This is just the beginning. That was the message from Ross County chairman Roy MacGregor when he addressed a jubilant squad in the dressing room after Sunday’s thrilling League Cup final success.
Alex Schalk’s last-minute winner earned Ross County a first major trophy but for MacGregor, the man who overseen the club’s growth from the Highland League to the top flight over the past 22 years, this triumph will not be the pinnacle of an amazing journey.
It is a feeling shared by everyone connected with the club, according to forward Brian Graham, pictured.
He said: “The chairman came into the dressing room after the game and congratulated everyone. He said this is just the beginning – I hope it is.
“Roy believes in the bigger picture and the players and the management are all on the same page.
“Hopefully we can finish the season on a high by getting into the top six.
“Maybe a few people looked at the move I made in the summer and wondered why I was leaving a top four side in St Johnstone, who had European football, to go to Ross County. But I believed in Jim McIntyre. He sold the club really well to me.
“What he said to me then has happened. We have been on a good cup run and we are in the top six. We want to cement our position in the next two games.
“That is what we planned at the start of the season. So far, so good.”
Dutchman Schalk proved to be the hero for County with his late winner to defeat Alan Stubbs’ Championship side. But it could easily have been substitute Graham in the limelight.
The 28-year-old, who replaced Liam Boyce with little more than half an hour remaining, had a goal chalked off for a foul on Hibs goalkeeper Mark Oxley 10 minutes before Schalk’s winner.
Graham said: “The manager told me to go on and rough them up a bit and I think I did that. I feel a bit hard done by that I didn’t get the second goal.”
“There is no way it was a foul and I said that to the referee after the game. It should have stood but we got the winner in the 90th minute and that is all that matters.”
Hibernian went into the Hampden final as favourites and were roared on by a 30,000-strong support at the national stadium.
But Graham said it was foolish for anyone to write-off the Staggies.
He added: “I heard Hibs were favourites. They just looked at Hibs as the big outfit and we were the small club from the Highlands coming down for the big Hampden day.
“We showed against Celtic in the semi-final and Hibernian in the final that we are as good as anybody on our day.”
