Not too many people apart from Ross County’s official travelling party of players and management will make the 12 hour 540 mile round trip to Stranraer for tonight’s Scottish League Cup tie at Stair Park. One person who will be there casting his eye over Derek Adams side is the Dingwall club’s Chief Scout and Match Assessor Stuart Millar as after all he knows the road to the South West club better than most.
Millar uses his base in the west of Scotland to spy on future opponents however that is not why he knows Stranraer so well, it is the knowledge gained during 3 years as assistant manager at the League One club that Millar is putting to good use.
Millar said: “Stranraer are a club that mean a lot to me as I spent a good bit of time there and it was a successful period of time. I was there as Neil Watt’s assistant and we secured a championship and then a promotion and the people at and around the club appreciated it. They are quite a humble bunch down there and they were grateful for the success we had.”
“Neil knew the club from being a player down there and when we went there was a sense of disappointment after they had been relegated to the Third Division for the first time. It was not so much rebuilding a team as rebuilding a club that had lost its way a bit.”
Stair Park was not in the doldrums long as Millar explained: “The morale needed lifted and from day one the club, the fans and the players were great. We did not make dramatic changes but brought in boys we knew would do a job like David Graham who joined from Stranraer.”
“We brought in goalkeeper Andy McCondichie that Neil knew from his days at Maryhill and Stephen Swift who had done well in the juniors with Linlithgow Rose.”
The changes brought in by Watt and Millar worked as the former Airdrie, Dundee, Montrose, Clyde, Alloa Athletic and Dumbarton winger explained: “In our first season 2003-2004, we won the Third Division with a record number of goals and a record number of points. Gretna beat those records the following year but they did it in a very different fashion.”
“We went up along with Stirling who were second and Gretna were third. It should be remembered that it was a very different time in Scottish football with a number of full time clubs in the league including Albion Rovers.”
Millar added: “We took great satisfaction at going up at the first time of action and Neil’s management skills were superb as was his eye for a player to bring in. I had spent 8 years in junior football where I had won 3 promotions with Cumbernauld United and won a promotion with Carluke and I had thought my senior days were over and I enjoyed being back.”
It was Watt who persuaded Millar to go back to the senior ranks as the former Stair Park number two explained: “I had not been in the professional game for over a decade but I had been given opportunities to go back but none of them had ever made me feel like moving until that one. I had enjoyed the juniors and I was a bit taken aback when Neil asked me.”
“Ironically Stranraer’s Stair Park was where my senior career ended back in 1991-1992. It was the season that Dumbarton won the Second Division but I did not feature too much after a disagreement with the manager Billy Lamont down at Stranraer.”
Working as opposed to playing there was more rewarding with Millar saying: “When it came to being the assistant manager at the club I got a good feeling from the people and they enjoyed our success and it was not limited to the one season.”
“If winning the Third Division was not good enough we then went and got promoted to the First Division 12 months later. If we had not sold David Graham to Gretna in the January of that season we would have won the league.”
Millar added: “Frazer Wright had left us in the summer for Kilmarnock but we came through that but losing David weakened us further.”
Winning promotion was an emotional time for Millar as had almost taken a break from football that season, in fact he almost took a break from everything.
Millar said: “It was great to be involved at the end of that promotion race as I had a near death experience when I took ill during that season. When I say near death I am being extremely accurate but thankfully I recovered. I missed 8 games when I was ill but came back for the final three.”
“The final run in had been a struggle for Stranraer and in the last 10 games we only won twice. We drew six of those games and it all came down to a meeting on the second last week of the season against Morton. They had a good side under Jim McInally but we were at home. Peter Weatherson scored for them however Allan Jenkins netted to get us promoted in second place which was all that was required that season.”
We went to Alloa the following week with Benidorm on our minds and lost 3-0 on the final day of the season.”
As well as the players being good for Stranraer, Stranraer was good for the players as Millar explained: “As well as Frazer and David leaving, Allan went to Morton and helped get them up to the First Division and we gave Kevin Finlayson a route back into full-time football as well.”
“It was good to help players go on and have good careers however it ended up stretching Stranraer too thinly when we were in the First Division.”
Millar added: “We almost stayed up via the Play-Offs. Brechin, who had won the League above us the season before, finished bottom but we drew too many games and that ended up costing. We were ahead of Queen of the South for most of the season however they brought in Ian McCall as their manager half way through the season. He got them turned around through a combination of his managerial skills and the ability to sign players with a better budget.”
“They finished third bottom and we faced a Partick Thistle side under the control of Dick Campbell who had finished fourth in the Second Division. They won the first leg 2-0 however we rallied at Firhill in the second and won 2-1 but we were down.”
Millar added: “Dick Campbell had done us in twice. He won championship at Brechin and then 12 months later he did us when he was in charge of Partick in the Play-Offs. They ended up getting promoted by beating Peterhead on penalties.”
The Firhill game was to be Watt’s and Millar’s last at the Blues with Millar saying: “There was a feeling of things having run their course and Neil and I left. It was a great club and they were terrific times.”
The duo returned for a short spell at Somerset Park however that was to be an unsuccessful period during a time of transition at the club and after leaving there Millar joined Ross County in 2007.
He has remained their Chief Scout and Match Assessor for nearly 6 years apart from a brief spell as manager of Clyde and has seen the Dingwall men grow from a Second Division side to Scottish Cup Finalists to a top half SPFL side.
Millar was asked if he would have divided loyalties tonight at Stair Park he said: “My priorities lie with Ross County now although I do speak with Stephen Aitken often. Neil and I encouraged him to take his coaching badges and hopefully sent him on his way. Neil is in more regular contact and plays a mentor role with Stephen now and they meet up a couple of times a month.”
“I will wish Stranraer well once this game is out of the way. I went back last week when they were playing Annan and got a good reception as did Derek Adams. He drove down from Dingwall to spy on Stranraer as well. That shows you the respect County are giving their opponents.”
Whilst Millar has welcomed the tie he is not sure his enthusiasm will be matched as he added: “I will enjoy going back again but in some ways this is the worst draw possible for the two teams. For County they will need to take a couple of days out for this game. They then head back north only to come back down the road for Hibs on Saturday. It is also a hard tie as Stranraer are traditionally strong at home.”
“Stranraer would have been glad to get a Premiership side at home however there are only going to be a few fans come down to back the boys from Dingwall so it is not a big money-spinner for them. However they will make County welcome and then hope to play them off the park.”
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