WordPress, on which Inside Left is hosted, allows you to gather all sorts of meaningful statistics about who reads the blog, where they're from, which of our many articles are the most popular and so on. But perhaps most interestingly, it tells you what people type into their search engines to end up at your site in the first place.
As we are basically site-hit hoors whose sole aim is to dominate the Scottish football internet scene, we hate it when Scottish football fans take a break from looking for Britney Spears' shaved beaver shots to find that little nugget of information about the game in Scotland, only to end up at Inside Left and not find the answer they're looking for. And, probably worse, not a single Britney Spears shaved beaver shot to be seen.
Well, as regular readers surely know, we don't do beaver shots: we do Scottish football. So in todays Meat Pie, and perhaps a future regular feature, we'll try and find the answers to the questions that are troubling the general public as we attempt to entice you onto our little corner of the web. We'll begin with a few easy ones, taken straight from the search list:
Q: How many times have Rangers FC scored four goals at Parkhead?
A: This question, and a few variants of it, has been the most popular search to find Inside Left since Sunday. Not sure why. Anyway, here goes:
Since Rangers notched up their first recorded four-goal win at Parkhead back on the 24th September 1898, they've gone and done it quite a few times. The New Years Day games seem to be a real problem for Celtic as they've conceded four goals on several occasions on that date. In 1994 and 1951 the score line was 2:4 to Rangers while on the 2nd of January 1947, the Blues won 4:0. It was a bit closer on the 1st January 1936 Rangers won 3:4. On the 16th February 1957, Rangers and Celtic fought out an entertaining 4:4 game at Parkhead, while on the 31st August 1955, Rangers did a wee bit better when they beat Celtic 0:4.
The answer to the question then, including Sundays result, is 8. Interestingly, the most goals Rangers have ever scored at Parkhead was 5, when on the 10th September 1960, Rangers emerged 1:5 winners.
Q: Where do Hamilton Academicals play football?
A: The Accies play football at New Douglas Park. The stadium has been Accies' new home since their old ground Douglas Park was sold off and turned into a Sainsbury's. Fitba Daft has more info and pictures - simply click here and be amazed.
Q: Is Alex White leaving Stranraer?
A: This question seems to come up quite a lot. Hartlepool native Alex White, a defender who has also appeared in midfield recently signed a new season-long deal with The Clayholers. He doesn't live in the area and trains with Hartlepool FC and makes the long journey from the north of England every match day to play. According to the Stranraer website, this dedication to the team has earned him much respect from all at the club and earned him a new contract. So, the answer would be: no, not this season at least anyway.
Q: Have Celtic ever been relegated?
A: No. In fact, they're one of only four current SPL sides never to have been relegated. The others are Rangers, Aberdeen and Inverness Caly.
Q: Who will win the SPL 2008/09?
A: Who knows, but we can have a pretty good guess. Given that only two teams have managed to split the Old Firm in recent times (Motherwell in 1994/95 and Hearts in 2005/06) don't expect things to change anytime soon. There were some early scares for both halves of the Old Firm, but before the Old Firm game last Sunday, things had returned to normal: Celtic first, Rangers second. The pundits had predicted that Aberdeen, Motherwell, United and even Hearts might mount a challenge, but none of these sided have done much this season so far. It's early days yet, but privately we don't think much will change this year. As for who will win, well, we picked Celtic for the title and despite their somewhat crap performance on Sunday we'll stand by that,
Q: Stuart McKay Peterhead appearances
A: Another query that has appeared more than once over the last two weeks, 33-year-old Stuart McKay, signed from Inverurie Locos in 2006 has played at amateur international level for Scotland, scoring six goals in nine games. So far he's made 49 appearances for his new club Peterhead, scoring on 13 occasions from the right of midfield. He's also had spells at East Fife and Alloa.
One question that has us stumped was the names of all Celtic FC goalkeepers. Given that Celtic have been around for more than 120 years, any list would be enormous, and probably not altogether accurate. We can think of a few, but if anyone there has a complete list, do let us know and we'll stick it up on the site somewhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment