Ross County
The club
Ross County were founded in 1929 and play at Victoria Park in Dingwall, in the Highlands, a ground holding 6,541. They are the Staggies, and play in dark blue with red and white.
Recent seasons
County have fallen two divisions in two years. They were 10th in the Premiership in 2020/21 with 39 points, sixth in 2021/22 with 41, 11th in 2022/23 with 34 and 11th again in 2023/24 with 35. In 2024/25 they were 11th with 37 points from 38 games (nine wins, 10 draws, 19 defeats) under Don Cowie and lost the Premiership play-off final to Livingston, drawing 1-1 at Almondvale on 22 May 2025 and losing 4-2 at home on 26 May, 5-3 on aggregate. Ronan Hale scored in both legs.
2025/26 in the Championship was worse. County finished bottom, 10th of 10, with 34 points from 36 games (eight wins, 10 draws, 18 defeats, 36 scored and 57 conceded) and were relegated automatically without a play-off. That made them the first club to suffer consecutive relegations from the Premiership to League One in the SPFL era. The season had four managerial spells: Don Cowie left on 24 August 2025, John Robertson took interim charge from 24 August to 2 September, Tony Docherty managed from 3 September to 14 December, Robertson stepped in again from 15 to 30 December, and Stuart Kettlewell took over on 30 December 2025. 2026/27 is County's first season in the third tier since 2007/08.
Honours and landmarks
The Scottish League Cup of 2015/16 is the club's one major national trophy. They have won the Challenge Cup three times, in 2006/07, 2010/11 and 2018/19. League titles are the First Division in 2011/12, the Championship in 2018/19, the Second Division in 2007/08 and the Third Division in 1998/99. The 2011/12 First Division title took them into the top flight for the first time. Record attendance is around 8,000, against Rangers in a Scottish Cup tie on 28 February 1966. County have taken five promotions and four relegations since joining the Scottish Football League in 1994.
Notable scorelines
Record victory: 11-0 against St Cuthbert Wanderers in the Scottish Cup first round in 1993/94. Record defeat: 0-7 against Kilmarnock in the Scottish Cup third round in 1961/62. From 2025/26, the results a writer might reach for are an 8-0 win over Edinburgh City in the League Cup and, at the other end, a 6-0 home defeat by Raith Rovers in December 2025 and a 0-4 defeat at Airdrieonians in April 2026.
Head-to-head notes
No published all-time head-to-head records were established for Ross County's 2026/27 League One opponents. The club's official site was not successfully consulted for this dossier and web search was unavailable, so this is a research gap and not a finding that such records do not exist. What is on record from this summer is that County have already beaten three of their nine league rivals in the Premier Sports Cup group stage: Annan Athletic (not a League One club this season) 4-1, Clyde 3-1, and Airdrieonians 3-0, with a 1-1 draw and 7-6 shootout win against Dundee. Hamilton Academical, Montrose, Alloa Athletic, Peterhead, Cove Rangers, East Kilbride, East Fife and Queen of the South make up the rest of the division; no all-time records against any of them were established.
Right now (2026/27)
Stuart Kettlewell is the manager. He arrived on a short-term basis on 30 December 2025 and was given a permanent appointment on 4 May 2026, after relegation, in his second spell in charge of the club.
The rebuild for League One has been extensive and almost entirely on free transfers. Left-back Lewis Strapp joined from Airdrieonians on 23 May, striker Brian Graham from Falkirk on 26 May, Luke McCarvel from Kelty Hearts on 28 May, Lewis Reid from Stranraer on 29 May, Chris Hamilton from Dunfermline Athletic on 1 June, goalkeeper Jack Turner from Woking on 5 June and Bradley Wade from Ballymena United on 1 July, all free. Two arrived for undisclosed fees: winger Richard Chin from Raith Rovers on 9 June, and Lewis Jamieson from Newport County on 23 July. Defender Adam Forrester joined on loan from Heart of Midlothian on 30 July. The main departures came on 4 May, when goalkeeper Ross Laidlaw, defender Alex Iacovitti and striker Uche Ikpeazu all left on free transfers, with Ben Crompton and Jay Henderson among those following through June and July.
County have made a strong start. They topped their Premier Sports Cup group with 11 points from four matches, beating Annan Athletic 4-1, Clyde 3-1 and Airdrieonians 3-0 and drawing 1-1 with Dundee before winning that shootout 7-6, and have gone through to the knockout phase. The League One campaign opens away to Peterhead at Balmoor on Saturday 1 August 2026.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_County_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ross_County_F.C._seasons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024%E2%80%9325_Ross_County_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Ross_County_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Ross_County_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Scottish_Championship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Scottish_League_One
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.