The biggest derby in Scottish football next season is not going to be between the Old Firm, Celtic and Rangers are still a league apart. It’s probably not going to be the Edinburgh derby either, with Hearts’ relegation to the Championship and the unlikely prospect of Hibs joining them. Unless Dundee are promoted to the Premiership, or Ross County fall foul of the relegation play-off, it will be the Highland Derby between County and Inverness Caledonian Thistle. This rivalry has come a long way from its roots in the old Highland League and has much more significance to it than the mainstream media and football fans of the South recognise.
The “Cold Firm” derby between ICT and Ross County began only twenty years ago, when the Inverness team were formed by a merger of two of the city’s football clubs: Caledonian and Inverness Thistle. Those two teams had themselves been rivals in the Highland League, but were amalgamated under the guidance of the Highland Council who were looking to gain a representative for the Highlands in the Scottish Football League for the first time as two new places became available because of league reconstruction. This new team, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, were elected, but so too were a team familiar to them as former Highland League adversaries from only 13 miles away: Ross County.
The Highland League rivalry between Caledonian and Thistle might well have been stronger than that of Ross County’s with their chosen adversary Caledonian. The old County / Caley derby came and went in fits and bursts, generally only when both sides were fighting at the precipice of the Highland League such as in the late 60s, early 70s and in the 90s. The Inverness teams though were undoubtedly up against each other, fighting for supremacy of the city alongside the occasional challenge from Clachnacuddin. Despite their rivalry though, the boards of both clubs decided that they should answer the Council’s call and join forces to bring senior league football to the Highland capital. The merger between the two teams was a decision that many supporters of both Caledonian and Thistle decried and couldn’t believe. Thistle fans felt particularly hard done by; losing their traditional home ground in the process. They were now sharing their team with the enemy. This paved the way for many disenfranchised Invernesians to look across the Kessock Bridge for a football team to support that wouldn’t treat them this way. Many of Ross County’s current supporters now hail from Inverness and it was claimed that in their first season in the SPL that there were more Ross County season ticket holders from Inverness than ICT had. Whether this claim was true or not has never been substantiated, but the rumour certainly would appear to have some basis in fact. The bitterness of the Inverness club’s formation is still a bone of contention between fans today.
As both Highland sides entered the Third Division their derby was formed from the old one between Caledonian and Ross County with the added spice of Invernesian fans opposing their old teams’ new form. Crowds for even the first Highland Derbies were exceedingly good for the Third Division, with both clubs’ average attendances of between 500 and 1500 being at least doubled if not more when the derby came around. There was an atmosphere about the games that proved that the rivalry between the teams wasn’t just conjured up because the teams needed one but that it was genuine. Although games between the two teams didn’t necessarily flaunt the finest technical ability that Scottish football had to offer – they were generally interesting affairs.
These features of the Highland Derby still ring true today as both clubs face each other in Scottish football’s highest echelon. Matches between the two sides still attract some of the highest attendances for both clubs of the season. The fixture is now regularly picked up by broadcaster BT Sport to be televised nationally and has a habit of being a high-scoring affair for the cameras, at least when the floodlights stay on.
There have only been 43 Highland Derbies in all, with Caley winning 21, County winning 11 and a further 11 being drawn. Both sides have their famous victories over their rivals to boast about. County fans’ favourite game against their rivals must surely be their 5-1 win away in Inverness in 2002. Although Caley have never won by more than 3 goals in a Highland Derby, they’ve managed 3-0 wins on six occasions with perhaps their favourite being on the way to clinching the Third Division title. Both teams have squared off in cup competitions five times, with Caley winning all but one game which was a Scottish Cup 4th Round game that finished a 3-3 draw in December 2012. Perhaps the most consequential match between the two sides was in the final game of last season’s SPL where the sides met at Victoria Park with Caley a win away from securing a place in the following season’s Europa League. Caley Thistle fans brought beach balls with them to taunt their rivals about their impending tour of Europe but left deflated as Ross County won the game 1-0 courtesy of an Andre Hainault strike which, along with a St. Johnstone win over Motherwell, meant that European football would not be brought to Inverness.
Caley Thistle have generally been the more successful of the two sides overall, but it isn’t to say they are dominant over their Dingwall opponents. Caley Thistle have spent seven more years at the top table of Scottish football compared to Ross County and have only finished below them in the league in the 1994/95 and 2001/02 seasons. However, Ross County have reached the final of the Scottish Cup, a more prestigious feat than Inverness’ League Cup final visit this year, and have won one more Challenge Cup than Caley. The battle between the clubs’ success has never been conclusive.
The Highland Derby is almost always billed as friendly in the media but it definitely isn’t a love-in. Although both clubs share cordial relations on the administrative side, with both clubs sharing the Highland Football Academy based in Dingwall and good connections between staffs; the fans are decidedly partisan when it comes to their relationship with the other lot from over the Bridge. Insults aplenty are to be heard at the games with each side using offensive and sometimes racially charged slang against each other – with County fans referred to as ‘gyppos’ because of Victoria Park’s proximity to a caravan park and Caley fans being named ‘tinks’ in response. Since both clubs have played each other more regularly in recent years there ahs been an increase in the tension between teams. Because neither club has asserted an overwhelming dominance, both sets of fans claim to be the “real” representatives of the Highlands. Caley’s usual phraseology is “Pride of the Highlands”, whereas County tend to use “We Are the Highlands”. Couple this with Caley’s disputed origin and it’s clear that there are many divisions between fans of the Highland clubs.
Players aren’t immune to the contagious antagonism and often get into small scuffles on the pitch, or sometimes worse with Alex Bone’s attempt to headbutt Charlie Christie after already being sent off in 2000. Red cards aren’t uncommon. Although I wouldn’t ever pretend that the Highland Derby can match some of the more intense atmospheres in some other British games, it is no shrinking violet either.
Perhaps because of the closeness of the two clubs’ staffs there have been a large number of players that have transferred between the clubs throughout the years, giving fans more reason to attack the other side. Originally the flow of transfers was from Ross County to Inverness, with Steven Hislop, Barry Wilson, Don Cowie and John Rankin some of the players making the switch to Caley, who were generally higher in the league system than County. However, in recent years more players have been making the trip in the other direction such as Caley stalwarts Ross Tokely and Grant Munro who finished off their senior careers at Victoria Park. The acceptance of players from former rivals is not automatic and only players that have performed well are reprieved from fans’ criticisms. There is no friendliness at all towards old players playing for the other side, as the chants directed towards Iain Vigurs and his new-born child at last season’s final game of the season showed.
Both teams square off tonight in what will be the final “El Kessocko” of the season and perhaps longer should County fall from the Premiership. It will definitely be a derby full of passion and will hopefully produce some great football in the way it has many times before. A win for the home side would also be welcomed by this less than impartial commentator. Either way it is sure to be another fine example of Scotland’s biggest emerging derbies, even if it isn’t quite the biggest yet.