It’s been an incredible season which has seen Germany become World Champions, Barcelona win the treble and Harry Redknapp finally being questioned for his job performance. Over the next couple of weeks, Scottish Comedy FC’s writers are going to be recounting their top moments from the 2014 World Cup and the 2014/15 season.
Do Livingston’s Petrofac Training Cup champions make the list? Err… no. Sorry.
Which SPFL club has overachieved most this season?
Ross County – Daniel Downie & Iain Todd
Ross County’s run since January was remarkable. The return of Michael Gardyne on loan – now a permanent transfer – De Vita, Marcus Wood and especially Jackson Irvine – who was terrific in the latter half of the season – the County turn around was incredible.
In nine games Ross County picked up eight wins and a draw, a simply outstanding achievement for Jim McIntyre’s men, believe me. Having watched County at the start of the season I’d given up all hope before Christmas, the improvement post-Christmas was nothing short of breath taking. Hopefully McIntyre can put his long term plans in place at County and leave bottom six relegation/playoff battles to wee teams like Inverness next season.
A massive season and a massive achievement for a club from a town with a population of just six thousand.
To put that into perspective, if you were to take every single Ross County fan and put them all into Celtic Park you’d then be able to go to Dingwall and rob their houses.
Aberdeen – Andy Todd
Aberdeen fans like to sing that “the sheep are on fire”. This is the perfect song for Aberdeen – you never know if they’re singing it in triumph (“the sheep are on fire!”) or regret (“oh no, the sheep are on fire!”).
This year Aberdeen overachieved by finishing second. They also underachieved by finishing second. Aberdeen are the only club where each season fans don’t know if they should be conquering Europe like they did in the eighties or flirting with relegation like they did in the early 2000s. So, even in a year that they finished second Aberdeen fans still dream of what might have been: a cup triumph, possibly even the league if certain key moments had only gone for them when they played Celtic.
The sheep were on fire. But whether this was seen to be good or bad no one ever knows, not with Aberdeen.
Inverness Caledonian Thistle – Teddy Craig
It has to be Caley Thistle, hasn’t it? If Accies could have kept hold of Alex Neil then they’d have been an easy choice but unfortunately the 2nd half of the season turned into Martin Canning’s moving tribute to the managerial career of Franck Sauzee.
I thought John Hughes was on a hiding to nothing when he took over in Inverness as Terry Butcher had already got the club hugely overachieving. To me that’s always the worst point to take charge of a club.
Incredibly, he’s managed to keep ICT’s consistency in the league going and has also added a cup. Spectacular stuff and a great advert for Highland air.
Hamilton Academical – Eddie Cassidy
For a club the size of Hamilton to have been leading the league at one stage is a superb achievement on their budget, and all the credit has to go to Alex Neil.
They suffered a bit of a seismic collapse after Norwich recognised his talent and took him down to the East of England to work his magic on their underperforming squad, but they steadied the ship towards the end of the season to comfortably finish top of the bottom six.
Queen Of The South – Michael Park
You’ve got to pick up on Inverness but Queen of the South had another fantastic season in the Championship. They’ve finished fourth in their last two seasons after coming back up after Gus MacPherson relegated them and have looked impressive throughout.
They’ve been incredibly unlucky that the momentum they gained from a strong first season back, which any other year could have seen them promoted from the Championship, coincided with a season where Hearts, Hibs and Rangers were all in the mix. They’ve definitely got a strong platform to build on for next season though.
Who have been your biggest surprise packages this season? Let us know in the comments.
He is the editor of this fine site and a regular on the Scottish Comedy FC Podcast despite refusing to go anywhere near Owen's house.
He supports Kilmarnock and is a comedian to no-one but himself.
