We continue our opening day cavalcade with a look at a few of the games taking place in the Scottish Second and Third divisions as the new season kicks off across Scotland's lower leagues.
Scottish Second Division
Arbroath, one of the three promoted teams from the Third Division last year start their campaign against an Alloa side fresh from dumping an embarrassed Dundee out of the Challenge Cup. The fact that the Dee's where without seven first team players should take nothing away from a memorable victory in a game that you'd expect a team challenging for the First Division title last year to walk. The Wasps made it to the First Division play-offs last season when they lost out 6-5 on aggregate to Clyde and should be considered one of the stronger teams in the division this year. We expect a win for Alloa, keen to get revenge on the Angus team for that defeat in the Challenge Cup last year. Alloa to win 0-1. Get the latest team news from the BBC site.
Runaway Third Division winners start the new season against a side that did not concede a single goal in their pre-season campaign. The highlight for Peterhead was that now legendary 4-0 demolition of Aberdeen. A 6-0 thrashing of Montrose in the Challenge Cup the other week, together with a full strength sides available for selection for both managers could make this potentially another high scoring game. History tells us that in the eighteen meetings between these two sides over the years, Peterhead have a slight advantage. The Blue Toon finished fight last season, one point below the play-off places so a tough challenge awaits East Fife. We go for an away win 1-3. Get the latest team news from the BBC site.
The other games in the Second Division sees Ayr travel across the country as they play Raith Rovers. Brechin City and Stirling Albion meet for the first time this season and Stranraer play at Hampden when they take on Queens Park. Here's how we see these games finishing today.
Arbroath 0-1 Alloa
East Fife 1-3 Peterhead
Ayr 1-2 Raith
Brechin 0-0 Stirling
Queen's Park 1-0 Stranraer
Scottish Third Division
The game of the day has to be the game taking place at Central Park, Cowdenbeath this afternoon as the relegated Blue Brazil take on the new boys, Annan Athletic.
Cowdenbeath where relegated last season via the play-offs,losing on aggregate to Arbroath. Their pre-season has been pretty unremarkable (wins away to Edinburgh City, one of the rivals for the spot now taken by today's opponents, Vale of Leithen and heavy losses to Dundee and Dundee United respectively) until the other week when Hibernian came to town. Cowdenbeath poured more misery on former manager Mixu Paatelainen's team as they came away 2-0 winners. Strong performances in that game from Joe Mbu and Marek Tomana as well as an other industrious game from young Paul McQuade might keeps Cowdenbeath's stay in the Third Division short. Annan Athletic on the other hand lost all of their pre-season fixtures and got knocked out of their first senior Cup competition when they lost to Clyde in the Challenge Cup. Annan put in a decent performance and played well in spells and frustrated Clyde, but in the end the lack of fitness showed. A long season beckons for the Dumfries side and we've got money on them going down again. Still, this is a momentous day, their first game in the Third Division. We have to go for a Cowdenbeath win: 2-0. Get the latest team news from the BBC site.
Elsewhere Albion Rovers travel to Forfar, Berwick take on East Stirlingshire, Montrose make the long trek to Dumbarton and Stenhousemuir entertain Elgin City. This is how we see it ending:
Albion 2-1 Forfar
Berwick 1-0 East Stirling
Cowdenbeath 2-0 Annan
Dumbarton 1-1 Montrose
Stenhousemuir 2-1 Elgin City
That's it for now, we'll be back later on today with the results and a roundup of the other news in and around the leagues.
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