THE move from Edinburgh to Dingwall has been further than expected for Ivan Sproule.
Having agreed an 18-month contract with Ross County, the former Hibernian forward flew out to join the squad at a winter training in Marbella and has returned to resume the league campaign in Paisley.
The meeting with St Mirren this afternoon also brings a return to reality, Sproule having joined a club that have not been short of plaudits following an encouraging start to the campaign but which will still feel a little light on points. Dundee are rooted to the bottom of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League but remain just nine points adrift.
The safety of County's league placing is subjective but they have seldom seemed overawed this season. The club's last competitive match brought a win over Hibernian and since then the squad has been augmented by the arrival of Sproule, as well as Greek Evangelos Ikonomou and Canadian Andre Hainault.
All three settled into life at the Dingwall side by basking in the Mediterranean sun but Sproule is now eager to get back to the less luxurious environment of the Premier League. "It's been a bit hectic. My first destination with the club was Marbella, so that wasn't a bad way to start," said the forward. "We've trained really hard and it was good for me to get that trip away with the lads. I got to speak to them and bond with the team."
St Mirren are also raring to go, although that is partly down to a fear of their season stalling again. The Paisley side had hoped to avoid the lower reaches of the table but, despite a four-match unbeaten run, they remain a paltry four points ahead of County.
That should be enough to eschew a scrap with Dundee, even if there are a few at the club willing to admit to feeling quite so comfortable just yet. "We don't think that Dundee are cast adrift," said Gary Teale, the St Mirren winger. "People said that earlier on in the season and then we went on a run where we didn't win for six games. They caught up with us.
"The results we had in October and November were terrible, there is no getting away from that. But we are a positive-thinking club and with the results we have kicked on. The league is so tight that two results will put us up and to where we think we should be in the league."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article