(Scottish) Season (2008/09) Greetings

Aye aye everyone.

Just a quick note before we depart for foreign shores. The football might not stop up in Scotland despite the weather or the time of year, but here at Inside Left we like to take a break at this time of year to spend time recovering from our injuries and so on. Before we go though, here's a quick round-up of all the things you can expect over the next few weeks while we're gone.

In the SPL, we have one Old Firm derby coming up. On the 27th December, Celtic travel across the river for the second clash of the season. Celtic's lead over Rangers has been cut to four points, making this game all the more exciting. Celtic of course got trounced 4-2 earlier on in the season in the first Old Firm derby - it was their worst loss to Rangers in years. Celtic still battle with injuries and the rather distracting kerfuffle around the row between Strachan and McGeady is not the sort of thing they need right now as they head towards the end of the year.

Before all that happens though, the game of this weekend is up at Tynecastle where the teams in third, Hearts and Dundee United meet up. There's another Lanarkshire derby between two sides struggling this season. Hamilton are bottom of the league, while their opponents Motherwell are suffering from second-season blues.

Down in the lower divisions, it´s top versus bottom as St. Johnstone travel to Airdrie. For both sides this is a must-win game; the Saints need to keep that lead they've built up going, while Airdrie need to start winning games to keep up with the rest of the league.

In the Second Division, the game to watch is the one happening on the 30th December, when two teams who have been pretty close this season, Brechin and Ayr play each other. With these teams a clear distance away from the team in fourth, they need to win this game to keep up with leaders Raith who themselves face tricky ties away to Arbroath and fourth-placed Peterhead.

In the Third, the game we're going to watch out for is the derby game between Stenhousemuir and the team with which they're currently sharing Ochillview Park, East Stirlingshire. The Shire of course are current holders of our prestigious Performance of the Week award - their run of form has gotten our attention and should certainly be catching yours. By the way, if  you're interested in the fortunes of a team once called  "Britain's Worst Team", get yourself along to their website and register for Shire TV, through which you can get all the match highlights for free!

Other than the football, the transfer window opens up again on the 1st January. We're all keen to know how your clubs will fare in this seasons scrum for players. If you're not a fan of one of the Old Firm teams, you'll no doubt be anxiously awaiting which obscure player your clubs has managed to unearth from some other never-heard-of-before competition. Unless you're a Hearts fan, in which case your next signing will be from Kaunas. Hibs fans - what are the odds of Fletcher still being at the club come the end of January?

From a personal point of view, we hope you like the new Inside Left. To think we nearly did a Gretna and go under a few weeks ago. After some soul searching and honest appraisal we decided to keep going with it. We've discovered a new-found enthusiasm for keeping the site going and hell,  a new lick of paint does wonders.

As we approach our first year in existence, we genuinely think we've built up one of the best Scottish footie sites on the net. Hopefully you think so too, and who knows, maybe next year we'll get some of you writing for the site. No pressure though!

We're back on January 4th, so  all that remains is for us all to wish you, dear readers, a happy Christmas, and a happy and healthy 2009 from all the staff at Inside Left.