Somehow, Ross County have not managed to win any of them. The first clash in October finished 3-1 in favour of Inverness, with an injury time volley by Aaron Doran adding considerable gloss to the scoreline; at 2-1 down, the Dingwall side were utterly dominant in the second half. The Scottish cup fourth round match in Dingwall was a proper helter-skelter affair, with the visitors leading twice yet still managing to trail 3-2 to Richard Brittain's injury-time strike...only for a Richie Foran shot to go in off teammate Philip Roberts' knee in injury-time-in-injury-time; ICT hung on for a 2-1 win in the replay despite being camped in their own penalty area for the last half-hour in a siege that rivalled the Alamo.
And the last one? A crappy nil-nil draw in Dingwall, on a crappy pitch, where both teams played crappy football. The less said about it the better. But, sitting in the away end, I felt pretty pleased with a point.
Coming into Saturday's match, Caley Thistle are fourth in the SPL, and really only one more win away from clinching a place in the top six after the split. If you'd offered that to any ICT fan back in August, they'd have bitten your hand off - and probably your forearm and elbow as well. But the euphoria surrounding what has been an excellent season for us has receded dramatically in recent weeks.
That's because Ross County haven't lost a match since Christmas. Their eleven games since then resutled in eight wins and three draws, culminating in a sensational victory over Celtic last weekend where they came from two goals down to win through substitute Steffen Wohlfarth's last minute strike. Newly promoted sides are supposed to struggle against relegation; Ross County, last year's first division champions, lie third in the table, one point above their local rivals and only two behind second-placed Motherwell.
If Derek Adams doesn't win manager of the year, there's something seriously wrong.
Adams is the architect of County's success; a former player at the club - I saw him score both goals in a 2-0 League Cup win over Dundee United in 1998, just before he signed for Motherwell - he returned to the playing staff in 2006 after spells at Aberdeen and Livingston and ended up as manager in October 2007, whilst the Staggies were in the second division. Promotion was achieved that season, and he was in the dugout as County went on that remarkable run to the 2010 Scottish Cup Final. I've never quite understood why he left for six months to become assistant boss at Hibs, but County were lucky to avoid the drop in his absence and his return in May 2011 coincided with a romp to promotion in which the club lost only one league game.
For the record, I can't stand him. His face is so sour he looks like he's constantly chewing on a lemon. His post-match interviews after negative results are often just a great big whinge. But the 37 year old is undoubtedly a talented manager whose move to bigger things is surely a matter of time.
Adams' Ross County side are hardly masters of tiki-taka; the use of a big target man in Sam Morrow gives the defenders an out ball which is hugely useful on the dodgier SPL pitches, not least their own Victoria Park. But during his tenure they have always been difficult to beat; set up in a 4-5-1, the midfield is very narrow, making it very difficult for opponents. The trade-off is that there is a huge reliance on the full-backs for width. At the start of the season, Marc Fitzpatrick on the left and Ross Tokely on the right struggled to provide this - the improved results over the course of the campaign have come with the January arrival of the Greek Evangelos Ikonomou (who has gone up in the world from his previous appearances in Shooting Stars on the BBC) at left-back and the good form on the opposite flank of ex-Dundee United man Mihael Kovacevic.
The arrival of Ivan Sproule, of course, has been a huge factor too. The Northern Irishman seemed utterly washed up during his second spell at Hibs, but has enjoyed a renaissance in the North with 5 goals since his transfer window arrival. His inclusion makes the midfield a little vulnerable, but the gamble has paid off; Morrow comes deep, taking the opposing centre backs with him, and Sproule forever looks to come in off the right flank, using his impressive pace to attack the empty space. With Iain Vigurs and Richard Brittain, both excellent passers and set-piece menaces, and the underrated Rocco Quinn delivering the ammunition, County have a midfield as good as any in Scotland bar Celtic.
Their secret weapon, for what it's worth, is clearly Paul Lawson. Why? A regular last season, the former Celtic youth player was left on the bench in the early part of the campaign, but he's been back in the team since the winter break, and he must be doing something right; having not started any of the league defeats earlier in the season, and missed the sole loss of last year's first division campaign, he has not lost a league game in which he has started since April 2011. That's 45 league games. If nothing else, surely he has to be in the team for superstition value.
The bottom line is that this Ross County side are excellent value for their league position. They aren't always fun to watch - and I wonder if Adams' more direct style would translate to a higher level such as the English Championship - but he's surely worth a punt. He's probably a good enough coach that he's not wedded to just one style. He's been linked strongly with a return to Pittodrie as manager, but I can't help feeling that it would be a bad move for him. Ian Porterfield, Alex Smith, Alex Miller, Paul Hegarty, Ebbe Skovdahl, Steve Paterson, Jimmy Calderwood, Mark McGhee, Craig Brown - anyone would think the Aberdeen job was cursed the moment Sir Alex Ferguson left the building in 1986, and Adams would be wise to steer clear of that particular poisoned chalice.
L.
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