When Ross County set themselves the target of escaping the Championship at the first attempt this season this surely wasn’t the scenario they had in mind.
The Dingwall club endured a nightmare finish to the previous campaign – relegated from the Premiership via the playoffs by Livingston – but had been widely expected to bounce straight back. A raft of new signings with top-level experience, including Declan Gallagher, Ross Docherty, Nicky Clark and Alex Iacovitti, were brought in to support an anticipated assault on the title.
Summer optimism, however, quickly faded following a disastrous start that failed to improve the longer an excruciating season has worn on. Two managers, Don Cowie and then Tony Docherty, paid for those woes with their jobs, while the latest incumbent, Stuart Kettlewell, hasn’t fared much better on his return to the Highlands.
Now County enter the final matchday of the season not pushing for promotion as had been expected but instead fighting to avoid the ignominy of a return to Scottish football’s third tier for the first time since 2008.
Stuart Kettlewell is Ross County’s third manager of a troubled season in the Championship
The Championship’s bottom club can at least take some solace, however, from a few factors in their favour heading into Friday night’s dramatic denouement. One is the small mercy that their fate is somehow not yet sealed after 35 matches, with Airdrieonians just one point ahead in ninth and Morton two points further in front in eighth.
County have also, belatedly, found a spark, winning consecutive league matches for the first time this season over the past fortnight including a crushing 4-0 triumph over Morton last weekend. If form counts for anything at this stage, then County and Airdrie should be the ones feeling buoyant, while April has been a month to forget for winless Morton.
With every match getting underway with the same 7.45pm kick-off time, the permutations of this three-team tussle will ebb and flow throughout the evening. County conclude their regular season commitments away to Raith Rovers who have nothing but pride to play in fifth. Intriguingly, the other two relegation rivals face off against each other in what ought to be a nervy night at Cappielow.
County can fare no better than ninth – and a relegation play-off against either Alloa Athletic or Queen of the South – regardless of how results pan out, although given how wretched the season has been so far for them, they would surely happily take that.
Ian Murray’s Morton need to avoid defeat to escape from the relegation places
Trailing Morton by three points and four goals, victory for County at Stark’s Park by more than three goals will be enough to lift them off the bottom and into that playoff berth regardless of what happens in Greenock.. Any County win, as long as Airdrie don’t also claim a victory, would also suffice.
A draw would guarantee Morton’s safety in eighth but they could yet finish ninth or even dead last should County win by a sufficiently large margin and Airdrie also prosper on the road.
Unsurprisingly, Morton manager Ian Murray ruled out the possibility of attempting to play for that point, given the indecision that can often place in players’ minds, and didn’t try to play down the significance of the occasion either.
‘We’ve never really hidden how big it is for the club to stay in the Championship,’ he said. ‘It’s huge for us – probably more so than in the last nine or 10 years. It’s in our own hands so what more can we ask for? We’d have loved to have had it done and dusted before now but it’s not.’
The relegation will be televised. Perhaps surprisingly, BBC Scotland have elected not to send their live cameras to Cappielow, where one team will likely be celebrating and the other crestfallen come full-time, but instead to Kirkcaldy to see if County can pull off their own rescue mission.
‘We’re looking forward to the task in hand,’ said Kettlewell. ‘Don’t shy away from it. Don’t step back from it. A lot of people would argue we’re way down the line in the season to be doing this now but we’re not going to roll over. As long as we’re still in with a fighting chance we’re going to approach it the best we can.’
Aaron Taylor-Sinclair’s Airdrie have been in a relegation dogfight all season
Airdrie’s late winner against Ayr United last weekend denied County the chance to completely escape the relegation picture while enhancing their own survival prospects in the process. Like County, they are on their third permanent manager of a difficult campaign but a win at Cappielow will guarantee them eighth.
‘We have been in this dogfight for the last few months and Morton haven’t so it might come as a bit of a shock to them,’ said Airdrie manager Aaron Taylor-Sinclair. ‘We know what we have to do. There are no, ifs, buts or maybes – we have to go and win the game.’
