Owen must keep the Highlanders’ big fairy tale going

IT has been almost 14 fun-filled and silver-tinged years.

But as the TV cameras and the spotlight return to the Highlands tomorrow, Ross County are now fighting to stop a fantasy fairytale ending.

Inverness Caley Thistle’s burst into the top flight in 2004 began a romantic storyline by the Moray Firth.

An astonishing tale of two clubs which had come together amidst plenty of local opposition and risen up through the leagues taking Celtic’s Scottish Cup scalp during their journey before hitting the big time.

The famous stories of Terry Butcher’s chip-shop stops in Auchterader before John Hughes led Inverness to a first major final.

That League Cup showpiece was lost to Aberdeen on penalties at Celtic Park but the moment of fulfilment would come when capping an extraordinary 2014–15 season by winning the Scottish Cup.

Having sank Celtic in the semi-final the flattening of Falkirk at Hampden handed the Highlands a first major national trophy.

European football followed but it has gone sour. David Raven was a hero of that Scottish Cup win yet his recent outburst told a sorry story.

After those heady European days there was a decline which John Robertson, the very man who first got them to the big time in the first place, is battling to arrest after returning to the club.

Raven questioned the running of the club over the last few seasons and asked where the money had gone from the sales of players. He wondered why the club had slipped into the middle of the Championship.

While Inverness were sliding, at least their neighbours over the Kessock Bridge had assumed the mantle of maintaining momentum.

Ross County’s ascent through the divisions and their own promotion to the Premiership supplemented the tale.

They went 40 games unbeaten in 2012 to get there under boss Derek Adams and County also got their hands on a major trophy.

With Jim McIntyre at the helm Roy MacGregor’s dreams became reality when the club followed the Inverness lead by landing their own big gong by dumping Hibs 2–1 in the Final of the 2016 League Cup.

Those were heady days. The arrival of TV cameras to beam live coverage of Highland derbies across the UK and the world was like a dream come true.

Where the south coast minnows such as Bournemouth and Brighton were upsetting the established big clubs, this pair were doing the same north of the border.

While the likes of Rangers, Hibs and Hearts were meandering around outside the top division,

Arrival of cameras to beam Highland derbies was dream come true

the opportunity was there for this Highland duo to make hay and they sure as hell made it.

But, in the words of Craig Levein, there seems to be a restoration of a so-called natural order in Scotland.

With the big guns from Edinburgh and the Ibrox outfit back flying in the top half of the Premiership, Inverness have gone and County are now in real danger of following them.

Rangers can add to the pressure of the Dingwall club tomorrow.

Of course there is a long way to go and boss Owen Coyle has the know-how and nous to get County out of trouble.

But with Inverness gone he’s also fighting to keep alive a Highland fairytale which has run for almost a decade and a half.

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