ROSS COUNTY FOOTBALL CLUB

NEALE COOPER: THE MANAGER'S PAGE

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• 28/4: A NEW ERA DAWNING FOR COUNTY

A NEW ERA DAWNING FOR COUNTY

As told to Alasdair Fraser in The Ross-shire Journal on Friday 28 April, 2000.

Promotion was the big prize for Neale Cooper's men this season but with fellow promotees Alloa still neck and neck for the runners up spot in the division, County still have something to play for.

The final whistle last week (a 3-0 win over Hamilton Accies) was greeted with joyous scenes of celebration, which not surprisingly stretched long into the night as County gained promotion to the First Division next season.

Cooper admitted: "It's a fantastic feeling to have achieved our goal of promotion. That was always the biggest target and anything else was a bonus.

"I refused to talk like that before we had clinched it because I've seen it go wrong so many times before in football. People started talking about promotion before the Partick Thistle game and we saw what happened there.

"But now I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders and the Chairman has since said to me that the club maybe put a wee bit too much pressure on myself and the players to deliver."

Cooper did not shirk the challenge or seek to rebuff the Chairman for his declared aims, even when the club reached its lowest point (sixth in the table) in mid-season.

Cooper added: "You've got to have belief and I believed we could do it, but it has been a difficult, draining season for everyone.

"I think you've got to give a huge amount of credit to the players. It's important to remember how much pressure was on them. I've maybe forgotten that myself at times, but they must have been feeling the strain too.

"The great thing now is that the pressure is off, there are plans being progressed for a major new stand development and the club can sit down and talk about next season."

Cooper believes that he will have to strengthen his squad but admitted: "It won't be on the scale of last season when we gutted the squad. Ther won't be a big upheaval, but I do think we need a few quality additions.

"To be honest, I haven't even sat down with the directors to discuss this because we had to get promotion sorted before we could look at it."

Promotion has been achieved at a not inconsiderable price. County's profit of the previous season - boosted by the sales of Derek Adams and Neil Tarrant - is likely to be transformed into a six-figure loss.

County chief executive Alastair Kennedy said the way forward for the club lay in generating more commercial revenue whilst ensuring that the wage bill was trimmed and stabalised.

He said: "We fully expected a different financial picture this season give our determination to achieve promotion, but clearly a club like County cannot survive on gate attendances alone, so we'll continue trying to expand our commercial base.

"I'm confident that First Division football will help us move forward in all aspects of the club's finances and we are particularly delighted to be pressing on with plans for a major redevelopment of Victoria Park.