nd half we burst into life again with Alan Reid feeding a 50-yard pass to Ian MacSween who headed the ball into the path of Mark Mcglynn for the target-man to put us 0-2 up on 50 minutes. 10 minutes later we again broke upfield with pace from a Lyon freekick as MacSween and McGlynn exchanged a superb series of headers before MacSween raced of down the pitch and rounded the 'keeper for 0-3. The victory was wrapped up in the 89th minute as man of the match Alan Reid won a header and ran onto his own knockdown to fire in the 4th.

FT: Lyon 0-4 Ross County

Wednesday 11th March

The second leg was a bit of a let-down to be honest, but we knew we were through after the first leg and though I insisted on professionalism and willed the players on to win the home leg too our performances was well below par, not helped by the rare sending off of right-back Kerr Dodds on 28 minutes with us leading 1-0 through a Mark McGlynn strike. On 42 and 84 minutes Simon Feindouno netted for Lyon to give them the spoils on the night, but we were through comfortably on aggregate.

FT: Ross County 1-2 Lyon (Aggregate: 5-2)

Wednesday 25th March

Having seen off Lyon we were pitted against old foes Manchester United in the Quarter-finals with the away leg again being the first. Our start was not good however as Cristiano Ronaldo fed Fredy William Thompson in the 11th minute to give Manchester United the lead which they held onto until half time. With an hour on the clock, the home side were looking good for the win, but finally we began to show what we are capable of, memories of last season's Champions League victory perhaps spurring us on to be there again. On 63 minutes Ian MacSween showed great persistance to shrug off full-back Scott McGinn and run on into the box to shoot and score from 5 yards out. 8 minutes later, John MacDonald found Alan Reid out on the right wing, the youngster cut into the area before laying the ball across the 6 yard box for MacSween to tap in for a 1-2 lead. Then came the piece de resistance a few minutes later - Nick James won a defensive header, Alan Reid picked up the ball deep in his own half and began another trademark drive forward, evading 3 Manchester United players to run fully 70 yards to the left corner of the penalty area before firing in a superb finish past a helpless David Marshall. I really cannot say enough about this young winger - he is undoubtably the biggest talent to come out of Scotland since (and possibly including) James McFadden ~10 years earlier and he has the potential to be the greatest player in Scotland's history if he is given the chance to light up the world stage in a major championship, and knowing the quality of players Scotland has had in the past I do not say that lightly - this young lad as the footballing world at his feet.

FT: Manchester United 1-3 Ross County

Wednesday 8th April

For the second home match in succession in the Champions League we had a man sent off, Nick James this time the culprit, making it fortunate perhaps that on both occasions we had secured an excellent away result first. Again we were a goal up when we were reduced to 10 men, Mark McGlynn on hand to tuck away a pull-back from Alan Reid. Despite the sending off we continued to push forward and with the 1st half drawing to a close, Alan Reid again mesmerised the Manchester United defence, dribbling down the right wing, cutting inside John O'Shea to leave him for dead and firing across the box for McGlynn to put away his 2nd. Man Utd were back in the game on the night a couple of minutes later as they cleared a throw-in deep in their half to Cristiano Ronaldo who ran forward to slot past Steve Hunt. Before the hour we had restored our 2 goal advantage on the night as Michael Reid passed to Alan Reid who dribbled through John O'Shea and Wes Brown to score from a tight angle. Ronaldo grabbed another consolation goal 10 minutes later, but there was no denying our progression to the semi-finals and a meeting with Ukrainian side Dynamo Kiev.

FT: Ross County 3-2 Manchester United (Aggregate: 6-3)

Wednesday 22nd April

Not even in my wildest dreams could I have predicted or even hoped for a result like this - we have been excellent on our travels in the last 2 rounds, clearly enjoying having the away leg first and for the 3rd round in a row we would be on the road again for the 1st leg in Kiev. Ian MacSween set us on our way after 14 minutes with a simple tap in from a McGlynn cross, but Oleg Sergeev levelled the scores 2 minutes before the break, sending us in 1-1. Within 2 minutes of the kickoff for the 2nd half, we had a penalty and in the absence of the suspended Nick James, responsibility fell to Mark McGlynn to stroke home the spot kick to put is 1-2 up. A deflected Alan Reid curler after phenominal play on the right wing from Richard Rhodes, a McGlynn near post tap in after more great work down the right, this time from Kerr Dodds and a brilliant finish from a tight angle on the left by man of the match Richard Rhodes saw the full time whistle arrive and with it a sensational 1-5 victory for ourselves and a sure foot in the final to defend our title.

FT: Dinamo Kiev 1-5 Ross County

The second leg of the semi-final takes place in 2 weeks time after our next 3 league games so that will have to wait for my next update...you never know, we may yet lose 0-5 at home

[glamdring]

Match report from the Dingwall Times on Saturday April 25th 2015

Masterful MacSween crushes Celtic

Hamish Brodie reports:

Coming into this match with the SPL title already in the bag and European cup matches still upcoming, many expected that Celtic would be favourites for a relatively easy 3 points to cement their challenge for a Champions League spot for next season, but Ross County were by no means in an end of season kind of mood - any match against Celtic is a big match and today was no different.

County took the lead as early as the 4th minute, Michael Reid collected the ball on the left of the midfield and dribbled past the Celtic defender to create a clear path to goal from where he was never going to miss. Celtic finished the half with an injury time goal against the run of play which saw the sides level at half time. 8 minutes into the second half, County ent for a route 1 goal executed to perfection - 'keeper Steve Hunt found John Rankin wide on the left, Rankin fed MacSween and the striker rounded the goalkeeper to restore County's lead.

Celtic were beginning to fall apart as, just 2 minutes later, Steven Davidson found John Rankin, the veteran midfielder weighting a perfect ball through for McGlynn to toe-poke home for 1-3. With 71 minutes on the clock, the County pressure told again as Michael Reid sprayed the ball wide for Ian MacSween to pick up, cut infield and fire home to secure the 3 points. Celtic did manage to fight back with 10 minutes left, Daniel Braathen feeding Stefano Mezzacapo whose thumping finish hinted at the frustrations of the Celtic players. County were in no mood to sit back however and an b]Alan Reid[/b] corner in the 85th minute was headed home by John MacDonald before man of the match Ian MacSween completed his hat-trick with the final goal of the game. Celtic manager Rudi Völler is becoming under increasing pressure now as fans become increasingly frustrated at their team's inability to win the championship for the last 10 years.

FT: Celtic 2-6 Ross County

[glamdring]

Match report from the Dingwall Times on Wednesday May 27th 2015

Historic triumph for solid County

Hamish Brodie reports:

It was far from the best performance Ross County have produced this season as the Dingwall side took on Shakhtar Donetsk in today's showpiece European final, but with captain Nick James and fellow centre-back John MacDonald marshalling the defence, County held off a determined Ukrainian side to retain their Champions Cup crown.

Shakhter were highly impressive throughout at creating opportunities and keeping possession, but struggled to find a way through the County defence with all bar one of their 17 shots on goal, that one being a neat finish by Kostyantyn Yaroshenko on the stroke of half time, but by that time the Ukrainians were already 2 goals down. After an even start for the first 20 minutes, County broke upfield with MacDonald feeding the ball forward for Mark McGlynn to win in the air and head down into the path of Alan Reid. The Shakhtar defence completely failed to pick up County's start player and with 19 assists and 19 goals already this season it was always on the cards that the speedy winger would ad to his tally and so he did, charging forward to the corner of the six-yard box before an audacious chip over the Ukrainian 'keeper for his 20th goal of a magnificent season to give County the lead. The 34th minute saw Paul Harris win the ball in midfield before feeding Ian MacSween who out-ran the opposition defence to slot home County's 2nd, perhaps slightly against the run of play.

Shakhtar could perhaps feel a little agrieved to head in 2-1 down at half time, but in truth it was their defending against two of County's most dangerous players which led to their first half downfall, coupled with their inability to finish off their own chances more clinically. The Ukrainians came out and dominated the play for large parts of the second half with County looking a little nervous with just a 1 goal lead in such an important match. 10 minutes into the second half however, MacDonald again won the ball at the back and played it forward for Michael Reid to collect in midfield. Reid played a superb pass through to Ian MacSween who evaded 4 Shakhtar defenders to progress to the edge of the area from where he measured his lob to perfection into the corner of the net to give County a 2 goal cushion again. Shakhtar battered at Ross County's door for most of the rest of the match, but the defence held firm as the Ukrainians found themselves finishing the game with 10 men with Gusarov sent off in injury time.

FT: Shakhtar Donetsk 1-3 Ross County

It was a superb achievement for Ros County who became the first Scottish club ever to retain the European Cup and having won both with a squad full of Scottish players, over half of whom were born in Dingwall. Eager to get a player's perspective on this historic day I caught up with County's creative midfield maestro Michael Reid after the match and began by congratualting him on his and the team's performance and asking what it meant to him personally and to the whole team:

Michael: Thanks Hamish. I'm a bit lost for words at the moment - this is beyond my wildest dreams when I was growing up as a Ross County supporter that I would play in 2 European Cup finals at just 23. I was only 11 when the gaffer arrived at the club so I've grown up following his team and of course joined the academy soon after and it has been a great experience - the academy is fantastic and made even more so by everyone there knowing that if they perform they will be given a chance in the first team at a club that is at the top in Europe at the moment. In the first team too the atmosphere is great amongst the lads - we have no fancy foreigners and I think we all have our feet on the ground and having a lot of local lads there's a passion in the team that most clubs just don't have.

Hamish: It was a tough match though - Shakhtar created a lot more chances than you did today.

Michael: For sure Hamish, we had to defend at our best today because Shakhtar are a good team and played exceptionally well against us. We were just happy that when we created chances we took 3 of them clinically - I know Ian really wanted to get on the scoresheet because he didn't last year even though we hit 4 and he deserves it!

Hamish: I have to ask about your brother Alan...we know he's a very shy lad and doesn't like to give interviews, but he is one of the hottest talents in European football now.

Michael: Alan's a great lad and he just prefers his football to do the talking. It's not that he isn't articulate - he's taking an Open University degree at the moment in amongst his football, he just doesn't like being in the limelight really. I think the gaffer is keen to look after him though and not let him get overwhelmed in a media circus - he just wants him to concentrate on his football and his studies.

Hamish: It must be great for you to play alongside your brother in such big matches though? Your parents must be very proud of you both.

Michael: Yeah, it's a dream come true for us to play together for Ross County - we'd have been delighted to play for the club in Division 1 as they were when we were growing up - to be part of this revolution at the club together is just amazing. Our parents are very pleased for us and we owe a lot to them for supporting us all the way in our wishes and getting us into the youth academy. I think Mum finds it hard watching some of our big matches and doesn't always travel, but Dad has been with us to almost every match and it's great to have him supporting us from the stands.

Hamish: And as for the future? Are you both planning to stay at County or do you have ambitions to move on elsewhere?

Michael: Well, as you know Hamish, Alan signed a new contract up until 2019 recently and I think he is very happy to stay here and continue to learn from the gaffer. This is a very special club with so many players who spend 10 and more years here and we don't want this team to be broken up - we can win the Champions League here so why would we want to move on? I'm hoping to sign a new contract myself soon to keep me here for at least another 5 years and I'll be more than happy to be a one club player to be honest.

Hamish: Thanks Michael and I and our readers will be delighted to here that you are both planning to stay and we look forward to more of your brilliance next season!

[glamdring]

Sports news report from the Dingwall Times on Wednesday August 20th 2015

Manchester United in "massive" bid for County winger

Hamish Brodie reports:

Sources from Ross County today confirmed that they had received a substantial offer for their left winger Richard Rhodes from Manchester United today. County declined to give details on the offer, but said it was highly unlikely that Rhodes would be going anywhere. Manchester United refused to comment at all on the story, but it is thought that a substantial bid of around £20 million has been officially made by the English club who earlier this week completed the signing of 32 year old James McFadden from Everton for £5.75 million.

County manager Adam Eckersley rejected a £9 million approach for Rhodes a few years ago from Celtic and is known to be keen to keep his squad together, but the club must be tempted by such a massive fee for a player who cost them nothing, coming as he did through their youth academy. Rhodes scored 9 goals and claimed 14 assists last season and has netted a total of 68 goals in 379 appearances in 10 years at Ross County as well as winning 13 Scotland caps having scored almost a goal per game for the under 21s previously. The player himself was unavialable for comment, but after 10 years may well feel ready to move on for a new challenge.

Keep with the Dingwall Times to hear more on this story as soon as it happens.

[glamdring]

Match report from the Dingwall Times on Tuesday October 6th 2015

500 not out for magnificent Dodds as James and McGlynn sink Ajax

Hamish Brodie reports:

Manager Adam Eckersley said after today's match that he was absolutely delighted with the result, not least because he wanted to mark full-back Kerr Dodds' 500th start for the club in the best possible way. It is a great achievement for Kerr Dodds to have reached such a landmark and at 30 he still has possibly upto 5 years left to play if he keeps performing. With 371 league appearances he holds the County record on that front too and the difference of well over 100 games shows just how many cup matches, especially in Europe he and County have played.

Ironically, it was the man who will almost certainly displace him in the County record books almost as soon as he hangs up his boots, if not before if he has another long injury like last season, who opened the scoring in this match after a dull 0-0 first half. Richard Rhodes curled in a superb corner on 56 minutes and captain Nick James rose above the crowd to head home the crucial goal. James will himself pass the 500 games started mark in 6 games' time as well as 4 substitute appearances and at 27 years of Age still has many years left ahead of him at the heart of the County and Scotland defences.

With Ajax failing to show much in an attacking sense and County's new goalkeeper, Kevin Black, a £1 million Summer signing from 1st Division side Ayr United equal to the 5 shots they did fire on target, it was left to Mark McGlynn to wrap up a 0-2 win for the away side as he raced onto a through ball from Alan Reid to finish neatly on 76 minutes. With their opening 4-0 home win over Brondby 2 weeks ago, this result sees County make an assured start to their Champions League campaign as they go in pursuit of 3 in a row to emulate the great Bayern Munich and Ajax sides of the 70's. With 2 games gone, County have 6 points in their group, Ajax and Manchester United who are County's next opponents for back to back matches have 3 points with Brondby yet to get off the mark.

FT: Ajax 0-2 Ross County

[Tyrone the Magazine]

Such a ong time ago Ross County were nobodies, still a good read

[Tyrone the Magazine]

Damn no editing, should be 'long'

[glamdring]

Thanks. I still wake up in a cold sweat occasionally, remembering the start though with that 5-0 defeat at Gretna - few management careers can have started much worse

[glamdring]

Apologies for double posting - in both my stories, but since it was relevant to both I thought I'd add it into each story

News report from the Dingwall Times on Saturday November 11th 2015

Sun journo's astonishing tirade on County manager

Angus McIntyre reports:

The Sun journalist Andy Renshaw today made an astonishing attack on Ross County and Faroe Islands manager Adam Eckersley, claiming he was a mickey-mouse manager and a disgrace to his country. Quite what prompted Renshaw's outburst is unclear, but he has been an outspoken critic of Eckersley ever since he took the Faroese national job having snubbed England and been widely tipped to take over Scotland. Infact, it is widely believed that Rensahw's animosity stems from the fact that he wrote an "exclusive" claiming Eckersley would be the next England manager and was then left embarrassed when the County manager turned down the post. Renshaw then got it wrong again back in 2010 when he wrote an article confidently predicting that the Scottish FA had lined up Eckersley to become their new manager and that this was the job he had been waiting for when he snubbed England. Eckersley's subsequent appointment as Faroe Islands manager left Renshaw again with egg on his face and brought into question his abilities as a top level football journalist, seeing him demoted to lesser matches before he parted company with his then employers at the Daily Telegraph.

Now back at the cutting edge of football journalism with The Sun however, Renshaw today launched into a tirade against the Ross County manager whom he sees as having let down both his country of birth and his adopted nation of Scotland by taking on what Renshaw described as a "mickey-mouse" international job. He also branded the County manager as gutless and unambitious for having turned down overtures from Europe's big clubs on the continent and in England in favour of staying at Ross County. Renshaw commented that Eckersley is too settled in his job at Ross County and is too scared of failure if he joins a big European club with "proper" players where he will be far less of a big fish. Renshaw also claimed that the youth academy provided by the Ross County chairman had played a huge part in the club's success and that with such talent coming through any manager could have been successful, citing also that Glasgow giants Celtic and Rangers had been well below par, making it far easier for other clubs in Scotland to be successful. Renshaw concluded by stating that Eckersley is a very average manager, content to continue his management career in the uncompetitive Scottish leagues because he knows he isn't good enough to compete with the big boys at one of Europe's major clubs and that the same is true at international level where Eckersley is hiding behind the "tiny nation" flag which allows him to be as unsuccessful as he likes without ever being able to be criticised because he has no good players at his disposal.

For his part, Eckersley had little to say on Mr Renshaw's comments, branding him an idiot whose journalistic skills were at best average. Eckersley also said that Renshaw wouldn't understand loyalty if it jumped up and bit him on the ear and that there are more important things in life than the furtherance of his own reputation by managing a so-called "big club". He readily conceeded that the work of his chairman Archie MacLaren had been crucial to the club's success, but strongly rejected claims that he is too scared of failure to move elsewhere, commenting that he can achieve all he wishes to at this great club, that he is loyal to the fans and the chairman and they are loyal to him and that he is happy living in Dingwall and sees no need to prove himself to the gutter press. Responding to Renshaw's comments on his International management career, Eckersley accused Renshaw of sour grapes having twice got his story wrong and said he had taken the Faroes job because it was one that appealed to him as a challenge and to be able to help the develpment of football in the small Island nation, adding that he had no desire to manage England and get slated constantly by the likes of Mr Renshaw. Eceksrely finished by questioning just what Mr Renshaw had added to the game of football, saying that without wishing to be arrogant, he had done more for the development of football in both the Scotland and the Faroes than Mr Renshaw could ever dream of doing himself and that he should maybe find a job at which he is more competent.

Whilst Eckersley attempted to remain cool and unconcerned by the article it was clear that Renshaw's comments had hurt and angered him, hitting on one point that Eckersley knew could always be questioned about him - a lack of ambition. Fans of Ross County have beseiged radio phone-ins today with words of support for their manager however, laughing off Mr Renshaws claims and pointing out that their club is now one of the biggest in Europe, if not in size certainly in terms of footballing talent - they also paid tribute to the manager who ranks loyalty far above ambition in the wider scheme of things, saying that the bond of friendship between manager and chairman had been great for their club. Needless to say, we here at the Dingwall Times are fully behind our manager and his exploits on the International scene were he is adored by the Faroese football fans and players alike for the impact he has made on football in their country and widely admired by people in the game for what he is trying to achieve with a small nation rather than taking the opportunity to manage top class players almost guaranteed to be at major tournaments. Mr Eckersley, we salute you. Mr Renshaw, we, the people of Dingwall, think you are a cretin!

[glamdring]

Wednesday 2nd December 2015

Wingers...I absolutely love them - there is no better sight for me on a football field than a player flying down the wing, ball at feet and attacking the full-back before either whipping in a cross or cutting infield to shoot or square it. At Ross County I am lucky enough to have who I would consider to be two of the best wingers in Europe, if not the best. Richard Rhodes on our left wing has been excellent all season, looking more consistent in terms of assists and goals than previously, but whether he scores or not he gives us a great outlet wide on the left. On the right we have who I consider to be the best footballer in Europe at the moment - I know I'm biased, but not many could argue that Alan Reid has continued on from last season in absolutely awesome form, playing on the right wing for us - he has stats so far this season that I would be delighted with from a striker, nevermind a winger. Far be it from me to critise another manager in public, but since these are my private diaries I find some of the decisions of Scotland manager Colin Cameron quite bizarre - he leaves far too many County players on the bench and plays others out of their best positions - Alab Reid and Richard Rhodes should be played on the wings in my opinion - Cameron continues to use Reid as a centre-back when he does play him which just isn't his best position. I guess I shouldn't complain though since I could have been Scotland manager myself had I chosen to...

Yesterday was another momentus day for Ross County football club - we won away to Brondby to secure our qualification for the knockout stages of the Champions League, but that wasn't why it was momentus. Following hot on the heels of Kerr Dodds, captain Nick James made his 500th start for the club, becoming the first of our academy players to do so - it is days like that that make me feel so proud and have no wishes whatsoever to be anywhere else - to see the players I have nurtured since they were 15 and 16 achieve so much in the game is a great feeling. It was sad that Scotland lost to the Czech Republic however as many of my Ross County players will miss the opportunity to perform at Euro 2016 and must now look to World Cup 2018 to play on the biggest international stage.

Just to bring the reader uptodate on our Champions League progress, having beatenb Bronby 4-0 at home and Ajax 0-2 away we faced a double-header against Manchester United which was unbelievablyfrustrating. We led 0-1 in the first minute and 0-2 after 19 minutes at Old Trafford, Richard Rhodes and Mark McGlynn finding the net, but Utd stormed back with a fantastic comeback with 3 goals in 12 minutes to lead 3-2 at half time. We attacked as much as we could in the 2nd half, but there were no more goals. 2 weeks later, we again threw away points and a 2-0 lead after a Nick James penalty and an Alan Reid strike had put us in control. Cristiano Ronaldo pulled on back on 79 minutes before our 'keeper Kevin Black made a massive blunder, coming out for a corner and ending up fumbling it into his own net on 89 minutes meaning that Manchester United stayed above us due to results between our two teams. As they won away to Ajax and we won away to Bronby yesterday we now both have 10 points and have qualified, but it is likely we'll have to settle for second in the group unless Man Utd slip up at home to Brondby.

Domestically it has been largely business as usual with the odd slip-up to go with some impressive performances in the SPL. Falkirk and Celtic are keeping us honest, both within 2 points of ourselves, despipte us losing just 1 of 11 games so far. That one was at Celtic Park, as the Glasgow side took a narrow 1-0 win from a close match. Falkirk were again a thorn in our side as we played out an entertaining 3-3 draw at the Falkirk Stadium with the score at 2-2 with just 22 minutes gone, Richard Rhodes grabbing a 92nd minute equaliser for us to secure a point. Livingston also proved to be a stern test despite struggling in the league - I can't understand their league position, as in Jerome Gomez they have a lethal goalscorer who netted 2 against us at Victoria Park, adding to Mark Allan's goal as we drew 3-3 from 0-2 down, Richard Rhodes scoring twice and Kevin Watson once.

Those results aside, we have been our usual selves in the league, winning our other 8 of 11 matches. The players were clearly itching for the action to begin after the Summer break as they tore into Dundee in amazing fashion on the opening day at Dens Park. The scoreboard at half-time read Dundee 1 Ross County 5 as Paul Harris, Mark McGlynn, Ian MacSween and Alan Reid (twice) all put their names on the scoresheet. The second half was a little quieter with just goals from Richard Rhodes and Kevin Watson to set us off with a 1-7 victory. Rangers were beaten 2-0 before our loss at Celtic, but after that we bounced back to excellent form with 4-1, 0-3, 5-0 & 5-0 wins over Hibs, Hearts, Clyde and Motherwell, with Mark McGlynn finding the back of the net 6 times as well as young youth academy product David Campbell taking his rare chance as we had an injury crisis, to score a few. A 0-2 win at Kilmarnock and a 2-0 win at home to Dundee United also followed in amongst the 3-3 draws and cup matches. In the league cup, Aberdeen were downed 4-0 with a hat-trick and an assist from Alan Reid.

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Holders - Ross County

Pos Inf Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag G.D. Pts

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1st Ross County 11 8 2 1 36 9 +27 26

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2nd Falkirk 11 8 1 2 23 10 +13 25

3rd Celtic 11 7 3 1 20 7 +13 24

4th Motherwell 11 6 2 3 18 17 +1 20

5th Rangers 11 3 6 2 18 15 +3 15

6th Kilmarnock 11 4 3 4 17 15 +2 15

7th Dundee Utd 11 3 4 4 20 20 0 13

8th Clyde 11 2 6 3 9 15 -6 12

9th Hibs 11 3 1 7 18 29 -11 10

10th Dundee 11 3 1 7 11 26 -15 10

11th Livingston 11 1 3 7 15 27 -12 6

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12th Hearts 11 1 2 8 8 23 -15 5

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