Welcome back to Dingwall, where my hardy Highlanders began Season Two with the modest aim of simply not going back down again. Yet somehow — through grit, good fortune, and the occasional deflected hoof — we’ve ended up second in the table with fourteen games to play. Back-to-back promotions? Nobody dare say it out loud, but the dream is taking shape in the cold Highland air.

Naturally, the moment hope appears, football has a way of whacking you with a rolled-up newspaper. Exhibit A: Livingston at home, and we contrive to lose 1–0 thanks to a Colcombe strike after just 22 minutes. A crowd of 2,196 trudged back into the Dingwall night wondering how on earth a team chasing promotion can look so thoroughly mid-table. A gentle reminder, then: this is Ross County. On CM2. In the 90s. Nothing will be simple.

And so, seeking a response, we travelled to Bayview Park — the land of yellow shirts, suspicious wind patterns, and attendances you can count without removing your gloves. A 1–1 draw. Two points tossed into the North Sea despite East Fife doing us the favour of going down to ten men. Connelly grabbed our equaliser, but Gillespie hobbled off, and by full-time it felt like a game we should have smothered. Still — a small positive. Bannon returned to anchor CDM, glowering at anyone within a ten-yard radius. If anyone is going to drag us up by the collar through this promotion scrap, it’s him.

Relief, then, arrived in central Scotland — in the shadow of Stirling Castle, no less — though even that came with a hint of County chaos. Agu broke the deadlock, Connelly doubled it, and for a blissful twenty minutes we looked like a football team with plans, structure, and competence. Naturally, we allowed Stirling back into it late on, because tranquillity is not permitted in this division.

Next up: bottom-placed Albion Rovers — the sort of match you circle in the calendar as “should win”. Youngs put us two up inside 14 minutes, Agu added a third, and for a brief, shimmering moment it looked like we might actually enjoy a stress-free afternoon. Naturally, Rovers then dragged themselves back into it with goals on 20 and 60 minutes, just to remind everyone why they are football’s equivalent of a loose-wheeled shopping trolley.

That Albion scrape did at least prompt an existential question: why exactly are they called Albion Rovers? It sounds similar to e.g. “Town Athletic” or “City United”. A quick dig reveals Coatbridge once had two teams — Albion and Rovers — who merged and apparently used up all their imagination in the process. Albion Rovers it became. Functional, if nothing else.

Onward, then, to Brechin — and another narrow escape. Youngs scored after six minutes, we shut the gates, and spent the next eighty-plus desperately defending the concept of a clean sheet. Brechin’s Dailly limped off, which helped, but this was another one-goal win carved from tension and stubbornness. Still, the table smiles upon us: eight points clear in second, even if those behind keep clutching their game in hand like a lottery ticket.
For now, though, we are — quite literally — Brechin free.

Next up were Stenhousemuir, and for once the footballing gods gave us a head start. Anthony’s early red card handed us control, Connelly converted the penalty, and from there we never looked back. Steven and Adams added late goals, and even a consolation from Little couldn’t spoil a comfortable 3–1 win.

Back at Victoria Park, Forfar struck first — which only served to irritate us into playing properly. Connelly hit a brace, Youngs added another, and Adams joined the fun too.
Forfar four? Nope — Ross County four, and as straightforward a home win as we’ve managed all season.

Youngs has been fantastic for us, but it was never going to last. We take a £50k haircut on his sale, but it has been worth it. We’ll meet again, young man. QPR able to trigger a ‘big club release clause’? You can tell it’s the 90s.

Tom who? The understudy absolutely stole the show up next!

And with that Morton demolition, the table suddenly looked very inviting indeed. Six games to go.
Level on points with top spot.
A healthy cushion to the chasing pack.

We’re nearly there — the unthinkable is coming into focus.

We then decide to make things interesting by dribbling to a 1–0 defeat at Livingston. It brings them a butt-clenchingly close six points behind us with five games to go… because of course it does. Why cruise to the finish line when you can turn it into a full-blown anxiety marathon?

The goal came from Colcombe in the 84th minute — naturally, just late enough in the game to maximise the emotional damage yet early enough to give us a sliver of false hope that we might nick an equaliser. We did not. Attendance: 1,092 souls who witnessed us carefully and deliberately tightening the title race like absolute professionals.

And now it’s panic stations as Hacksaw Jim and an imposter Connolly put us to the Stanraer sword.

Any dreams of the title are now toast. On the plus side Livingston lose too, leaving us still 6 points clear of 3^rd with 4 games left.

An easy home game vs 9^th placed East Fife turns stressful when Allan(!) slots early. We hit back with 4 as the returning cool heads Gillespie and Steven lead us to a much needed win.

We say Haro, wave goodbye to backup CB Mark, £63k in the kitty.

Not sure what West Ham flop Abou will make of the Highland weather, but we snap him up to fill the Youngs-shaped hole.

Anyone with Premier League experience should feast in Scottish Division Two! And so it proves, as Samassi Abou endears himself to our travelling fans with a late winner — all fifteen of them, each one probably wondering why they didn’t just stay in Dingwall and do literally anything else with their Saturday.

Rogers put us ahead early, we generously allowed Albion Rovers back into it (sportsmanship, obviously), and then Abou calmly reminded everyone that he once shared a pitch with Bergkamp and Vieira. A huge three points, and more importantly, a temporary reduction in our collective blood pressure.

The Tin Man, Ted McMinn himself, finally notches his first in Agu’s absence, which should’ve been the feel-good story of the day… but instead we contrive to lose at home to Stirling for reasons that remain unknown. Attendance: 2,209 baffled people, all of whom now have trust issues.

Still, one game to go and promotion is all but assured. A 7 goal difference cushion over Livingston. We can’t mess this up from here.

That man Connelly again — his 28th of the season and his 63rd since the start of the challenge. At this point he’s less a striker and more a publicly funded Scottish emergency service.

His goal is enough to seal a 1–0 win in our final game, and with it, promotion. We are, quite literally and delightfully, Brechin out of Division Two. The fans celebrate, the board pretends they always believed in us, and I quietly thank the universe that Connelly’s hamstrings held together long enough to drag us over the line.

Scottish Division Two: completed it, mate.

We couldn’t quite hang on for the title, but promotion is promotion.

IRL Ross County strolled to the title in 98/99 Division Three. Therefore we remain one league ahead, and will simply need to avoid relegation again in season three to extend the challenge.

Join us next time to see how the summer shapes up before we take on the lofty heights of division one. We have soooo many players at risk of retirement, so it’s gunna be a stressful end of season update!

Up the Ross!