Welcome back to Dingwall.

After storming out of the Second Division at the first time of asking, Ross County now step into season three with a single, crystal-clear objective: don’t get relegated. It’s not glamorous, but it’s honest work, and if we’re to keep this challenge aligned with the club’s real-life rise through the leagues, simply holding our own in the First Division will do just fine. There’s optimism in the air, a little trepidation too, and the unmistakable feeling that surviving this season might be every bit as satisfying as last year’s promotion — if a touch more stressful.

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.

Welcome back to Dingwall. The challenge remains simple on paper: just stay ahead of the real Ross County across the same years. With at least one ‘Ross’ in the team. Since we’re already a division above them going into 98/99, survival is the only requirement — avoid relegation and the mission rolls on. So far, so good: a solid start in Division 2 sees us sitting 4th after six games.

We’re now entering 1998/99, which in real life saw Ross County still stuck in Division Three. We, on the other hand, have somehow yo-yo’d our way a division ahead of history, which means the challenge rule for the season is delightfully simple: don’t get relegated. I’ll take that.

The squad stumbled its way through Division Three last year, but Division Two feels like another world. We need a few reinforcements — ideally without spending money we don’t have. Which is awkward, because we currently have… –£47k. In 1998 money that’s, what, a small bungalow?

On the shopping list:
– a centre-back (or two) to support Ross 1
– a backup wing-back
– backup DMC to give Bannon a breather
– body behind Adams in MC
– right-mid cover for Stevens
– left-mid cover because Broddle is both old and average

So naturally, my opening gamble is Dave Rogers. Strong lad. Tough lad. Aggression levels of a peaceful yoga instructor, but still.

A shorter piece this week as we lurch towards what passes for a summer in the Scottish Highlands. Six league games to go and one meaningless Scottish Cup quarter-final wedged in the middle. Nerves shredded, squad patched together with hope and half-fit full-backs, and the faint possibility of promotion lurking like a mirage in the Highlands.

Part Four of this odyssey begins with everything still to play for—and plenty still to go wrong.

Welcome back as we step into 1998 like Gala being Freed from Desire.

Twenty-one games played, and the table has taken shape. Ross County sit 2nd, level on 44 points with Albion Rovers, separated only by goal difference. It’s been a strong first half of the campaign: 14 wins, a couple of draws, and the occasional reminder that defending remains optional in Division 3.

Alloa are right behind on 43 points, making it a tight three-way contest at the top. Queen’s Park and Dumbarton aren’t completely out of the picture either, but for now the focus is on staying ahead of Alloa and keeping pace with Albion.

A reminder of this season’s extra layer of pressure:

• We must finish in the top three, replicating Ross County’s real-life finish in 97/98. No room for drifting into mid-table; the targets are clear.

And of course, the other self-imposed rule continues:

• Every matchday squad must include a Ross.

So far, that’s been manageable — though the bench has occasionally looked like a naming-day ceremony.

After a rocky August, the Ross Revolution finally has lift-off. It’s taken a few tactical tweaks, a few injury miracles, and one 18-year-old wonderkid from Liverpool, but Ross County are suddenly looking like a side that knows what it’s doing.

First up, Albion Rovers away. It’s the kind of fixture you dread in this division – a bobbly pitch, a half-empty stand, and a man selling pies who looks like he’s been doing it since the 50s. None of that bothers Trevor Steven, though, who rolls back the years with a vintage hat-trick. The veteran midfield man finishes like it’s 1985 all over again, and we sneak away with a 3–2 win.

I’ve always had a bit of a fascination with the Scottish Highlands — maybe it’s the endless hills, the sense of isolation, or perhaps it’s just the sheer madness of running a football club hundreds of miles from anywhere. Those long journeys to away games, the hardy handful of fans who make the trip, and the eternal optimism of men in woolly hats watching a team that’s probably just drawn 0–0 again… there’s something beautifully tragic about it.

In Championship Manager 97/98, the most northerly of these brave souls to grace the Scottish Football League were Ross County — proud representatives of Dingwall, a town that could generously be described as “remote”.

At this point in history, Ross County were the new kids on the block, having only joined the Scottish Football League in 1994, joining the newly expanded Third Division. The club’s chairman was Roy MacGregor, the local businessman whose ambition would eventually propel County all the way to the Scottish Premiership. In 1997/98, the man in the dugout was Neale Cooper, the former Aberdeen midfielder and one of Alex Ferguson’s trusted lieutenants from the glory days at Pittodrie.