Keith Watson says he rediscovered his love of football with Ross County – as a one-year move turned into five years of drama at the Dingwall club.
After being captain for the last two years, the experienced centre-half has made the move to join Championship side Raith Rovers.
A deal was not offered to the 33-year-old by manager Malky Mackay after a season which ended with an incredible Premiership play-off final victory against Partick Thistle last month.
Watson was snapped up by former co-bosses Stuart Kettlewell and Steven Ferguson in 2018 and he helped the Staggies storm to the second-tier title, just one year after they dropped out of the top-flight.
The past four years have included a sixth-placed finish in 2022 and a memorable League Cup victory away to Celtic in 2020.
Double delight in debut season
Watson spoke about his opening campaign with County where he helped the side win the Championship crown and the Challenge Cup.
He said: “I signed for Ross County from St Johnstone where I had a tough time with injuries and I kind of fell out of love with football a bit.
“I couldn’t get fit, and it was a frustrating time. I took the risk and decided to come up to Dingwall for a season. What a season it was, and I fell in love with football again.
“I was playing plenty of games and lifted two trophies. That doesn’t come around often, so it was great.
“Having only signed for a year, I’d never have thought I’d have been at County five years later, but I loved it.
“Stuart Kettlewell and Steven Ferguson signed me as co-managers, and they did a great job to help us bounce back first time from the Championship – it is difficult to achieve that.
“I don’t regret the move to County – it was clearly an excellent move for me.”
Safety secured after a great escape
Watson knows that incredible play-off final victory against Partick last month will be talked about for years.
After climbing off the foot of the division with five games to go, they secured 11th position and took on the free-flowing, high-scoring Glasgow Jags.
They lost the first leg 2-0, with a red card for teenage stopper Dylan Smith, not helping their cause.
Falling a further goal behind at Dingwall had County on the brink but three goals in the final 20 minutes amazingly brought County level and they got through extra-time unscathed.
In a nervy shoot-out, Watson blew the chance to win it with a sky-high effort, but keeper Ross Laidlaw’s two saves lined up Josh Sims to seal the unlikeliest victory to keep County in the Premiership.
Watson kept faith – even at 3-0 down
Watson admits bowing out of Dingwall on the back of such pulsating action was the stuff of dreams.
He said: “Losing only 2-0 at Firhill was massive for us. Ross Laidlaw made a few great saves that night and boys were throwing themselves in front the shots to keep the score at two, having also been down to 10 men.
“Afterwards, in the changing room, we were saying we were still well in the tie at 2-0 down. In reality, with the chances Partick had, they should have been out of sight.
“At half-time in the second leg, we were 3-0 down in the tie and we still said, ‘we’re not done yet’. We knew one goal changes everything.
“We kept believing, we sensed it was going to turn and it did. On 71 minutes, we got one goal back and we didn’t actually realise how late it was.
“When we got it to 3-3, we had extra-time and penalties and I missed the chance to win it, but thankfully Josh Sims tucked his away and there was just a sense of relief at the end, to be honest. It was something else.
“The fans were on the park, and we were asking ‘how did we manage to do that?’
“You don’t want to be involved in these games as the Premiership club, but the way it worked out over the two legs for us to stay up as absolutely massive.
“If there was a game to sum up the play-offs, it was that one. I had some amount of ‘well done’ messages after that, some asking whether they’d found my ball yet.
“People said we deserved it because we looked down and out, but still came back to win. We proved everybody wrong.”
Knocking out Celtic was big moment
Watson, who won the 2010 Scottish Cup with Dundee United against the Staggies, picked out the 2-0 League Cup win at Parkhead two years ago as the main other match he’d pick as a highlight of his time in the Highlands. It came against a Celtic side which had won 35 successive cup-ties.
He added: “Throughout my career, I’d never won at Celtic Park, but we won there in the cup.
“It was a Ross Stewart penalty and a header from Alex Iacovitti, so putting Celtic out of the cup was a big result for us.
“Making the top six last year was another big achievement during my time there. No one would have expected that. It would have topped it all off had we snuck into Europe, but it wasn’t to be.
“I spent five seasons with Ross County, and I loved every bit of it.
“Every season ended on a positive. Obviously, you don’t want to be in the (relegation) play-offs, but everybody had written us off and it ended well because we stayed up.”