That club from Dingwall

[Dmacca]

County should we give credit where its due? or

[Alex MacLeod]

They're in the position they're in on merit. They now need to wait till wed night for the party though.

[Charles Bannerman]

They're in the position they're in on merit. They now need to wait till wed night for the party though.

It could be Tuesday if Dundee fail to beat QoS then. But absolutely. I've been through in Dingwall as often as I can this season and County have - despite the best attempts of Messrs Pressley, MacNamara and Reid to denigrate them - been absolutely superb. This is thoroughly deserved. County have been the best team in D1 by a country mile.

Bring on the Highland Derbies!

[Dmacca]

Fair play Charles, I think they deserve the credit due to them.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

http://youtu.be/V6GXV0FNEeI

This I feel is a very apt song for the in breds from Ross-shire to sing in celebration.

[+Gringo]

It would be great for the Highlands, the return of the Derbies and the general GIRUY to the central belters who dislike travelling North. Well done County I say.

[PaderbornCaley]

Well done on finally making it to the SPL. Their so called Uncle Roy threw so much money at the club over the years, they should really have been there a whole lot sooner. They always outspent Caley Thistle when we were in the lower leagues, but better late than never. And it will be great for the Highlands.

Edited April 8, 2012 by CapitalCaley

[Charles Bannerman]

Their so called Uncle Roy threw so much money at the club over the years

They always outspent Caley Thistle when we were in the lower leagues

Two points here.

1 - On the subject of money allegedly being thrown around, where did ICT's £2 million + debt of 1999- 2000 ultimately disappear to etc etc etc?

2 - Show me the evidence that Ross County "always outspent Caley Thistle" in the lower leagues? For instance I am looking for numbers which outrank £30,000 for Iain Stewrt in the summer of 1995 and another £50K for Brian Thomson and Mike Teasdale a few months later.

Edited April 8, 2012 by Charles Bannerman

[CaleyD]

Number 1 still exists.,,plus C*unty were never forced into an expensive merger that swallowed a good deal of the previous clubs assets and had a stadium imposed upon them which cost more than it should and carried the additional burden of a very expensive road having to be put in place. Not exactly calling it on a level playing field there Charles, and you know it.

I don't know, or care, if C*unty spent more than us over the years, but it's not something that could be settled on the basis of who's paid the highest transfer fee(s). You'd need to look at wages etc also....Paul Hartles Pay per PLay deal anyone?

[SMEE]

Their so called Uncle Roy threw so much money at the club over the years

They always outspent Caley Thistle when we were in the lower leagues

Two points here.

1 - On the subject of money allegedly being thrown around, where did ICT's £2 million + debt of 1999- 2000 ultimately disappear to etc etc etc?

2 - Show me the evidence that Ross County "always outspent Caley Thistle" in the lower leagues? For instance I am looking for numbers which outrank £30,000 for Iain Stewrt in the summer of 1995 and another £50K for Brian Thomson and Mike Teasdale a few months later.

Point two......Macgregor may not have splashed out on Transfer Fees, but its a widely known he was paying high wages compared to the other teams and especially ICT.

Didnt County at one point have a first team squad of about 40 players or so?

Edited April 8, 2012 by SMEE

[ictchris]

County had hilarious squads around 2002-2005. They outbid us on several players, I remember them pulling Jim Hamilton out from under us, the dastardly lot!

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Charlie is a gudgie

[Charles Bannerman]

Number 1 still exists.,,plus C*unty were never forced into an expensive merger that swallowed a good deal of the previous clubs assets and had a stadium imposed upon them which cost more than it should and carried the additional burden of a very expensive road having to be put in place. Not exactly calling it on a level playing field there Charles, and you know it.

Donald... have you become Buenos in disguise?

I for one am certainly in no doubt that without the merger, any single Inverness team that got in - and I wouldn't have staked my pension on that - would have been a lot more poorly off and would have done a good deal less well than what eventually happened. There is absolutely NO WAY that Caley playing out of Telford Street or Thistle playing out of Kingsmills, which was condemned as unsuitable even for Division 3, would have got anywhere like as far.

For SPL football to come to Inverness a 6000 all seater stadium would have been necessary at some point and the limitations as to site are very well documented. The only qualification you might make is whether it might have been a better idea to have gone for the Stratton Farm stadium site in 1994 which would not have cost so much but would have been a long way out to the east. Then you have to remember the considerable amounts of public money (Council, INE etc), totalling off the top of my head £1.8M, which the stadium and merger projects attracted and which would never have been given to a single club.

[CaleyD]

What on earth are you on about, Charles.

I never for one moment suggested that a single Inverness team would have been allowed entry to the SFL, nor was I referring to anything else in your cut and paste from the "Book of Tired and Old Responses to Anything Related to the Formation of ICT".

Had you stopped to think and read what I said for just a moment you would see that what I was saying is that you can hardly compare the spending of the two, on the bais you were, when (and the reasons matter not) one team was forced into spending massively to get into the SFL and the other was not.

It wasn't all that long ago the buckets were being passed around for the "Save our Staggies" appeal. A situation that arose, in large part, due to the overspending on players mentioned by ictchris in the 2002-2005 period when C*unty tried to buy success.

[Charles Bannerman]

I never for one moment suggested that a single Inverness team would have been allowed entry to the SFL,

It wasn't all that long ago the buckets were being passed around for the "Save our Staggies" appeal.

D.. all I am doing is critically examining the alternative to your "expensive merger that swallowed up the previous club' assets".

And for passing round buckets read a total of over £5 committed one way or another by Tullochs - over £2 million of that to keep the administrators from the door following over spending during the period that ICT went from D3 to D1.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

There is a feckin hell of a lot of "wrong statements" in this thread - and not one yet from Caleyboy !!

They will be advertising the feckin book next.

[CaleyD]

I never for one moment suggested that a single Inverness team would have been allowed entry to the SFL,

It wasn't all that long ago the buckets were being passed around for the "Save our Staggies" appeal.

D.. all I am doing is critically examining the alternative to your "expensive merger that swallowed up the previous club' assets".

And for passing round buckets read a total of over £5 committed one way or another by Tullochs - over £2 million of that to keep the administrators from the door following over spending during the period that ICT went from D3 to D1.

You can critically examine it all you like as it doesn't matter how you might want to spin it, the merger and everything that was needed to secure a position in the SFL was expensive. Whether you want to clock that up as overspending is up to you.

I'll refrain from critically examining your figures since they clearly have no basis in fact.

[Alex MacLeod]

Does a thread that asks should we give County credit for their achievement this season have to turn into another merger debate.

[Charles Bannerman]

I'll refrain from critically examining your figures since they clearly have no basis in fact.

Don... maybe you should have critically examined the one where I missed out the "M" (for million. Tullochs have chipped in rather more than a fiver!

[Scotty]

I noticed that one, but wanted to stay out of this argument.

My only contribution to this thread is to say that County will be worthy winners of Division 1 and will rightfully take their place in the SPL. For that I congratulate them in the same way as I have always said I would congratulate any team that proves to be the best in their division over the course of a season.

In some ways I hope they go down quicker than Titanic 3D, but in other ways, I kinda hope they sit 11th for a season or two if nothing more than to wind up Chicky and the boys and give Robbo some wind up material for their trips north

[Alex MacLeod]

Well done Ross County on winning the Scottish First Division. Looking forward to some good derby's next season.

[+Fraz]

Well done Ross County on winning the Scottish First Division. Looking forward to some good derby's next season.

Here here!

[Tug]

Congrats to Dundee on handing the title to the highlands again :P

Congrats to County on winning the league

Congrats to all the former ICT stars for proving they can still compete

[+DoofersDad]

Congratulations are in order but it is a shame they have not had to work harder for the title. For Dundee to fail to win at home against the bottom club is very poor indeed and it has been like that all season. County's points per game ratio of 2.1 is nothing special and is 3rd out of 4 of the top teams in the four scottish divisions. Dundee's points per game ratio of just 1.6 is very low for a team in 2nd place and is worse than Motherwell's in 3rd in the premier division and the worst of all the 2nd placed teams in the Scottish divisions. Whilst acknowledging that there are twice as many teams in the English divisions, this points per game ratio would typically place you about 6th or 7th.

So whilst County are top on merit, they are top of a pretty mediocre bunch of teams in the SFL this year and have never been under any pressure. It will certainly be interesting to see how they do next year and despite my grudging acknowledgment of their achievement here, I happen to think they will do pretty well.

[BornCaley]

Well done to County for ensuring all the moaning central belt teams, refs & pundits have more travelling to do next season!

Cant wait for our Derbies!