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.