May 10th 2024
Today sees the curtain come down on the long and storied career of Ross Tokely, as the 45-year-old defender plays his final match in senior football almost three decades after making his debut.
It is a fitting conclusion for Ross as he bows out at the club who handed him his maiden appearance all the way back in 1995.
Coolio was top of the charts with Gangsta’s Paradise, OJ Simpson had just been found not guilty of murder, Microsoft’s Windows 95 operating system was at the cutting edge of technology and an emerging golfer called Tiger Woods had become the youngest winner of the Amateur Championship when Ross made his debut for Huntly in a 3-0 win away at Buckie Thistle on October 28th 1995.
Ross then moved into league football at Inverness CT with his long association with the Caley Jags yielding a record number of appearances across 16 seasons, which saw Ross turn out in all four divisions of Scottish football. He won the Third Division (League Two), the First Division (Championship) twice and the Challenge Cup as well as playing from the start when Super Caley went Ballistic and knocked Celtic out of the Scottish Cup in February 2000.
Ross spent half a season at Ross County 2012 before returning to the Highland League for a five-and-a-half year spell at Brora Rangers, the last 18 months of which seeing him manage the Cattachs. All in, Ross won the Highland League championship twice and the North of Scotland Cup twice during his time at Dudgeon Park.
Ross continued his playing career in the North Caledonian League with St Duthus in 2018, winning the North Caledonian Cup and the Football Times Cup in four years at the Tain-based side.
He joined us on October 24th 2022 and ahead of today’s match, Ross has made 51 appearances for Nairn County, scoring seven goals and of course, winning the North of Scotland Cup earlier this season.
