County striker Michael Gardyne is hoping to gun down Celtic at Hampden

Ross County could bank as much as £500,000 from booking their place in the semi-finals of the Active Nation Scottish Cup.

The Dingwall side beat Scottish Premier League Hibernian at Victoria Park to earn a last four tie against Celtic at Hampden Park on 10 April.

"Financially, it's a huge boost to the club," said chairman Dave Siegel.

"We never thought for one minute that we'd be getting the sort of money that hopefully we'll be receiving."

County, who will be participating in the semi-final of the competition for the first time in their history, aim to use some of the cash to bolster their squad.

Siegel told BBC Scotland: "It would be a considerable amount of money we will reinvest back into the club, which will mean that our manager Derek Adams will have a few more pounds to spend on his players, which should hopefully bring a wee smile to his face."

Adams' side are fourth in the First Division - seven points behind leaders Dundee, who have played three games more.

And the Staggies could put themselves in the driving seat for promotion when they face the Dens Park side on Saturday.

If we cleared out the population of Dingwall, we'd probably take 5,000 to Hampden from there alone Dave Siegel Ross County chairman

"We've always got ambitions but we're only a small club up in the Highlands and we just take one game at a time.

"We've now got Celtic to look forward to but we're all focussed on our game against Dundee on Saturday and we then have Caley Thistle on Tuesday so we've got lots to look at before we get too excited about the game against Celtic.

"We have a chance (of promotion). If we're still in the mix in the second or third week of April, I'll be quite pleased."

Siegel hopes the club's fans will enjoy their trip to the national stadium but has moved to assure them that the game will not simply be about the fans having a day out.

"We're going down there to enjoy ourselves and to entertain our fans, the fans have been wonderful this season," added Siegel.

"But, I would stress, we're not going down there just to make up the numbers, as Hibs have already found out.

"If we cleared out the population of Dingwall, we'd probably take 5,000 from there alone. I think Dingwall will be a ghost town.

"But at the match against Hibs, there were people there from the Orkney Isles, the Western Isles, Wick and Thurso - they come from all over.

"And we've got fans in Glasgow as well that go to all of our away games, so it'll be a cracking day out for us."

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