The Ross County players celebrate their Scottish Cup win over Hibernian

By Keir Murray

It will be little consolation to Hibernian fans that they are not the only Scottish Premier League side to have succumbed 2-1 to Ross County.

Hamilton were on the wrong end of that scoreline at Victoria Park in the second round of the Co-operative Insurance Cup in August.

But Tuesday's last-gasp Active Nation Scottish Cup quarter-final replay win was the bigger upset.

When Anthony Stokes headed Hibs ahead in the 46th minute, many supporters would have let their minds drift to how the Easter Road side would fare against Celtic at Hampden in the semi-final.

The Staggies, though, refused to be culled and Scott Boyd's injury-time goal gave the club its finest night and sparked triumphant scenes in the Dingwall stadium.

County are the most northerly league club in Britain. Their match against Celtic will involve a 360-mile round trip for the convoy that is sure to serpentine up and down the A9 on 10 April.

If the club's honorary president and backer Roy McGregor has his way, there will be plenty more journeys to Glasgow on football business.

"This is what we got into the game for, to play one of the top teams in the country," he said after the quarter-final match.

"It's not a fairy tale. I think our team went out and showed everybody that we can play football.

"We have supporters who travel from a radius of 100 miles to come to games every week. I'm sure we'll have a few buses going down the road to Hampden. Dingwall will be closed."

Club chairman Dave Siegel added: "If we cleared out the population of Dingwall, we'd probably take 5,000 from there alone.

"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."

Participation in the SPL next season remains a possibility.

County trail Dundee, Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Dunfermline in the Scottish First Division, but they have a clutch of games in hand. Maximum points would propel them to the summit.

It is a remarkable scenario for the former Highland League side, who only joined the SFL 15 seasons ago.

The club won the Third Division in their fifth season and stepped up another division a few seasons later when the SPL expanded to 12 teams from 10, thereby necessitating the promotion of two extra teams from the Second to the First.

Reaching the top flight would require undersoil heating to be installed, as well as stadium improvements to satisfy the league's insistence on having a minimum of 6,000 seats.

But there can be no under-estimating County's ambition.

The club website states that its mission is to make the club financially viable and to "bring entertaining and competitive football is brought to Dingwall and the Highlands" and to reach the SPL.

Having been forced to cut its costs five years ago, the emphasis is on developing their own players through their respected academy.

They describe their ethos thus: "Players are asked to come here on the basis that they will be treated well, given access to first class coaching and facilities and the chance to further themselves as players by building a team ethic.

"The culture we want to establish at Victoria Park is one of 'us and we' rather than 'I and me'."

Part of the "us and we" are manager Derek Adams; his assistant Craig Brewster; Davie Kirkwood, who takes the under-19s; and ex-Aberdeen, Celtic and Rangers youth development manager George Adams.

George, the manager's father, told BBC Scotland immediately after the final whistle: "I think it lets you know where we're going. Every single person at the club deserves the credit.

"If only people realised where we were three years ago. We have come a long way."

However, Adams senior revealed that there may not be complete unity at Dingwall: "I've had many fights with the board here. I think they are not positive enough.

"I'm not caring about being a community club, I want to be in the Premier League. Unless we get rid of this community idea, we're going nowhere.

"We want to play at the highest level and you can see that we are capable of doing it."

The Staggies' club crest, featuring a stag's horns, was inspired by the regimental badge of the Seaforth Highlanders, in whose ranks many locals died serving in the First World War.

Their fighting spirit will be tested to extremes in the next month.

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