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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.

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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.

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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.

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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>

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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 &gt; 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

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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.

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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

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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

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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>

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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 :p