Somehow there was something very appropriate about how the often understated Derek Adams learned that he had helped write yet another important chapter in the remarkable recent  history of Ross County FC.

He had travelled to Perth to see St Johnstone play Dundee United. A draw or a win for the home side would mean that Ross County would be assured a top six finish in the team’s first season in the Scottish Premier League - quite an achievement in anybody’s book.

But things weren’t going well. Dundee United had taken the lead in the 23rd minute and were holding on to it,  so Adams decided to leave early under the impression that he had to take his team to play Hearts in Edinburgh,  needing a win to be absolutely sure of the top six. It would be tense.

He had got into his car for the long drive up the A9 when he heard on the radio that in the third minute of stoppage time, St Johnstone’s attacking midfielder Liam Craig had flicked a Mehdi Abeid corner past United’s goalkeeper Czierzniaand into the net to level the match. It sealed a top-six place for St Johnstone and for Ross County.

So this week’s Ross-shire Journal declared “County in dreamland!”

They had joined Inverness Caledonian Thistle (who made it to the top six after at the eight attempt) Motherwell and Celtic as this season’s elite with the sixth and final place to be decided. The two Highland teams achieved this having only joined the third division of the Scottish Football League in 1994 and are both left with a final season target of coming second or third to win a place in the Europa League competition next year.

That either team has any genuine prospects for European football is truly remarkable. Twenty years ago Ross County was playing in the Highland League as were Inverness Caledonian and Inverness Thistle before they entered a very bitter merger to become Caledonian Thistle.

If anyone needs a reminder of what conditions were like in the Highland League there is a video on You Tube of Ross County beating St Cuthberts 11-0 in the Scottish Cup of 1993.

There is one tiny stand and a covered terracing at the Jail End for home supporters, but in the rest of Dingwall’s Victoria Park ground supporters were standing on grass banks with panoramic views down the Cromarty Firth and around the Ben Wyvis massif surrounding the ground. It is unrecognisable from the all-seater stadium of today.

The two teams have enjoyed a near symbiotic relationship based on passionate but largely friendly rivalry. Since 1994 Caley has led the way and won an international reputation for beating  Celtic 3-1 at Parkead in the famous “Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic Are Atrocious” game in 2000 when they were still in division one.

But  County plodded on and  10 years later managed to cast off the long shadow of that inspired Sun headline, by beating Celtic  2-0 at Hampden in Scottish Cup semi-final to clinch a place in the Cup Final.  It inspired one fan to call a radio football programme to declare “Ich bin ein Dingwaller”.

Now there is definitely great satisfaction in the north that the Central Belt’s grip of Scottish football has been so obviously loosened. The two Highland teams and Perth’s St Johnstone, a team often patronised for its supposedly rural background, now represent half the top six.

Unless Aberdeen make it, the Perth team will be the closest rivals for County and Caley, being 124 miles and 113 miles away respectively.

The supporters of the Highland teams have found complaints from managers particularly around Glasgow and Ayrshire about having to travel all the way up to Inverness and Dingwall, a little hard to take given they have to make the reverse journey so often throughout the season, which can be tough.

Indeed buses will leave at 6.30am tomorrow to take County supporters to Tynecastle for the Hearts game because TV commitments mean it is a 12 midday kickoff.

But many of County’s supporters come from even further afield than Dingwall, from Skye, Wester Ross and Sutherland. That’s why the 6,200 seats in what is now called the Global Energy Stadium, could accommodate the entire population of Dingwall and still have about 1,000 to spare.

So perhaps it is inevitable that Ross County don’t have the best support in the SPL. In fact they are third bottom in the attendance league with an average of just over 4,300, but the two teams below them are Inverness Caley Thistle and St Johnstone.

So the three worst supported teams will make up half the top six, which would appear to turn orthodox thinking about successful clubs on its head. The more so when Ross County are reported to have the lowest wage structure in the league, and Caley and St Johnstone won’t be far above them.

It may well none of the three will ever achieve as high a league position again. But it could just be that they are where they are because they have started to believe anything is possible. Certainly that's the way the Staggies, County suporters, getting on the buses at 6.30am will be thinking.