Date	Saturday, 03 April 1999
Competition	Scottish League Division 3
Fixture/Score	Brechin City 0:1 Ross County
Venue	Glebe Park
Attendance	698
Referee	Kevin Toner
Comments	Match Report Report by Anthony Haggerty for the Daily Record. Brechin City 0 Ross County 1 Billy Ferries broke down in tears at the final whistle as Ross County clinched the Third Division title at Brechin. It was a day the 32-year-old midfielder never thought he would see. Ferries is the last survivor from County's non-league past and he remembers the days of the Highland League when players had to use a spanner to turn on the shower. He didn't expect to be involved at all at Glebe Park after being out of the team for four weeks. But it was fitting that he got a game and he received a standing ovation from fans when he went off after 52 minutes. Ferries's association with County stretches back 17 years and he admitted that winning the league was an emotional experience. He said: "this is a really special and it was great to be involved. "I go right back to the days of playing and getting changed in wooden sheds and having to turn the one shower that we had on with a big spanner. "When I started with County the club was at rock bottom and we went amateur a year after I arrived. But the club is light years away from those days now." It has taken the Dingwall men five years to win their first honour after being admitted to the league. And Ferries puts some of the success down to former manager Bobby Wilson who turned around the club's fortunes before making way for Neale Cooper. He said: "Bobby has a lot to do with what has happened here. "Some people may deny that but he put Ross County back on the footballing map and got us winning trophies again before our entry into the Scottish League." Ferries hinted that he may be about to hang up his boots and quit at the top. He said: "I have my own business which is fitting kitchens and I stay 30 miles from Dingwall in Ederton. "Business is really good and it is taking up a fair bit of my time so I might just retire from football on a high note." Ferries also reflected on the low point of his County career when he spent a year away from the club after a bitter cash wrangle in season 1989-90. He said; "It was a principle thing really as they had offered me a new contract but it wasn't all that much so I rejected it. "But I felt that I was forced out of the club and I had a season with Elgin. "They admitted they made a mistake and came back for me the next year and asked me to name my terms. "I told them I only Wanted what they didn't give me the previous year so it all got sorted out in the end." The travelling army of 500 County fans had come to celebrate a championship party and they didn't leave for home disappointed. They were in fine voice and even treated the Brechin fans to a special rendition of the Yogi Bear song...all 25 verses of it! Lets just say it has to be heard to be believed. No doubt it will ring down many a stadium in the Second Division next season. Mark Haro's diving header from a Paul Kinnaird free-kick four minutes from half-time ensured that Cooper's men would go home as Champions after Stenhousemuir could only draw with Berwick. It was third time lucky for cooper and company after the heartache of missing out on promotion twice in the past two years on goal difference and then by a single point. It was a delighted Cooper who emerged to give the waiting fans a two-fisted clenched salute. He said: "The last two years were hard to take for us so there was a lot of pressure on me this season. "But the team have done well in the past three years and we have thoroughly deserved it this season. "I'm ecstatic and I can't thank the players enough for the efforts that they have given this club and me throughout the campaign." Former Aberdeen and Rangers star Cooper, who is beginning to look more like Gianluca Vialli every day, reckons County's triumph is up there along with the many honours he won the pitch. He said: "I've won a lot in football both domestically and in Europe but to win something as a manager is a different kind of feeling. "It is a different kind of job and the buck stops with you. "There is a lot of things people don't realise that managers do off the park. "They think that you just turn up and pick the team but that is just not true'" Cooper, who has been linked with a possible return to Pittodrie at the end of the season, admitted this was just the start for him in management. He said: "I've got the same ambitions as a manager that players have. "One day I hope to be the manager of a Premier League club and hopefully that chance will come along. Cooper admitted the Dingwall revolution was far from complete and he added: "I believe this club can go as high as the first Division and it would be foolish to think beyond that. "I would think we would need five or six players for next season. "A good part of this team will still be here next season but we will need to strengthen." The day certainly belonged to Cooper and his county side. But their will be no highland Gathering in the Second Division next season as Inverness Caley made it a double celebration for northern football as they clinched promotion to the First Division. Even Yogi Bear would have been proud to do a Highland jig.
Ross County
Manager	Neale Cooper
Starting 11	1: Joseph (Nicky) Walker, 2: Ian Maxwell, 3: Mark Haro 1, 4: David Matheson 1, 5: Paul Kinnaird, 6: Kenneth Gilbert, 7: Franck Escalon, 8: Steven MacKay, 9: Neil Tarrant, 10: Keith (Billy) Ferries, 11: David Ross
Bench	0: Garry Ewing, 0: Alexander Taylor, 0: Garry Wood
Brechin City
Manager	John Young
Starting 11	Jim Butters, Paul Boylan, Greig Smith, Harry Cairney, Kevin Bain, Bobby Brown, Jamie McKellar, John Dickson, Stuart Sorbie, Roddy Black, Steven Boyle 1
Bench	Steve Kerrigan, Andrew Hutcheon, Paul Riley