Regan Charles-Cook: Ross County's Premiership top scorer on rise from rock bottom

Regan Charles-Cook sat alone in his Inverness flat, wondering why he had come here. Why he had given up the bustling metropolis of London, the only city he knew, for the tranquil Scottish Highlands?

Why he had left friends, family and familiarity amid a pandemic? Why he could not force his way into a Ross County team scrapping to preserve its top-flight status?

"I was lonely and isolated," the winger tells BBC Scotland. "I lived by myself - friends couldn't visit, I couldn't socialise with the boys. I'd be going to the shop and coming back home. I started doing accountancy to try and keep my mind running.

"I went from a city that went at 100mph to a city that is quite slow and quiet. And when you're not playing, it's even worse. One of the toughest moments was when I got left out altogether. I didn't even travel. I was like, 'wow, what have I done?'"

A year on, the transformation is stark. Charles-Cook is a player reborn at a club reinvigorated. Last season, County's survival was only guaranteed on the final day. His only two goals were in perfunctory wins against lower-league opposition.

This term, Charles-Cook is the league's top scorer, his haul of 13 two more than anyone else.

'They don't care how old you are. They've got kids to feed'

To understand his inner steel, you have to go back to Beckenham in the south east London suburbs, back to the five Charles-Cook brothers kicking up hell in the family home.

"All of us would play football in the kitchen every day, smashing glasses, screaming, someone coming in with a big cut on their leg," Charles-Cook says.

"We challenged each other in everything. Who is going to be the best? Who is going to win? It got you that winning mentality. If you lose, you ain't talking to your brothers for a couple of days."

Sport was always the pillar around which life revolved. Elder brother Reice, a goalkeeper, has won Grenada caps alongside Regan. The others are involved with League Two and non-league clubs.

Charles-Cook's uncle, James Cook MBE, is a former British and European super-middleweight champion boxer who now runs a gym for disaffected youngsters on Hackney's infamous 'Murder Mile'. His nephew toyed briefly with pursuing the sport, but one sparring session with uncle James was enough to persuade him otherwise.

Instead, Charles-Cook rose through the Arsenal academy. He had been in the system since primary school and, when the time came to offer senior terms, Arsenal dallied. Charlton offered the 18-year-old first-team football, and off he went.

"You don't realise how privileged you are [at Arsenal]," he says. "They're taking you to Germany and Spain as a 10-year-old. You go to Highbury and the Emirates watching Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Gilberto Silva.

"But I never got the sense I'd made it. I had to look at the records of people actually hitting the first team. When Charlton came in, it looked very promising."

Those early years at The Valley hardened him. Charlton sent him on loan way down the English pyramid and, for a time, he felt like a lamb to the slaughter.

"The physical side is not a joke. Anything in the air, you're not winning. You're playing big men who don't care how old you are. They have got kids to feed and they will do anything to feed those kids.

"One player came up to me and said, 'this ain't 23s football now, son'. I'll never forget that. That's helped me here as well. I'm not the biggest boy; I have to rely on movement, trickery, cleverness. It taught me how to use my body."

'You see the monkey emojis... but I've more to risk'

Charles-Cook is coming out of contract and County are understandably eager to keep him. Dundee United and Aberdeen have been credited with an interest and there will be suitors in England, too. At 25, he is a good age to capitalise on his season.

Whatever happens, County will remain dear to him. He namechecks the secretary, academy manager, analyst, media officer, first-team coach and just about everyone else behind the scenes as he love-bombs his Highland "family".

The people and the place have got to him in a way he never expected. They were by his side when he needed them most.

In January, after scoring in a 3-3 draw with Rangers, Charles-Cook scrolled through his Instagram messages. As he thumbed the screen, his stomach flipped. A trail of monkey emojis and racist poison loomed into view.

"You see the monkey emojis… hold on. I ignored it, but saw another one. Then they were trying to video call me on Instagram. I just tried to go for food and enjoy myself, tried to forget about it, but I couldn't, it was annoying me so much."

The urge to bite back was gripping. Rage nearly fractured his positivity. "Why don't you come and say it to my face or in front of a crowd, instead of on a computer, and let's see?

"You have got to remember you are bigger than that person and there is a lot more for yourself to risk. I reported it to the club and they dealt with it so well. The next day, I got so many supportive messages. The love and support I got was incredible."

County might have missed out on Europe, but even being in the top six is monumental. Nobody - not even Mackay - could have seen it coming. Not least after they began the campaign with three points from 10 matches.

"He's worked some serious magic," Charles-Cook says of Mackay. "Everyone is thinking, 'they're getting relegated', but he has believed in us young players like no other.

"The people that doubted us, who said, 'oh, little Ross County are going to get relegated', I'm loving to see we've made the top six and shown everybody."