Brittain’s injury casts doubt over club future

ROSS County captain Richard Brittain’s contentious pre-contract agreement with St Johnstone was cast into further doubt yesterday when he suffered what appeared to be a serious knee injury during his team’s 2-0 defeat to Motherwell at Fir Park.

The midfielder was given oxygen as he left the ground on a stretcher before being taken to hospital. County manager Derek Adams was not prepared to discuss the possible implications of Brittain’s injury.

Since signing the pre-contract deal with St Johnstone in January, the former Livingston player has declared he now wishes to remain with Ross County. The Perth club have stressed their desire for him to honour the agreement.

“I’m not sure how he is,” said Adams. “He is away to hospital now and we will see what the extent of the injury is and assess it when we get news back.”

A disappointing day for Adams saw the Dingwall club’s bid for Europa League qualification ended, but he rightly took comfort from what still looks likely to be an outstanding fifth-placed finish in their debut SPL campaign.

“We have had a fantastic season,” he added. “Our main aim coming into today’s game was to finish third, which was the possible position we had played our way into, but our main aim at the start of the season was to finish in 11th position. We have finished in the top six in our first season in the SPL. We are one of the best teams in the SPL this season.”

Motherwell’s victory saw them set a club record SPL points total of 63, with one game remaining at St Johnstone next week, and leave manager Stuart McCall to reflect on a campaign way beyond his own expectations.

“If someone had told me back in July that we would achieve that, I’d have said they had been drinking in the same bar as Michael Higdon!” said McCall, in jaunty reference to PFA Scotland Player of the Year Higdon’s encounter with the police after last weekend’s awards dinner in Glasgow.