Fucking hell. Let the inquest begin at Dundee United.
If there was any doubt the league is over for the rest of the unwashed masses outside of fair Glasgow town, let that result be a warning to you all.
Oh, and if Craig Levein is reading this: get yer man Boyd into the national side - pronto!
Elsewhere, Hearts beat Motherwell 1-0 to move within five points of fourth-placed Dundee United. Michael Stewart was on target as Hearts win their third game in a row.
30/12/2009
Taxi for fat lady!
For a few brief moments earlier in the season, it looked like we might have a genuine competition on our hands. With both Celtic and Rangers struggling to get going, the league was reasonably tight in the early stages, Hibernian (under new management) leading the pack of challengers for that Holy Grail of Scottish football: a non-Old Firm league winner.
Two managerial changes later (Jim Gannon and Craig Levein) and following Hibernian's collapse like a flan in a cupboard at Easter Road last week, natural order looks to be restored to the Scottish game.
A victory against Dundee United tonight (assuming the game goes ahead) will see the Ibrox men open up a seven point lead on Celtic, a lead possibly going up to 10 points should Rangers beat Celtic in the first Old Firm derby of the new year on January 3.
Making up the four points that seperate Hibs and Celtic seems much at this stage, and the massive eight points between rudderless Dundee United (who have suffered only two defeats all season, but have taken only one win from their last five outings) and Celtic looks unlikely to be narrowed any time soon - at least not by United.
It ain't over until the fat lady sings, as the popular expression goes, but in truth, the fat lady is already outside the stadium flagging down a taxi to take her to next season.
29/12/2009
Free Kicks
Jings, cribbens and help me boab.
We can't even go away for a couple of days without the proverbial hitting the fan. Our betting slip, the one that said Laszlo will be the first to walk (after a gentle push), has been thrown into the bin along with the other Xmas crappery we got.
Gannon? Sacked? Like, whit?! And they where doing so well. Motherwell, to be precise (djing boom)
We can't even go away for a couple of days without the proverbial hitting the fan. Our betting slip, the one that said Laszlo will be the first to walk (after a gentle push), has been thrown into the bin along with the other Xmas crappery we got.
Gannon? Sacked? Like, whit?! And they where doing so well. Motherwell, to be precise (djing boom)
23/12/2009
Our Xmas alphabet is affa grim ...
Our wee Xmas listy made the Tartan Army Message Board. Aside from having a mistake pointed out (McCarthy went to Wigan, not Barnsley, fuck sake lads!) it seems our piece was a wee bit, well, grim. So aye, reading it back in the cold light of day the piece does seem awfully negative. Surely there must have been something positive we can say about the Scottish game so far?
Well, clearly we can't, but perhaps you, dear readers, can, so please contribute to our open thread and help us make a cheery Scottish Football Christmas Alphabet. There may even be a wee prize on offer.
Maybe.
Well, clearly we can't, but perhaps you, dear readers, can, so please contribute to our open thread and help us make a cheery Scottish Football Christmas Alphabet. There may even be a wee prize on offer.
Maybe.
20/12/2009
The Scottish Football Christmas Alphabet
It's time again for Inside Left to take a wee break, so updates will be a little sporadic between now our return in January. But in keeping with tradition, we like to round off the year with our Christmas alphabet. A is for ...
18/12/2009
The Scottish season so far: the national side
As we begin the run up to the end of 2009, Inside Left looks back on an interesting season so far in Scottish football. This season can best be summarized as 'troublesome', as our clubs struggle in European competition and our chairmen and directors struggle in the boardroom. And with financial trouble never off the radar, what is the future for Scottish football?
We begin though, with a look back at the national side's efforts this year, and look forward to a difficult, but hopefully rosy (tartan?) future.
We begin though, with a look back at the national side's efforts this year, and look forward to a difficult, but hopefully rosy (tartan?) future.
16/12/2009
Predicting the winners and the losers
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A decade of Scottish football
The always excellent Scottish Football Blog has started a series of articles looking back at the last decade in the game north of the border.
They begin the series with a look back at our club's performances in European competition which, despite what the sassenachs might think, is not as bad as all that (as long as you ignore the last 2 years or so). Did you know, for instance, that two of our teams made a European final - not bad eh, for such a wee country?
In the second, published yesterday, they look back at 10 years of the League Cup, "the poor relation in Scotland’s triumvirate of top trophies", as they call it.
Our beloved Aberdeen make the list of Diddy Cup finalists, which is nice. Even though we lost to Celtic (incidentally, we also lost out in the Scottish Cup that year, getting pumped 4-0 by Rangers), it is nice to remember a time when the Dandies actually achieved something - a far cry from the shower of shite on display these days.
Oh, don't get me started...
They begin the series with a look back at our club's performances in European competition which, despite what the sassenachs might think, is not as bad as all that (as long as you ignore the last 2 years or so). Did you know, for instance, that two of our teams made a European final - not bad eh, for such a wee country?
In the second, published yesterday, they look back at 10 years of the League Cup, "the poor relation in Scotland’s triumvirate of top trophies", as they call it.
Our beloved Aberdeen make the list of Diddy Cup finalists, which is nice. Even though we lost to Celtic (incidentally, we also lost out in the Scottish Cup that year, getting pumped 4-0 by Rangers), it is nice to remember a time when the Dandies actually achieved something - a far cry from the shower of shite on display these days.
Oh, don't get me started...
11/12/2009
11.12// The Scottish Fitba Weekender
It's a bit of a rum selection this weekend, with no games really sticking out of the fixture list to give us just cause to get out of the Xmas shopping crusade up the town. But aye well, never mind - you've got to work with what you're given, so here we go.
In this weeks pure barrel-scrapping preview, there's a sight for sore eyes when the tangerines take on the maroons, with everyone hoping there's not going to be too much red and yellow mixed in.
See? Very, very rum.
In this weeks pure barrel-scrapping preview, there's a sight for sore eyes when the tangerines take on the maroons, with everyone hoping there's not going to be too much red and yellow mixed in.
See? Very, very rum.
09/12/2009
Football on the radio
RTÉ, the Irish national radio and television broadcaster, regularly pumps out good documentaries about all aspects of life in Ireland. Looking through their site last night for something to put on the iPod, I found two documentaries about Scottish football you might enjoy.
07/12/2009
Rangers prepare for stormy AGM
The annual meeting of the clubs shareholders takes place this morning at Ibrox. The event promises to be a stormy affair as answers are sought from frustrated and worried fans concerned at the troubles, both real and perceived, at the Glasgow giants.
07.12// The Monday Ballbag
In another action-packed weekend of Scottish football, Aberdeen fail to capitalise on last week’s epic win against Rangers, Hamilton record a rare win but a tunnel fracas after their game with Hearts will keep the SFA busy this week. And it's a sign that all is not well in Scottish football when only 16 goals are scored in the Highland League and Fort William win again. Strange days indeed...
02/12/2009
On This Day in Scottish Football
Scotland concluded their 1988 European Championship qualifying campaign with a goalless draw against Luxembourg, and on this day in 1911, a young Patsy Gallagher made his debut for Celtic.
30/11/2009
30.11// The Week in Scottish Football
Inside Left previews another busy week ahead in Scottish football. Celtic are in European action, while closer to home, it could be all-change in the First division. There's also action in the Second and Third division, and hopefully there'll be no fog this time in the match between Clyde and Livingston.
30.11// Four to Follow Round-up
Jings. We really, really, really must stop doing this. Our predictions are pure gash folks! To wit: this week, we continue with what is fast becoming a tradition by getting none of our predictions right.
27/11/2009
30.11// Scottish Fitba Four to Follow
Inside Left highlights the four games in this weekends Scottish fixture card that you need to keep your eye on. This week we feature a tough fixture for both teams at Pittodrie, a bottom-of-the-table clash in Granton, a mid-table affair in the First division and lastly, the pick of the Scottish Cup games taking place this weekend as Clyde take on Livingston.
25/11/2009
Treading water in Lochaber
Fort William are in the news again. Two months after recording their first league win in 2 years, the Fort are in danger of being thrown out of the Highland League. Will the troubles ever cease for the Lochaber club, and how would their demise affect the goal difference of the other clubs in the division?
23/11/2009
23.11// The Monday Ballbag
Phew, what a relief to have good 'ole regular football back at the weekends. I can't be doing with international breaks, which I put in the same category as a commercial break in a really good film - annoying and totally pointless.
But it's all business as usual as the Highland League need only three games to outscore the entire SPL in one day, George Burley is not the only manager to lose his job, and Dundee lift the first silverware of the season.
But it's all business as usual as the Highland League need only three games to outscore the entire SPL in one day, George Burley is not the only manager to lose his job, and Dundee lift the first silverware of the season.
20/11/2009
On Messrs McGregor, Ferguson and Boyd
There's very little that surprises us here at Inside Left Towers these days.
When we first heard SFA Chief Executive Gordon Smith blithely announce - only days after he sacked his national team manager - that those pariahs of the Scottish game, Allan McGregor, Barry Ferguson and Kris Boyd would be eligible for selection by any future Scotland manager, we shrugged our shoulders and moved on.
When we first heard SFA Chief Executive Gordon Smith blithely announce - only days after he sacked his national team manager - that those pariahs of the Scottish game, Allan McGregor, Barry Ferguson and Kris Boyd would be eligible for selection by any future Scotland manager, we shrugged our shoulders and moved on.
20.11 // SPL Weekend Preview
For some reason, it seems like ages since last had a round of club football, but we're sure happy that it's back on the agenda this weekend, because, well, this has been another particularly stressful week in the constantly varying Scottish football landscape.
18/11/2009
The SFA and the search for the next manager of Scotland
Now that the bunting has been torn down from between the tenements and the houses and the last of the party revellers bundled into a taxi for the long ride home, the mandarins at the SFA find themselves in a situation that gets less unique with every tournament that passes Scottish football by.
16/11/2009
Thank you Mr Burley. Send in the next man please ...
George Burley was finally removed from his post as manager of the Scotland national side this evening, bringing to an end the managerial run of a man who in the end "managed" to make even Berti Vogts look good, and whose dismal record in charge of the national squad is second only to the late John Prentice in 1966, who didn't even manage a single victory (although Prentice at least managed a 1-1 draw with Brazil).
The continuing saga of Scottish football
About a week or so ago, I wrote two articles on this site about the perilous state the Scottish game finds itself in. Back then, I bemoaned the fact that the game north of the border was being haunted by events on and off the field, from financial troubles to crowd troubles, from declining standards to declining credibility, and from a lack of competition to a lack of crowds.
04/11/2009
Slightly cliché-strewn Rangers preview
Right. Let's just get it out of the way.
For Rangers, tonights Champions League Group G fixture against the Romanians from Unirea Urziceni is a make or break game. It's a gala day, a Cup final, the biggest fixture of the year and simply a must-win game.
For Rangers, tonights Champions League Group G fixture against the Romanians from Unirea Urziceni is a make or break game. It's a gala day, a Cup final, the biggest fixture of the year and simply a must-win game.
02/11/2009
A Dutch solution to a Scottish problem (Part I)
I completely missed every single game of football across the British Isles at the weekend.
I was too busy to turn on the radio for the Scottish games, and I fell asleep somewhere during the Arsenal-Spurs highlights on the Saturday evening. I was awake long enough to see van Persie scoring, but the next thing I remember is being woken by the familiar Match of the Day tune as the credits rolled by. A pity really, because it seems I missed a tremendous weekend of football.
I was too busy to turn on the radio for the Scottish games, and I fell asleep somewhere during the Arsenal-Spurs highlights on the Saturday evening. I was awake long enough to see van Persie scoring, but the next thing I remember is being woken by the familiar Match of the Day tune as the credits rolled by. A pity really, because it seems I missed a tremendous weekend of football.
30/10/2009
A life in cards - Bob McKay
Continuing our series of great Scottish players from days gone by through the medium of cigarette cards, we take a look back at the career of Bob McKay.
A week of Scottish woes
We're always thankful it's Saturday at Inside Left, mainly because it means a return to the terraces to enjoy watching the cream of our divisions tanning a ball around the park.
This week we're particularly glad that the weekend brings sense to bear, as this has not been a great seven days for the game north of the border. But then again, what week is these days ...
This week we're particularly glad that the weekend brings sense to bear, as this has not been a great seven days for the game north of the border. But then again, what week is these days ...
27/10/2009
Taxi for Laszlo?
As the saga at Rangers continues towards a potentially horrid (or amusing, depending on your allegiances) conclusion, Walter Smith is not the only one concerned at the lack of progress.
Over in Edinburgh things are not going according to plan for the Maroon half of the city, as Hearts gaffer Csaba Lazslo says he'll consider his options unless transfer funds are made available to help his struggling strikers.
Over in Edinburgh things are not going according to plan for the Maroon half of the city, as Hearts gaffer Csaba Lazslo says he'll consider his options unless transfer funds are made available to help his struggling strikers.
26/10/2009
26.10// The Scottish League Cup Preview
The dust has only just settled on the weekend fixtures, but there's not much rest for some of the teams, as the Quarter Finals of the Scottish League Cup takes place over the next two days. We preview the upcoming fixtures.
16/10/2009
Buckie Thistle v Inverurie Loco Works
Highland League sides Buckie Thistle and Inverurie Locos played in the first of a quickfire double header between the clubs at Victoria Park. In a tight game it was the Buckie Thistle, also known as "The Jags" who got the 3 points - Craig Macmillan's header on 66 minutes decided the match.
First Half
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6_gVf4l6sU&feature=sub
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLgOG6uqz4Y&feature=sub
Four days later, it would be Locos who emerged the winner in the Morrison Motors Aberdeenshire Shield when they reversed Saturday's result to record a 2-0 victory over their Moray coast rivals (and current holders of the Shield, a competition for 9 Aberdeenshire-based teams)
Ryan Broadhurst got the Locos of to a winning start when he turned in an Andy Bisset cross at the far post, and the game was put beyond Buckie when a hotly disputed 71st minute penalty was converted by Scott Buchan. Buckie's defender Paul Lamberton was later sent off.
Locos will play Fraserburgh for a place in the final.
First Half
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6_gVf4l6sU&feature=sub
Second Half
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLgOG6uqz4Y&feature=sub
Four days later, it would be Locos who emerged the winner in the Morrison Motors Aberdeenshire Shield when they reversed Saturday's result to record a 2-0 victory over their Moray coast rivals (and current holders of the Shield, a competition for 9 Aberdeenshire-based teams)
Ryan Broadhurst got the Locos of to a winning start when he turned in an Andy Bisset cross at the far post, and the game was put beyond Buckie when a hotly disputed 71st minute penalty was converted by Scott Buchan. Buckie's defender Paul Lamberton was later sent off.
Locos will play Fraserburgh for a place in the final.
15/10/2009
15.10// The Ballbag
It's been a while, but fear not dear reader(s), we're still here. Inside Left has spent most of the last week with the fysio working on a nasty shoulder injury as well as trying to get his back, well, back in order. The ravages of old age on this otherwise athletic body are being to play their part and every day things like walking, bending, moving and so on sure 'aint as easy as they used to be.
07/10/2009
In Days of Yore - Season 1989/90
With the international break on this weekend as Scotland take on Japan, Inside Left takes a nostalgic look back to 20 years ago today.
Scottish Premier Division Results, 3rd and 4th October, 1989
Scottish Premier Division Table
Rangers would go on to win the league by seven points. It would be the second win in what would eventually become their record equaling nine-in-a-row run of league wins. They wouldn't have it all their own way however: Aberdeen, the team that finished second that season would beat them 2-1 in the League Cup, and the Dons, managed by Alex Smith and Jocky Scott, would complete a domestic Cup double when they beat Celtic 9-8 on penalties.
Hearts would go on to finish third, equal on points with Aberdeen but with an inferior goal difference, with Dundee United leading a group of six teams all within five points of each other; Dundee would be relegated. Somewhat surprisingly for younger readers is finding Celtic, managed by club legend Billy McNeill in lowly 5th place; it would be their lowest league finish since 1977, though they came close in seasons 1993/94 and 1994/95 when the Hoops finished fourth on both occasions.
In the days when there where only three divisions in Scotland, the Premier Division, Division One and Division Two and you only got two points for a win, St Johnstone lead the old Division One by 1 point from Partick Thistle. St Johnstone would eventually go on to win the division, ironically just ahead of the two teams that no longer exist, Airdrieonians and Clydebank; the old Airdrieonians team in 1989 are at this stage still several years away from going under, but when, in 2002, they eventually do, they would take over Clydebank and relocate them to Airdrie to form the Airdrie United that's currently bottom of the Scottish First Division.
Also in Division One where a few teams that would make an appearance in the Premier Division and it's successor the Premier League at some point in the future. Raith Rovers (1993), Hamilton Academical, relegated from the Scottish Premier League the season before would wait until 2008 for their return to the top flight. Falkirk would win the First division in season 1990/91 to start a two season long run in the Premier Division. Albion Rovers and Alloa Athletic would finish the season at the bottom of the table, and where relegated to Division Two.
And in Division Two Kilmarnock, managed by Jim Fleeting, led the competition on this day in 1989. They'd eventually be pipped to the title by Berwick on the final day, but a second placed finish assured them of First Division status. At the end of the 1992/93 season another second placed finish saw them reach the now Scottish Premier League, where they remain to this day.
One final thing to notice: there's no mention yet of Inverness Caley Thistle. We will have to wait until 1994 for Caley to make their appearance following the merger of Caledonian and Inverness Thistle.
Division One and Division Two Results, this week in 1989
Saturday 7th October 1989 Scottish Division 1
Saturday 7th October 1989 Scottish Division 2
On 11th October, 20 years to the day that Scotland take on Japan, the national side, under management of Andy Roxburgh where still in the running for World Cup Qualification.
With two games to go before the end of the qualification rounds, Scotland travelled to Paris for the Group 5 game against France. The Scots lost 3-0, with goals from Didier Deschamps, Eric Cantona and a Stephen Nicol own goal, but results elsewhere went their way. A final game draw with Norway had the Scots finishing second in the group behind Yugoslavia and so assured qualification for World Cup 1990. France didn't qualify.
The Scotland lineup that night was: Jim Leighton, Stephen Nicol, Richard Gough, Alex McLeish, Maurice Malpas, Roy Aitken, Paul McStay, Murdo McLeod, Gordon Strachan, Aly McCoist and Mo Johnston.
Scottish Premier Division Results, 3rd and 4th October, 1989
Celtic 3-1 Hibernian
Dundee United 2-0 Aberdeen
Hearts 1-2 Dunfermline Athletic
St Mirren 3-2 Dundee
Motherwell 1-0 Rangers
Scottish Premier Division Table
1 Celtic 8 3 4 1 12 8 10
2 Motherwell 8 3 4 1 11 7 10
3 Aberdeen 8 4 2 2 7 5 10
4 Hibernian 8 3 2 3 10 8 8
5 Dundee United 8 2 4 2 11 11 8
5 Hearts 8 3 2 3 11 11 8
7 Dunfermline 8 2 3 3 10 11 7
8 Rangers 8 2 3 3 6 8 7
9 St Mirren 8 3 1 4 8 12 7
10 Dundee 8 1 3 4 11 16 5
Rangers would go on to win the league by seven points. It would be the second win in what would eventually become their record equaling nine-in-a-row run of league wins. They wouldn't have it all their own way however: Aberdeen, the team that finished second that season would beat them 2-1 in the League Cup, and the Dons, managed by Alex Smith and Jocky Scott, would complete a domestic Cup double when they beat Celtic 9-8 on penalties.
Hearts would go on to finish third, equal on points with Aberdeen but with an inferior goal difference, with Dundee United leading a group of six teams all within five points of each other; Dundee would be relegated. Somewhat surprisingly for younger readers is finding Celtic, managed by club legend Billy McNeill in lowly 5th place; it would be their lowest league finish since 1977, though they came close in seasons 1993/94 and 1994/95 when the Hoops finished fourth on both occasions.
In the days when there where only three divisions in Scotland, the Premier Division, Division One and Division Two and you only got two points for a win, St Johnstone lead the old Division One by 1 point from Partick Thistle. St Johnstone would eventually go on to win the division, ironically just ahead of the two teams that no longer exist, Airdrieonians and Clydebank; the old Airdrieonians team in 1989 are at this stage still several years away from going under, but when, in 2002, they eventually do, they would take over Clydebank and relocate them to Airdrie to form the Airdrie United that's currently bottom of the Scottish First Division.
Also in Division One where a few teams that would make an appearance in the Premier Division and it's successor the Premier League at some point in the future. Raith Rovers (1993), Hamilton Academical, relegated from the Scottish Premier League the season before would wait until 2008 for their return to the top flight. Falkirk would win the First division in season 1990/91 to start a two season long run in the Premier Division. Albion Rovers and Alloa Athletic would finish the season at the bottom of the table, and where relegated to Division Two.
And in Division Two Kilmarnock, managed by Jim Fleeting, led the competition on this day in 1989. They'd eventually be pipped to the title by Berwick on the final day, but a second placed finish assured them of First Division status. At the end of the 1992/93 season another second placed finish saw them reach the now Scottish Premier League, where they remain to this day.
One final thing to notice: there's no mention yet of Inverness Caley Thistle. We will have to wait until 1994 for Caley to make their appearance following the merger of Caledonian and Inverness Thistle.
Division One and Division Two Results, this week in 1989
Saturday 7th October 1989 Scottish Division 1
Arbroath 2-1 Dumbarton
Cowdenbeath 1-1 Brechin City
East Fife 2-2 Queen of the South
East Stirlingshire 3-1 Berwick Rangers
Montrose 0-1 Kilmarnock
Queen's Park 0-2 Stranraer
Stenhousemuir 2-1 Stirling Albion
Saturday 7th October 1989 Scottish Division 2
Arbroath 2-1 Dumbarton
Cowdenbeath 1-1 Brechin City
East Fife 2-2 Queen of the South
East Stirlingshire 3-1 Berwick Rangers
Montrose 0-1 Kilmarnock
Queen's Park 0-2 Stranraer
Stenhousemuir 2-1 Stirling Albion
International Fixtures
On 11th October, 20 years to the day that Scotland take on Japan, the national side, under management of Andy Roxburgh where still in the running for World Cup Qualification.
With two games to go before the end of the qualification rounds, Scotland travelled to Paris for the Group 5 game against France. The Scots lost 3-0, with goals from Didier Deschamps, Eric Cantona and a Stephen Nicol own goal, but results elsewhere went their way. A final game draw with Norway had the Scots finishing second in the group behind Yugoslavia and so assured qualification for World Cup 1990. France didn't qualify.
The Scotland lineup that night was: Jim Leighton, Stephen Nicol, Richard Gough, Alex McLeish, Maurice Malpas, Roy Aitken, Paul McStay, Murdo McLeod, Gordon Strachan, Aly McCoist and Mo Johnston.
02/10/2009
02.10// The Scottish Fitba Weekender
In the SPL, Hamilton and St Johnstone battle it out at the bottom of the league for the wooden spoon. Aye, we know, it's very early in the season for that kind of talk but there's been very little from either of these two sides to inspire any degree of confidence in their long term survival prospects. Hamilton fought hard to get something out of the game against Hearts last week, and where unlucky to lose 2 goals in a minute. St Johnstone are scoring at least, but until they start scoring more than the opposition, their stay in the SPL will be mercifully short. They lost 3-2 to Dundee United last week.
Hibs and Dundee United meet in what would have been one of our games to follow, had it not been for the Old Firm derby on Sunday. Hibs won some silverware this week in the shape of a Manager of the Month for John Hughes, and a Player of the Month award for Derek Riordan. The Hibee's are third in the league, level on points with Rangers. Dundee United find themselves in fourth spot after that win against St Johnstone.
Aberdeen travel to another one of they bogey teams, Kilmarnock. Killie inflicted a lot of pain on the Dons last season, something Mark McGhee will no doubt want to put right. Their performance against Rangers on Saturday showed some of the fighting spirit that's been lacking in many Dons performances this season, and McGhee's faith in the youth in showing some signs of being rewarded. If only the older players in the squad would do the same.
Killie drew 0-0 with Falkirk at the weekend in a game that's just not worth wasting any more pixels on.
What else? Motherwell against Falkirk and St Mirren against Hearts complete the SPL action on Saturday. Falkirk are finally off the bottom of the league, while Motherwell will have been disappointed with that 1-3 defeat to Hibs on Saturday. Both of these sides had been unbeaten going into the game, so something had to give. Hearts picked up three ,aluable points as their season continues to cough and splutter to get going. They meet St Mirren tomorrow, a team still looking for their first league win since moving to their new ground.
The semi-finals of the Alba Challenge Cup takes place on Sunday. Dundee take on Third Division new boys Annan Athletic, and Inverness Caley are given a chance to avenge the 3-1 defeat inflicted upon them by the boys from Dingwall earlier on in the season.
Annan Athletic chairman Henry McClelland has been busy this week telling everyone just why his side will beat the second biggest spending club in Scotland this week. Nothing to do with events on the pitch, but rather events of it. Allow Mr McClelland to explain:
"There is a primary school in Annan called Elmvale and in 2005, Brooks Mileson presented their end of year school certificates and within 12 months he was in a national final. In 2007, David Rae of Queen of the South did the honours and he was at Hampden within a year. I presented them in June this year so I reckon our place in the Final may just be around the corner.”
Right ....
Elsewhere, the Active Nations Scottish Cup continues with a series of replays.
Bonnyrigg Rose v Fraserburgh
Forres Mechanics v Buckie Thistle
Wick Academy v Clachnacuddin
Wigtown & Bladnoch v Whitehill Welfare
and there's a nearly full fixture list in both Division 2 and Division 3.
Scottish Third Division
Alloa v East Fife
Arbroath v Clyde
Dumbarton v Stirling
Peterhead v Brechin
Stenhousemuir v Cowdenbeath
Scottish Third Division
Albion v East Stirling
Berwick v Forfar
Montrose v Queens Park
Stranraer v Elgin
Lastly, no round-up would be complete without mentioning the UK's highest scoring league, the Scot-Ads Highland League. We've a derby game on our hands which we'll feature in our Four to Follow piece soon, but the legendary Fort William take to the field again, fresh from their 7-0 demolition at the hands of ace Junior side Auchinleck Talbot; they take on Turriff United. Strathspey Thistle, a Fort William in-waiting take on Lossiemouth. Banff side Deveronvale travel up the road to Nairn, and Huntly's game against Brora completes the action.
Phew.
Hibs and Dundee United meet in what would have been one of our games to follow, had it not been for the Old Firm derby on Sunday. Hibs won some silverware this week in the shape of a Manager of the Month for John Hughes, and a Player of the Month award for Derek Riordan. The Hibee's are third in the league, level on points with Rangers. Dundee United find themselves in fourth spot after that win against St Johnstone.
Aberdeen travel to another one of they bogey teams, Kilmarnock. Killie inflicted a lot of pain on the Dons last season, something Mark McGhee will no doubt want to put right. Their performance against Rangers on Saturday showed some of the fighting spirit that's been lacking in many Dons performances this season, and McGhee's faith in the youth in showing some signs of being rewarded. If only the older players in the squad would do the same.
Killie drew 0-0 with Falkirk at the weekend in a game that's just not worth wasting any more pixels on.
What else? Motherwell against Falkirk and St Mirren against Hearts complete the SPL action on Saturday. Falkirk are finally off the bottom of the league, while Motherwell will have been disappointed with that 1-3 defeat to Hibs on Saturday. Both of these sides had been unbeaten going into the game, so something had to give. Hearts picked up three ,aluable points as their season continues to cough and splutter to get going. They meet St Mirren tomorrow, a team still looking for their first league win since moving to their new ground.
The semi-finals of the Alba Challenge Cup takes place on Sunday. Dundee take on Third Division new boys Annan Athletic, and Inverness Caley are given a chance to avenge the 3-1 defeat inflicted upon them by the boys from Dingwall earlier on in the season.
Annan Athletic chairman Henry McClelland has been busy this week telling everyone just why his side will beat the second biggest spending club in Scotland this week. Nothing to do with events on the pitch, but rather events of it. Allow Mr McClelland to explain:
"There is a primary school in Annan called Elmvale and in 2005, Brooks Mileson presented their end of year school certificates and within 12 months he was in a national final. In 2007, David Rae of Queen of the South did the honours and he was at Hampden within a year. I presented them in June this year so I reckon our place in the Final may just be around the corner.”
Right ....
Elsewhere, the Active Nations Scottish Cup continues with a series of replays.
Bonnyrigg Rose v Fraserburgh
Forres Mechanics v Buckie Thistle
Wick Academy v Clachnacuddin
Wigtown & Bladnoch v Whitehill Welfare
and there's a nearly full fixture list in both Division 2 and Division 3.
Scottish Third Division
Alloa v East Fife
Arbroath v Clyde
Dumbarton v Stirling
Peterhead v Brechin
Stenhousemuir v Cowdenbeath
Scottish Third Division
Albion v East Stirling
Berwick v Forfar
Montrose v Queens Park
Stranraer v Elgin
Lastly, no round-up would be complete without mentioning the UK's highest scoring league, the Scot-Ads Highland League. We've a derby game on our hands which we'll feature in our Four to Follow piece soon, but the legendary Fort William take to the field again, fresh from their 7-0 demolition at the hands of ace Junior side Auchinleck Talbot; they take on Turriff United. Strathspey Thistle, a Fort William in-waiting take on Lossiemouth. Banff side Deveronvale travel up the road to Nairn, and Huntly's game against Brora completes the action.
Phew.
Scottish Football Week in Review
Saturday's fixtures provided no real shocks, with the results pretty much going the way of the form teams.
Celtic overcame St Mirren, a welcome win to get them in the mood for a much anticipated Europa League fixture later in the week. Rangers' preparation for the second game in their Champions League group on the other hand amounted to their third 0-0 draw in a row, this time against Aberdeen at Ibrox.
Falkirk got themselves off the bottom of the league following their 1-1 draw with Kilmarnock. Taking their place are SPL new boys St Johnstone who continued their excellent scoring record, but their defence continues to let them down as their opposition continually outscores the Perth side. This weekend was no exception: they scored twice, yet still lost 3-2 to Dundee United.
Motherwell and Hibs turned out to be an exciting enough game. At one point Hibs where playing a somewhat unusual 4-2-4 formation, something not regularly seen in football since the 1920's. It's that kind of cavalier approach to the game that landed John Hughes the Manager of the Month award for September. Hibs are now level on points with Rangers in third spot and could jump into second place should Rangers lose the first Old Firm derby of the season and Hibs overcome Dundee United. Hearts also moved up the table following their 2-1 win over Hamilton.
In the First division, we have a new leader. Queen of the South took advantage of Ross County's slip-up against Dundee to leapfrog the Dingwall side. The Doonhamers thrashed Dunfermline 4-1. Managerless Morton picked up their first 3 points of the season with a 1-0 win over fellow basement dwellers Airdrie United.
Inverness CT are continuing to make heavy weather of their First division campaign. Caley went down 3-2 at home to Partick Thistle. The battle of the promoted teams was won by Ayr United, Kenneth Connolly scoring after 12 minutes to secure the points against Raith Rovers. Despite their off-field problems, Stirling continue to do stirling work in the league. They 2-1 win over Cowdenbeath moves them 3 points clear of Alloa, who lost at home to Arbroath. In the Third Division, Livingston started the week with a win against Queens Park, but somewhat surprisingly lost 3-1 away at East Stirlingshire in mid-week in the re-arranged opening day fixture. Berwick continue to lead the division: they won 2-0 at bottom side Montrose.
In mid-week, our remaining European contenders took to the field once more. Rangers faced a tricky tie against Spanish side Sevilla. Given their less than impressive start to the season, there was plenty to be scared of. Rangers had a good first half and should have been awarded a penalty when Naismith was fouled by Konko but the referee waved play-on. How the game would have gone had Rangers scored first is a matter of debate, but what is certainly not a matter of debate are the four second-half goals in 25 minutes from Sevilla's Abdoulay Konko, Adriano, Luis Fabiano and Frédéric Kanouté that killed the tie very quickly.
The following day it was Celtic's chance to show-up their Glasgow rivals when they took on Rapid Vienna in a game much anticipated by both fans and press alike. The cause of the tension between these two sides stems from a bad-tempered European Cup Winners’ Cup game in 1984. Rapid claimed that defender Weinhofer was struck by a bottle thrown from the crowd. Despite claims from Celtic and the fans that the bottle had in fact landed quite some distance from the Austrian, UEFA forced the tie to be replayed (Celtic had won the original tie 3-0) at Old Trafford, which Rapid won 1-0.
The goal was scored by Peter Pacult, ironically enough the manager of the same Rapid Vienna side that came to Glasgow on Thursday. The 2009 version of this fixture ended in a 1-1 draw, with Rapid scoring after only 3 minutes when Nikica Jelavic took advantage of some slack defending in the Celtic penalty area. Scott McDonald later equalised for Celtic, but the result leaves them bottom of the group, after Hamburg's 4-2 win over Hapoel Tel-Aviv (the team to which Celtic had lost their opening game in the group).
Also taking place this week was the open forum debate into the state of the Scottish game. Inside Left had submitted some questions to the "Scottish Football Under The Spotlight" forum, but according to our delegate and fellow Inside Lefter Andy Kennedy, they never made it to the platform.
The main point we where interested in was the panels view on a pyramid structure. Our view had always been that most, if not all teams in the Scottish league system would welcome a setup that would allow them to promote themselves up the league and potentially the Holy Grail of the SPL (and the regulation poundings by the OF). Somewhat to our surprise, it seemed that most Junior sides actually thought the idea of upward mobility was not really in their interest. Most would rather win 'local' silverware and compete against their local rivals than against the likes of East Fife, Montrose, Dunfermline or Rangers.
It's an angle we've not though of before here. We always presumed that the removal of the glass ceiling that limited clubs ambitions would be high on the list of priorities for chance, but I guess we underestimated the level of ambition in the Scottish game.
But by far the most depressing aspect of the conference was the fact that the majority of those attending had little or no faith in the report that Henry McLeish was putting together and the impact it is going to have on the game. Henry McLeish himself knows that, like every other report before his own, his final report in nothing but a series of recommendations and that he has no power or authority to force those recommendations through the byzantine league structure, the very same league structure that has come under a lot of flak lately. In other words, it is unlikely that the turkeys will vote for Christmas.
A good write-up of the debate can be found at the excellent Voices of Football site.
Celtic overcame St Mirren, a welcome win to get them in the mood for a much anticipated Europa League fixture later in the week. Rangers' preparation for the second game in their Champions League group on the other hand amounted to their third 0-0 draw in a row, this time against Aberdeen at Ibrox.
Falkirk got themselves off the bottom of the league following their 1-1 draw with Kilmarnock. Taking their place are SPL new boys St Johnstone who continued their excellent scoring record, but their defence continues to let them down as their opposition continually outscores the Perth side. This weekend was no exception: they scored twice, yet still lost 3-2 to Dundee United.
Motherwell and Hibs turned out to be an exciting enough game. At one point Hibs where playing a somewhat unusual 4-2-4 formation, something not regularly seen in football since the 1920's. It's that kind of cavalier approach to the game that landed John Hughes the Manager of the Month award for September. Hibs are now level on points with Rangers in third spot and could jump into second place should Rangers lose the first Old Firm derby of the season and Hibs overcome Dundee United. Hearts also moved up the table following their 2-1 win over Hamilton.
In the First division, we have a new leader. Queen of the South took advantage of Ross County's slip-up against Dundee to leapfrog the Dingwall side. The Doonhamers thrashed Dunfermline 4-1. Managerless Morton picked up their first 3 points of the season with a 1-0 win over fellow basement dwellers Airdrie United.
Inverness CT are continuing to make heavy weather of their First division campaign. Caley went down 3-2 at home to Partick Thistle. The battle of the promoted teams was won by Ayr United, Kenneth Connolly scoring after 12 minutes to secure the points against Raith Rovers. Despite their off-field problems, Stirling continue to do stirling work in the league. They 2-1 win over Cowdenbeath moves them 3 points clear of Alloa, who lost at home to Arbroath. In the Third Division, Livingston started the week with a win against Queens Park, but somewhat surprisingly lost 3-1 away at East Stirlingshire in mid-week in the re-arranged opening day fixture. Berwick continue to lead the division: they won 2-0 at bottom side Montrose.
In mid-week, our remaining European contenders took to the field once more. Rangers faced a tricky tie against Spanish side Sevilla. Given their less than impressive start to the season, there was plenty to be scared of. Rangers had a good first half and should have been awarded a penalty when Naismith was fouled by Konko but the referee waved play-on. How the game would have gone had Rangers scored first is a matter of debate, but what is certainly not a matter of debate are the four second-half goals in 25 minutes from Sevilla's Abdoulay Konko, Adriano, Luis Fabiano and Frédéric Kanouté that killed the tie very quickly.
The following day it was Celtic's chance to show-up their Glasgow rivals when they took on Rapid Vienna in a game much anticipated by both fans and press alike. The cause of the tension between these two sides stems from a bad-tempered European Cup Winners’ Cup game in 1984. Rapid claimed that defender Weinhofer was struck by a bottle thrown from the crowd. Despite claims from Celtic and the fans that the bottle had in fact landed quite some distance from the Austrian, UEFA forced the tie to be replayed (Celtic had won the original tie 3-0) at Old Trafford, which Rapid won 1-0.
The goal was scored by Peter Pacult, ironically enough the manager of the same Rapid Vienna side that came to Glasgow on Thursday. The 2009 version of this fixture ended in a 1-1 draw, with Rapid scoring after only 3 minutes when Nikica Jelavic took advantage of some slack defending in the Celtic penalty area. Scott McDonald later equalised for Celtic, but the result leaves them bottom of the group, after Hamburg's 4-2 win over Hapoel Tel-Aviv (the team to which Celtic had lost their opening game in the group).
Scottish Football Under The Spotlight
Also taking place this week was the open forum debate into the state of the Scottish game. Inside Left had submitted some questions to the "Scottish Football Under The Spotlight" forum, but according to our delegate and fellow Inside Lefter Andy Kennedy, they never made it to the platform.
The main point we where interested in was the panels view on a pyramid structure. Our view had always been that most, if not all teams in the Scottish league system would welcome a setup that would allow them to promote themselves up the league and potentially the Holy Grail of the SPL (and the regulation poundings by the OF). Somewhat to our surprise, it seemed that most Junior sides actually thought the idea of upward mobility was not really in their interest. Most would rather win 'local' silverware and compete against their local rivals than against the likes of East Fife, Montrose, Dunfermline or Rangers.
It's an angle we've not though of before here. We always presumed that the removal of the glass ceiling that limited clubs ambitions would be high on the list of priorities for chance, but I guess we underestimated the level of ambition in the Scottish game.
But by far the most depressing aspect of the conference was the fact that the majority of those attending had little or no faith in the report that Henry McLeish was putting together and the impact it is going to have on the game. Henry McLeish himself knows that, like every other report before his own, his final report in nothing but a series of recommendations and that he has no power or authority to force those recommendations through the byzantine league structure, the very same league structure that has come under a lot of flak lately. In other words, it is unlikely that the turkeys will vote for Christmas.
A good write-up of the debate can be found at the excellent Voices of Football site.
30/09/2009
Active Nations Scottish Cup Second Round Draw
Queens Park and Livingston meet again (the two sides played on Saturday, with Livingston coming out on top 2-1), there's an all-Highland League affair when Deveronvale play either Buckie Thistle or Forres Mechanics.
Highland League Champions Cove Rangers take on Annan Athletic, the team to which they lost their bid for entry to the Third Division. Speaking of Third Division, Forfar Athletic and East Stirlingshire meet up in the rounds only all-Third Division fixture.
Former Highland League powerhouse Elgin City return to their roots with a visit to Nairn, while Banks O' Dee will hope to progress beyond the second-round when they take on Montrose. The Aberdeenshire Junior side lost out at this stage of the competition in a 5-1 defeat by Inverurie Locos.
Huntly, currently involved in an investigation into allogations of match fixing during their First-round game against Hawick Royal Albert, take on Auchinleck Talbot. Both Huntly and Auchinleck won their previous round of games by similar scorelines, 7-0.
The ties will be played on Saturday 24 October 2009.
The full draw is as follows:
Queen's Park v Livingston
Deveronvale v Buckie Thistle or Forres Mechanics
Forfar Athletic v East Stirlingshire
Cove Rangers v Annan Athletic
Nairn County v Elgin City
Fraserburgh or Bonnyrigg Rose v Spartans
Whitehill Welfare or Wigtown & Bladnoch v Threave Rovers
Inverurie Loco Works v Stranraer
Vale of Leithen v Keith
Selkirk v Irvine Meadow
Girvan v Clachnacuddin or Wick Academy
Lossiemouth v Albion Rovers
Edinburgh City v Burntisland Shipyard Amateur
Banks O Dee v Montrose
Huntly v Auchinleck Talbot
Civil Service Strollers v Berwick Rangers
Highland League Champions Cove Rangers take on Annan Athletic, the team to which they lost their bid for entry to the Third Division. Speaking of Third Division, Forfar Athletic and East Stirlingshire meet up in the rounds only all-Third Division fixture.
Former Highland League powerhouse Elgin City return to their roots with a visit to Nairn, while Banks O' Dee will hope to progress beyond the second-round when they take on Montrose. The Aberdeenshire Junior side lost out at this stage of the competition in a 5-1 defeat by Inverurie Locos.
Huntly, currently involved in an investigation into allogations of match fixing during their First-round game against Hawick Royal Albert, take on Auchinleck Talbot. Both Huntly and Auchinleck won their previous round of games by similar scorelines, 7-0.
The ties will be played on Saturday 24 October 2009.
The full draw is as follows:
Queen's Park v Livingston
Deveronvale v Buckie Thistle or Forres Mechanics
Forfar Athletic v East Stirlingshire
Cove Rangers v Annan Athletic
Nairn County v Elgin City
Fraserburgh or Bonnyrigg Rose v Spartans
Whitehill Welfare or Wigtown & Bladnoch v Threave Rovers
Inverurie Loco Works v Stranraer
Vale of Leithen v Keith
Selkirk v Irvine Meadow
Girvan v Clachnacuddin or Wick Academy
Lossiemouth v Albion Rovers
Edinburgh City v Burntisland Shipyard Amateur
Banks O Dee v Montrose
Huntly v Auchinleck Talbot
Civil Service Strollers v Berwick Rangers
East Stirlingshire v Livingston
A while ago Livingston, in the middle of their struggle to get out of administration and back into the First Division, looked up from the legal textbooks and the front row of the SFA Appeals Tribunal and found themselves still down in the Third, facing a season-opening fixture against East Stirlingshire.
Livi, incensed at the treatment it received from the SFL, where in no mood to play the game and refused to turn up at Ochilview, fearing that to play might strengthen the League's case for keeping them in the Third. With both Livi and the League sticking to their guns, it was obvious that no solution was forthcoming and so, less than 24 hours to go before kick-off, the SFL postponed the game.
On the 8th of August, while the rest of the league was huffing and puffing their way through their first fixtures of the season, both Livi and East Stirling had a day off.
But as Livi continued what would be an ultimately futile quest for reinstatement to the First Division, back in Falkirk, East Stirlingshire where fuming. The cancellation of the game, especially at such short notice had put them out of pocket and the club where determined to get their money back. The League, already busy figuring out ways of avoiding a fixture build-up chaos while Livi's appeal worked its way to a conclusion, suddenly received a compensation claim from East Stirlingshire.
On the 7th September, a three-man SFA panel finally rejected Livingston's appeal, confirming once and for all their relegation to the fourth tier in Scottish football. While Livi got on with adjusting to life in the Third, East Stirlingshire continued to demand some kind of compensation.
When the original fixture was re-arranged for this evening, East Stirlinghire, in a remarkable twist of events not to mention a healthy dollop of irony, refused to host their opponents while their claim for compensation was still on-going. The club was aggrieved that it was being forced to pay twice for the same fixture, and for a club like East Stirlingshire, that's quite a heavy financial burden.
And aside from the fact that the team was out of pocket, a re-arranged fixture in mid-week is all very well if you're a professional outfit like Livingston, but for the part-timers of The Shire, midweek competition brings additional challenges.
Meanwhile, the SFL where getting a bit prickly over the whole incident. Relieved no doubt to have averted the car-crash that would have resulted had Livi's appeal been accepted (remember the league was into its third game by the time the relegation was confirmed), the last thing they needed was another team demanding cash and refusing to play games.
The league did what it does best. Confirming the game would go ahead tonight, it flexed its muscle and threatened East Stirlingshire with a 15 point penalty if they refused to play the game. Despite having the support of his manager and players, club owner Spencer Fearn decided that perhaps the game ought to go ahead (under protest mind you), but he managed to extract a promise from the league to look into their case.
So tonight, Livingston have a chance to make it four wins our of four in the month of September and move within 1 point of league leaders Berwick. For East Stirlingshire Eddie Forrest, Derek Ure and Craig Anderson are all out injured, though David King, Jamie Stevenson and Simon Lynch should be back after the 1-1 draw with Stranraer at the weekend.
It's been well over 13 years since these two teams last met in the league. In season 1995/96 Livi came away with two wins and two draws. East Stirling recorded their only win over the team from the Almondvale last November, when goals from Eddie Forrest and Brian Graham cancelled out a Liam Fox opener to give The Shire a 2-1 win in the Third Round of the Scottish Cup.
Livi, incensed at the treatment it received from the SFL, where in no mood to play the game and refused to turn up at Ochilview, fearing that to play might strengthen the League's case for keeping them in the Third. With both Livi and the League sticking to their guns, it was obvious that no solution was forthcoming and so, less than 24 hours to go before kick-off, the SFL postponed the game.
On the 8th of August, while the rest of the league was huffing and puffing their way through their first fixtures of the season, both Livi and East Stirling had a day off.
But as Livi continued what would be an ultimately futile quest for reinstatement to the First Division, back in Falkirk, East Stirlingshire where fuming. The cancellation of the game, especially at such short notice had put them out of pocket and the club where determined to get their money back. The League, already busy figuring out ways of avoiding a fixture build-up chaos while Livi's appeal worked its way to a conclusion, suddenly received a compensation claim from East Stirlingshire.
On the 7th September, a three-man SFA panel finally rejected Livingston's appeal, confirming once and for all their relegation to the fourth tier in Scottish football. While Livi got on with adjusting to life in the Third, East Stirlingshire continued to demand some kind of compensation.
When the original fixture was re-arranged for this evening, East Stirlinghire, in a remarkable twist of events not to mention a healthy dollop of irony, refused to host their opponents while their claim for compensation was still on-going. The club was aggrieved that it was being forced to pay twice for the same fixture, and for a club like East Stirlingshire, that's quite a heavy financial burden.
And aside from the fact that the team was out of pocket, a re-arranged fixture in mid-week is all very well if you're a professional outfit like Livingston, but for the part-timers of The Shire, midweek competition brings additional challenges.
Meanwhile, the SFL where getting a bit prickly over the whole incident. Relieved no doubt to have averted the car-crash that would have resulted had Livi's appeal been accepted (remember the league was into its third game by the time the relegation was confirmed), the last thing they needed was another team demanding cash and refusing to play games.
The league did what it does best. Confirming the game would go ahead tonight, it flexed its muscle and threatened East Stirlingshire with a 15 point penalty if they refused to play the game. Despite having the support of his manager and players, club owner Spencer Fearn decided that perhaps the game ought to go ahead (under protest mind you), but he managed to extract a promise from the league to look into their case.
So tonight, Livingston have a chance to make it four wins our of four in the month of September and move within 1 point of league leaders Berwick. For East Stirlingshire Eddie Forrest, Derek Ure and Craig Anderson are all out injured, though David King, Jamie Stevenson and Simon Lynch should be back after the 1-1 draw with Stranraer at the weekend.
It's been well over 13 years since these two teams last met in the league. In season 1995/96 Livi came away with two wins and two draws. East Stirling recorded their only win over the team from the Almondvale last November, when goals from Eddie Forrest and Brian Graham cancelled out a Liam Fox opener to give The Shire a 2-1 win in the Third Round of the Scottish Cup.
28/09/2009
Scottish Football Video Highlights
Inside Left brings you 5 websites where you can watch Scottish Football League match highlights for free - and none of them involve needing to download a dodgy plug-in, Chinese commentary or a video screen the size of a matchbox.
We begin with 2nd division outfit Peterhead. At their website, you can see highlights of all their recent fixtures, including their very latest one, their 2-1 defeat at home to Dumbarton.
Interestingly enough, Dumbarton also make their games available online. For a wee taster, check out the very same game, this time seen through the yellow and black of the Sons.
Livingston have one of the snazziest web sites out there, and they too show highlights of their games via the site. At the time of writing they've not yet put last weekends 2-1 win over Queens Part on-line, but while you wait, why not enjoy the highlights of Livingston's 3-0 win over Stranraer.
East Stirlinghire have match highlights too. You'll need to register, but it's well worth the effort. For example, last weeks 1-1 draw with Stranraer is available once you're registered.
If you like your football rough 'n ready, why not check out Highland League outfit Buckie Thistle? It's not official, but you can get most of their games via YouTube.
If you know of any other sites that feature match highlights for free, leave a link in the comments and we'll post the links in our Links section, naturally enough ...
We begin with 2nd division outfit Peterhead. At their website, you can see highlights of all their recent fixtures, including their very latest one, their 2-1 defeat at home to Dumbarton.
Interestingly enough, Dumbarton also make their games available online. For a wee taster, check out the very same game, this time seen through the yellow and black of the Sons.
Livingston have one of the snazziest web sites out there, and they too show highlights of their games via the site. At the time of writing they've not yet put last weekends 2-1 win over Queens Part on-line, but while you wait, why not enjoy the highlights of Livingston's 3-0 win over Stranraer.
East Stirlinghire have match highlights too. You'll need to register, but it's well worth the effort. For example, last weeks 1-1 draw with Stranraer is available once you're registered.
If you like your football rough 'n ready, why not check out Highland League outfit Buckie Thistle? It's not official, but you can get most of their games via YouTube.
If you know of any other sites that feature match highlights for free, leave a link in the comments and we'll post the links in our Links section, naturally enough ...
Four to Follow Weekend Round-up
So there was Inside Left, sat down on Saturday afternoon in complete Aberdeen regalia to watch the fixture against Rangers on the computer.
There's no substitute for actually sitting in the stand of course, but geography and economics meant that we'd have to make do with a wee 40cmx40cm screen and a poor network connection. At times watching the footage coming from Ibrox was not too dissimilar from playing 80's computer game Manic Miner, i.e. very blocky and slow.
Mind you, given Aberdeen performances of late we thought it was probably better to see the horror unfolding in little blocky pixels rather than in full glorious Trounce-O-Vision.
In the end, Aberdeen did a lot better than we thought and hoped for and indeed could have won the game had McDonald put more pace on the header and McGregor not made a truly fantastic save. The opening 20 minutes was slightly scary but once Aberdeen survived the onslaught, the game opened up a lot more.
By no means the hard-tackling end-to-end viciousness that this game usually degenerates into, there wasn't much in the way of controversy, other than Lee McCulloch's assault on Paton which only got a yellow card.
Mark McGhee said afterwards he wasn't happy with the point, but he should be. These days coming away with anything from Glasgow is a blessing. Walter Smith will probably be the unhappier of the two managers, his side now drawing three games in a row, failing to score in any of them. And with Celtic now leading the table by a massive 5 points, the pressure is on next week when Rangers welcome Celtic to Ibrox in the first Old Firm steamie of the season.
In the top game in the First Division, we had Ross County and Dundee drawing valiantly, based on Dundee being on a high after beating Aberdeen in mid-week and Ross County's continuing good league form. As normal in these predictions, we where quite wrong of course. Two goals from Leigh Griffiths ensured a long sought-after victory for Jocky Scott. Ross County remain in second place, bumped off the top by Queen of the South who crushed Dunfermline 1-4.
Livingston made hard work of their 2-1 win over 10-man Queens Park. Barry Douglas put the Spiders ahead just after the half-hour, but goals from Liam Fox and former Dundee United and Aberdeen striker Robbie Winters won it for Livi.
In the last game on our Four to Follow coupon, we finally made some money. Auchinleck Talbot, the Real Madrid of the Juniors won 7-0 (as we predicted) against Fort William, the, well, Fort William of the Highland League. We've not seen the footage yet, but it was probably a total nightmare for the Lochaber outfit.
Just like every other Saturday then.
There's no substitute for actually sitting in the stand of course, but geography and economics meant that we'd have to make do with a wee 40cmx40cm screen and a poor network connection. At times watching the footage coming from Ibrox was not too dissimilar from playing 80's computer game Manic Miner, i.e. very blocky and slow.
Mind you, given Aberdeen performances of late we thought it was probably better to see the horror unfolding in little blocky pixels rather than in full glorious Trounce-O-Vision.
In the end, Aberdeen did a lot better than we thought and hoped for and indeed could have won the game had McDonald put more pace on the header and McGregor not made a truly fantastic save. The opening 20 minutes was slightly scary but once Aberdeen survived the onslaught, the game opened up a lot more.
By no means the hard-tackling end-to-end viciousness that this game usually degenerates into, there wasn't much in the way of controversy, other than Lee McCulloch's assault on Paton which only got a yellow card.
Mark McGhee said afterwards he wasn't happy with the point, but he should be. These days coming away with anything from Glasgow is a blessing. Walter Smith will probably be the unhappier of the two managers, his side now drawing three games in a row, failing to score in any of them. And with Celtic now leading the table by a massive 5 points, the pressure is on next week when Rangers welcome Celtic to Ibrox in the first Old Firm steamie of the season.
In the top game in the First Division, we had Ross County and Dundee drawing valiantly, based on Dundee being on a high after beating Aberdeen in mid-week and Ross County's continuing good league form. As normal in these predictions, we where quite wrong of course. Two goals from Leigh Griffiths ensured a long sought-after victory for Jocky Scott. Ross County remain in second place, bumped off the top by Queen of the South who crushed Dunfermline 1-4.
Livingston made hard work of their 2-1 win over 10-man Queens Park. Barry Douglas put the Spiders ahead just after the half-hour, but goals from Liam Fox and former Dundee United and Aberdeen striker Robbie Winters won it for Livi.
In the last game on our Four to Follow coupon, we finally made some money. Auchinleck Talbot, the Real Madrid of the Juniors won 7-0 (as we predicted) against Fort William, the, well, Fort William of the Highland League. We've not seen the footage yet, but it was probably a total nightmare for the Lochaber outfit.
Just like every other Saturday then.
25/09/2009
25.09// Weekend SPL Fixture Preview
We hope you all enjoyed your mid-week Cup adventures. We know we certainly did. Within minutes of the final whistle going at Dens Park, Inside Left was on the Internet looking up pictures of turds for our feature article.
And let me tell you, searching for images of turds, shit, poop and excrement throws up some interesting, if slightly disturbing images of the sort of thing people with too much spare time and an uninhibited imagination get up to. All we'll say is we will never look at a '99 in the same way again.
Anyway, on with the games.
St Johnstone's games against either side of the Dundee divide is technically not a 'derby' (there's 22 miles between Perth and Dundee), the clubs are close enough to make this kind of fixture interesting. St Johnstone would probably consider games against Dundee a bigger deal, but given that high spending Dundee are still in the First division and St Johnstone are not, fans of the Saints can now vent their passion on Dundee United, a.k.a, the tangerine half of the City of Discovery (where the grass is green and the girls are pretty).
It has been more than 7 years since these two sides faced each other in the league, back in season 2001/02 when The Terrors won 3 out of the 4 meetings (the fourth was a 0-0 draw); we have to go back 9 years for the last time The Saints won against United, a 1-0 win in November of 2000, with Keigan Parker getting the winner. United started out the season quite well, only losing their first game of the league last week against Motherwell. Progression in the League Cup is going well too, so plenty for Craig Levein to be happy about. St Johnstone are hanging in there, second from bottom. They've yet to win a game this season: heavy defeats to Celtic and Hibs aside, they've drawn against St Mirren, Hearts and Motherwell. Against United we'd expect them not to pick up points, but they'll be looking to build on the impressive 3-1 win at Easter Road in the Cup on Tuesday.
We said that St Johnstone haven't beaten United in the league since 2002, but the team from Perth are on record as the winners in the last fixture between the sides round about this time 3 years ago. Then, a team managed by Owen Coyle won 3-0 to knock Dundee United out of the League Cup. And guess which team United have been drawn against in the Quarter Finals of this years League Cup ...
Motherwell v Hibs could also be tasty. The teams in 4th and 3rd place respectively in the league emerged from the mid-week Cup fixtures with mixed fortunes. Motherwell progressed at the expense of Inverness, while Hibs crashed out 3-0 to St Johnstone only four days after beating them 3-1 in the league. Inconsistency for Hibs, while two soft goals conceded against Inverness Caley means that we can expect a few goals here.
So, what else? St Mirren against Celtic should be a maximum 3 points in the bag for Tony Mowbray and his the boys in luminous green and yellow. Although we're not expecting a repeat of the 7-0 drubbing the Buddies got earlier this year, Celtic are in scoring form, given their recent 4-0 trashing of Falkirk on Wednesday.
Hearts did well to come back from a goal down against Dunfermline in mid-week, even though David Obua was accused of going down more easily than an Amsterdam hoor. Their season so far has coughed and spluttered along a bit. The sort of distractions that where kept at bay last year and which saw them finish third have returned to some degree, perhaps affecting their performances to date. We don't think they'll have too much trouble against tomorrow's opponents, Hamilton Accies who where perhaps unlucky to come away with a point against Falkirk last week, Carl Finnigan's disallowed goal was perfectly alright from what we could see. But hey, that's football for ye.
So that leaves Falkirk playing Kilmarnock in the penultimate game of the day. Falkirk where stuffed 4-0 by Celtic in the mid-week Cup cavalcade, while Kilmarnock are probably still seething from that last minute Cup exit in mid-week against St Mirren.
To save some time, allow me to copy & paste the following text from any review we write which involves Falkirk. Here it comes: Falkirk played quite well in the game against [insert team here] but where unlucky to come away with a point/a narrow defeat [delete where applicable].
Given their financial woes, it's always a relief to see the Killie team bus appearing in the car park on a match day. Of all the teams reputed to be in trouble, Killie are apparently in the most precarious situation, yet Jim Jefferies ploughs on ahead regardless. Compared to Falkirk, Kilmarnock at least have a win to their name, but that was against Hamilton on the opening day of the season. Since them it's been downhill all the way, with defeats to mid-table peers Motherwell and St Mirren, as well as Hearts. A bad-tempered nil-nil draw against champions Rangers was a welcome point, but as Jefferies faces one of his former teams, the pressure is certainly on to get a result. A win for Falkirk could see them leap-from Killie up the league table.
Right, that's it. Remember, we don't do predictions anymore, so if you want a real expert (sic) to guide you here's Billie Dodds!
And let me tell you, searching for images of turds, shit, poop and excrement throws up some interesting, if slightly disturbing images of the sort of thing people with too much spare time and an uninhibited imagination get up to. All we'll say is we will never look at a '99 in the same way again.
Anyway, on with the games.
St Johnstone's games against either side of the Dundee divide is technically not a 'derby' (there's 22 miles between Perth and Dundee), the clubs are close enough to make this kind of fixture interesting. St Johnstone would probably consider games against Dundee a bigger deal, but given that high spending Dundee are still in the First division and St Johnstone are not, fans of the Saints can now vent their passion on Dundee United, a.k.a, the tangerine half of the City of Discovery (where the grass is green and the girls are pretty).
It has been more than 7 years since these two sides faced each other in the league, back in season 2001/02 when The Terrors won 3 out of the 4 meetings (the fourth was a 0-0 draw); we have to go back 9 years for the last time The Saints won against United, a 1-0 win in November of 2000, with Keigan Parker getting the winner. United started out the season quite well, only losing their first game of the league last week against Motherwell. Progression in the League Cup is going well too, so plenty for Craig Levein to be happy about. St Johnstone are hanging in there, second from bottom. They've yet to win a game this season: heavy defeats to Celtic and Hibs aside, they've drawn against St Mirren, Hearts and Motherwell. Against United we'd expect them not to pick up points, but they'll be looking to build on the impressive 3-1 win at Easter Road in the Cup on Tuesday.
We said that St Johnstone haven't beaten United in the league since 2002, but the team from Perth are on record as the winners in the last fixture between the sides round about this time 3 years ago. Then, a team managed by Owen Coyle won 3-0 to knock Dundee United out of the League Cup. And guess which team United have been drawn against in the Quarter Finals of this years League Cup ...
Motherwell v Hibs could also be tasty. The teams in 4th and 3rd place respectively in the league emerged from the mid-week Cup fixtures with mixed fortunes. Motherwell progressed at the expense of Inverness, while Hibs crashed out 3-0 to St Johnstone only four days after beating them 3-1 in the league. Inconsistency for Hibs, while two soft goals conceded against Inverness Caley means that we can expect a few goals here.
So, what else? St Mirren against Celtic should be a maximum 3 points in the bag for Tony Mowbray and his the boys in luminous green and yellow. Although we're not expecting a repeat of the 7-0 drubbing the Buddies got earlier this year, Celtic are in scoring form, given their recent 4-0 trashing of Falkirk on Wednesday.
Hearts did well to come back from a goal down against Dunfermline in mid-week, even though David Obua was accused of going down more easily than an Amsterdam hoor. Their season so far has coughed and spluttered along a bit. The sort of distractions that where kept at bay last year and which saw them finish third have returned to some degree, perhaps affecting their performances to date. We don't think they'll have too much trouble against tomorrow's opponents, Hamilton Accies who where perhaps unlucky to come away with a point against Falkirk last week, Carl Finnigan's disallowed goal was perfectly alright from what we could see. But hey, that's football for ye.
So that leaves Falkirk playing Kilmarnock in the penultimate game of the day. Falkirk where stuffed 4-0 by Celtic in the mid-week Cup cavalcade, while Kilmarnock are probably still seething from that last minute Cup exit in mid-week against St Mirren.
To save some time, allow me to copy & paste the following text from any review we write which involves Falkirk. Here it comes: Falkirk played quite well in the game against [insert team here] but where unlucky to come away with a point/a narrow defeat [delete where applicable].
Given their financial woes, it's always a relief to see the Killie team bus appearing in the car park on a match day. Of all the teams reputed to be in trouble, Killie are apparently in the most precarious situation, yet Jim Jefferies ploughs on ahead regardless. Compared to Falkirk, Kilmarnock at least have a win to their name, but that was against Hamilton on the opening day of the season. Since them it's been downhill all the way, with defeats to mid-table peers Motherwell and St Mirren, as well as Hearts. A bad-tempered nil-nil draw against champions Rangers was a welcome point, but as Jefferies faces one of his former teams, the pressure is certainly on to get a result. A win for Falkirk could see them leap-from Killie up the league table.
Right, that's it. Remember, we don't do predictions anymore, so if you want a real expert (sic) to guide you here's Billie Dodds!
23/09/2009
The Wednesday Ballbag - CIS Cup Linkage (Part 2)
Well, well. Another thrilling Third round of the CIS Insurance Cup nears its climax, with the remaining three games in this round taking place this evening. So last night's fixtures turned out to be quite tasty. Extra-time, late goals, upsets and controversy.
Aye, t'was pretty good.
Especially if you're a fan of the First division's richest club, Dundee. For the Aberdeen fans amongst you, well, cheer up, there's always the Scottish Cup right? We'll away and win that nae bother.
If you're a Hibee you're not going to be too happy, given that you'd only beaten St Johnstone four days ago. Just tell yourself it's only a diddy cup, it's only a diddy cup. There. Feel better? Lets move on.
Can you imagine Jim Jefferies' wee red face going even redder when St Mirren's Andy Dorman scored the winner in the last minute of the game to put his side Kilmarnock out of the competion? That's the second time this season that Killie lost to the Buddies, and by the same scoreline as well! Some people never learn eh?
Dundee United had probably the easiest night of the lot, winning 2-0 up in Dingwall against Ross County who can now enjoy the rest of the competion from the warmth of their front room, together with Inverness Caley, who lost 3-2 to Motherwell in extra-time.
So, onto tonights games. No real exciting fixtures here, other than perhaps the 2008 Scottish Cup Final replay between Queen of the South and Rangers. Rangers won 3-2 that time, making hard work of it, but really, you can't see anything other than a win for Rangers here. Gersnet have a nice preview, but if you prefer big print and pictures, there's always the Daily Record to inform and inflame.
The game between Falkirk and Celtic will probably worry Celtic more than it does Falkirk. With Tony Mowbray and his Bhoys sitting proudly atop the SPL, the last thing they're needing is a midweek cup competition where your players might end up getting crocked or worse, lose. Oh the embarassment if that where to happen. Can you imagine the pure red rage that will descend on poor Rapid Vienna where that to happen. As for Jackie McNamara who faces yet another of his former clubs, he reckons it's gonna be a right belter thenight. Let's hope so eh?
Hearts take on the third of the lower leage sides, Dunfermline this evening. Dunfermline's Nick Phinn reckons they'll give the Jambos a good run for their money, though given his side have lost their last three games it's hard to see quite how that prediction is formulated, other than perhaps the law of averages - you know, the one that says "we're going to win at some point, maybe tonight, no?". Ehm, no.
As always, the Daily Record is on hand with their insights, but if you cant stand the flashing text or the pictures of naked ladies (especially if you're at work), there's always the sedate respectability of ESPN.
Aye, t'was pretty good.
Especially if you're a fan of the First division's richest club, Dundee. For the Aberdeen fans amongst you, well, cheer up, there's always the Scottish Cup right? We'll away and win that nae bother.
If you're a Hibee you're not going to be too happy, given that you'd only beaten St Johnstone four days ago. Just tell yourself it's only a diddy cup, it's only a diddy cup. There. Feel better? Lets move on.
Can you imagine Jim Jefferies' wee red face going even redder when St Mirren's Andy Dorman scored the winner in the last minute of the game to put his side Kilmarnock out of the competion? That's the second time this season that Killie lost to the Buddies, and by the same scoreline as well! Some people never learn eh?
Dundee United had probably the easiest night of the lot, winning 2-0 up in Dingwall against Ross County who can now enjoy the rest of the competion from the warmth of their front room, together with Inverness Caley, who lost 3-2 to Motherwell in extra-time.
So, onto tonights games. No real exciting fixtures here, other than perhaps the 2008 Scottish Cup Final replay between Queen of the South and Rangers. Rangers won 3-2 that time, making hard work of it, but really, you can't see anything other than a win for Rangers here. Gersnet have a nice preview, but if you prefer big print and pictures, there's always the Daily Record to inform and inflame.
The game between Falkirk and Celtic will probably worry Celtic more than it does Falkirk. With Tony Mowbray and his Bhoys sitting proudly atop the SPL, the last thing they're needing is a midweek cup competition where your players might end up getting crocked or worse, lose. Oh the embarassment if that where to happen. Can you imagine the pure red rage that will descend on poor Rapid Vienna where that to happen. As for Jackie McNamara who faces yet another of his former clubs, he reckons it's gonna be a right belter thenight. Let's hope so eh?
Hearts take on the third of the lower leage sides, Dunfermline this evening. Dunfermline's Nick Phinn reckons they'll give the Jambos a good run for their money, though given his side have lost their last three games it's hard to see quite how that prediction is formulated, other than perhaps the law of averages - you know, the one that says "we're going to win at some point, maybe tonight, no?". Ehm, no.
As always, the Daily Record is on hand with their insights, but if you cant stand the flashing text or the pictures of naked ladies (especially if you're at work), there's always the sedate respectability of ESPN.
Blowing Trumpets
InsideLeft's day was made yesterday afternoon when we heard from those nice people at the Telegraph that we'd made the Telegraph List of Top 25 Football Websites.
Scottish football websites are a tiny wee part of the football Internet diaspora, so it's nice to be recognized for what it is we're trying to do, namely to tell the world about the Scottish game. These days writing about Scottish football has been the literary equivalent of having your prostate gland examined by a clumsy first year medical student - embarrassing and a total pain in the arse - but still, we struggle on, determined to get our message across.
Inside Left likes to see itself as a plucky Falkirk, writing silky articles that entertain without ever threatening the big boys. Like Aberdeen, we have limited funds but big dreams. All we need now are the willing volunteers to move us into the top half of the table.
What we really want to be is a Celtic or a Rangers, dominating completely all others in our wee corner of the web, but that wont happen without more people coming through the virtual turnstiles, telling us what you think of our rantings, suggesting topics for discussion or even making your own article contributions.
The Internet has given us all a chance to step out from behind the curtain of anonymity and enjoy our moment on this e-stage for however long it lasts until the fickle audience moves on down the information superhighway to the next stage and the next whining chunwit.
Blogging is narcissism at its most public, and some are better at it than others. We're not saying this site is any better (and God knows there are other excellent Scottish football websites out there) but we hope to make it at least entertaining. And even though no one may ever visit here, it doesn’t matter and we don’t really care.
The narcissist after all needs no audience, just a mirror.
Scottish football websites are a tiny wee part of the football Internet diaspora, so it's nice to be recognized for what it is we're trying to do, namely to tell the world about the Scottish game. These days writing about Scottish football has been the literary equivalent of having your prostate gland examined by a clumsy first year medical student - embarrassing and a total pain in the arse - but still, we struggle on, determined to get our message across.
Inside Left likes to see itself as a plucky Falkirk, writing silky articles that entertain without ever threatening the big boys. Like Aberdeen, we have limited funds but big dreams. All we need now are the willing volunteers to move us into the top half of the table.
What we really want to be is a Celtic or a Rangers, dominating completely all others in our wee corner of the web, but that wont happen without more people coming through the virtual turnstiles, telling us what you think of our rantings, suggesting topics for discussion or even making your own article contributions.
The Internet has given us all a chance to step out from behind the curtain of anonymity and enjoy our moment on this e-stage for however long it lasts until the fickle audience moves on down the information superhighway to the next stage and the next whining chunwit.
Blogging is narcissism at its most public, and some are better at it than others. We're not saying this site is any better (and God knows there are other excellent Scottish football websites out there) but we hope to make it at least entertaining. And even though no one may ever visit here, it doesn’t matter and we don’t really care.
The narcissist after all needs no audience, just a mirror.
22/09/2009
The Tuesday Ballbag - CIS Cup Linkage
Some links for you to click on while you contemplate the latest name change to befall the world's second oldest Cup competition. How much money would it take to just have the fecking thing called "The Scottish Cup"?
Aberdeen go into tonight's game with First division Dundee hoping to avoid recent banana skin Cup episodes at Queen of the South and Queens Park (Evening Express)
McGhee gets the excuses in early - beating Dundee is more important than beating Rangers apparently. I suppose he has a point, after all, you might beat Dundee whereas based on recent performances, you'll not beat Rangers. Expectations set? Check! (Press and Journal)
Dundee gaffer Jocky Scott meanwhile has other ideas. As an Aberdonian and former assistant manager at Pittodrie, he's not letting sentimentality get in the way of a damn good thrashing (Evening Express). Thankfully someone else has done a preview for this game (ESPN) and the BBC has the latest team news (BBC)
Ross County's Derek Adams is all geared up for some giant killing (The Scotsman) though he does acknowledge United are possibly quite good (Press and Journal).
The lads at ESPN have reviewed this one too (ESPN) and for team news, check out the (BBC).
Butchers warns his team to raise game or be, ehm, butchered, hohoho, by Motherwell (Press and Journal). ESPN make the life of the lazy football blogger so much easier with another excellent review (ESPN)
Careful: Killie gaffer Jim Jefferies wants revenge (Press and Journal) while ESPN do another review (ESPN)
Bamba wants to take Hibs to the final (The Scotsman) and St Johnstone make some changes to avoid another panelling like the one handed them by Hibs last Sunday (St Johnstone). As ever, ESPN have all the details (ESPN).
Last, but by no means least (honestly), Berwick can go top of the league if they can beat Stranraer (BBC)
Dundee v Aberdeen
Aberdeen go into tonight's game with First division Dundee hoping to avoid recent banana skin Cup episodes at Queen of the South and Queens Park (Evening Express)
McGhee gets the excuses in early - beating Dundee is more important than beating Rangers apparently. I suppose he has a point, after all, you might beat Dundee whereas based on recent performances, you'll not beat Rangers. Expectations set? Check! (Press and Journal)
Dundee gaffer Jocky Scott meanwhile has other ideas. As an Aberdonian and former assistant manager at Pittodrie, he's not letting sentimentality get in the way of a damn good thrashing (Evening Express). Thankfully someone else has done a preview for this game (ESPN) and the BBC has the latest team news (BBC)
Ross County v Dundee United
Ross County's Derek Adams is all geared up for some giant killing (The Scotsman) though he does acknowledge United are possibly quite good (Press and Journal).
The lads at ESPN have reviewed this one too (ESPN) and for team news, check out the (BBC).
Motherwell v Inverness Caley
Butchers warns his team to raise game or be, ehm, butchered, hohoho, by Motherwell (Press and Journal). ESPN make the life of the lazy football blogger so much easier with another excellent review (ESPN)
Kilmarnock v St Mirren
Careful: Killie gaffer Jim Jefferies wants revenge (Press and Journal) while ESPN do another review (ESPN)
Hibernian v St Johnstone
Bamba wants to take Hibs to the final (The Scotsman) and St Johnstone make some changes to avoid another panelling like the one handed them by Hibs last Sunday (St Johnstone). As ever, ESPN have all the details (ESPN).
Berwick Rangers v Stranraer
Last, but by no means least (honestly), Berwick can go top of the league if they can beat Stranraer (BBC)
21/09/2009
The Week in Scottish Football
It's quite a busy week for clubs across the country as the Third round of the Scottish League Cup takes place.
Before all that though, there's some league business to take care of. Berwick will play their game against Stranraer this Tuesday. The game had been called off following a lorry fire on the M8 last week that also scuppered the Hearts v Kilmarnock game the same day. Berwick are currently second in the Third division - a win for the Wee Rangers would see them overtake Forfar at the top of the league.
Also on Tuesday we have the first group of games in the Third round of the Scottish League Cup, otherwise known as the Co-operative Insurance Cup. With most of the lower division sides already eliminated, it's down to Dundee, Inverness, Ross County and Queen of the South to fly the flag for the SFL.
Dundee take on Aberdeen at Dens Park in a fixture that will see Dee's manager Jocky Scott face one of his old teams. Neither Dundee nor Aberdeen have been playing well this season so far, with disappointing starts to their respective seasons. Dundee have won the competition three times, the last time in 1974. Aberdeen last won the Cup in 1996, their 5th win in this competition.
Kilmarnock and St Mirren, two sides who have never won this competition but who have both been losing finalists meet for the second time this season. Killie manager Jim Jefferies will be hoping for a better outcome in this game- when the two sides met in the league at the end of August, two goals from Stephen McGinn earned the Buddies all three points.
Hibernian - winners in 2007 - and St Johnstone meet again for the second time in four days. The Hibees beat the Saints in the league on Saturday with goals from Derek Riordan and two from Anthony Stokes.
In the remaining games, Motherwell host Inverness Caley. It'll be a return to one of his former clubs for Caley manager Terry Butcher. Caley have never beaten Motherwell in the League Cup although they've only played each other twice in the competition: in 1999, Motherwell won 1-0, and in 1997, Motherwell came out 4-1 on penalties after the game finished 2-2 in normal time.
Dundee United travel north to Dingwall hoping to continue their good record against Ross County, aka "The Staggies". United have won the last two encounters between the sides (incidentally also in this competition). Ross County won the first game back in August 1998 - they came out 2-0 winners up in Dingwall.
On Wednesday, both halves of the Old Firm are in action. Falkirk are the lucky team to face Celtic, while a repeat of the 2008 Scottish Cup final sees Queen of the South play Rangers. Hearts, whose season has been well below par take on The Pars, Dunfermline.
Scottish Third Division
Berwick Rangers v Stranraer
Co-operative Insurance Cup
Dundee v Aberdeen (Tue)
Motherwell v Inverness Caley (Tue)
Kilmarnock v St Mirren (Tue)
Hibernian v St Johnstone (Tue)
Falkirk v Celtic (Wed)
Hearts v Dunfermline(Wed)
Queen of South v Rangers (Wed)
Before all that though, there's some league business to take care of. Berwick will play their game against Stranraer this Tuesday. The game had been called off following a lorry fire on the M8 last week that also scuppered the Hearts v Kilmarnock game the same day. Berwick are currently second in the Third division - a win for the Wee Rangers would see them overtake Forfar at the top of the league.
Also on Tuesday we have the first group of games in the Third round of the Scottish League Cup, otherwise known as the Co-operative Insurance Cup. With most of the lower division sides already eliminated, it's down to Dundee, Inverness, Ross County and Queen of the South to fly the flag for the SFL.
Dundee take on Aberdeen at Dens Park in a fixture that will see Dee's manager Jocky Scott face one of his old teams. Neither Dundee nor Aberdeen have been playing well this season so far, with disappointing starts to their respective seasons. Dundee have won the competition three times, the last time in 1974. Aberdeen last won the Cup in 1996, their 5th win in this competition.
Kilmarnock and St Mirren, two sides who have never won this competition but who have both been losing finalists meet for the second time this season. Killie manager Jim Jefferies will be hoping for a better outcome in this game- when the two sides met in the league at the end of August, two goals from Stephen McGinn earned the Buddies all three points.
Hibernian - winners in 2007 - and St Johnstone meet again for the second time in four days. The Hibees beat the Saints in the league on Saturday with goals from Derek Riordan and two from Anthony Stokes.
In the remaining games, Motherwell host Inverness Caley. It'll be a return to one of his former clubs for Caley manager Terry Butcher. Caley have never beaten Motherwell in the League Cup although they've only played each other twice in the competition: in 1999, Motherwell won 1-0, and in 1997, Motherwell came out 4-1 on penalties after the game finished 2-2 in normal time.
Dundee United travel north to Dingwall hoping to continue their good record against Ross County, aka "The Staggies". United have won the last two encounters between the sides (incidentally also in this competition). Ross County won the first game back in August 1998 - they came out 2-0 winners up in Dingwall.
On Wednesday, both halves of the Old Firm are in action. Falkirk are the lucky team to face Celtic, while a repeat of the 2008 Scottish Cup final sees Queen of the South play Rangers. Hearts, whose season has been well below par take on The Pars, Dunfermline.
Full fixture list
Scottish Third Division
Berwick Rangers v Stranraer
Co-operative Insurance Cup
Dundee v Aberdeen (Tue)
Motherwell v Inverness Caley (Tue)
Kilmarnock v St Mirren (Tue)
Hibernian v St Johnstone (Tue)
Falkirk v Celtic (Wed)
Hearts v Dunfermline(Wed)
Queen of South v Rangers (Wed)
Three is the magic number
Three is the magic number this week in Scottish football. No less than 8 of the games played over the weekend resulted in a three goals being scored, and in only one game, at Elgin, did the opposition score: Berwick got on the score sheet - you guessed it - three times to record a thrilling 3-3 draw.
Those scores in full:
Hibernian 3-0 St Johnstone (SPL)
Raith 3-0 Morton (Division 1)
Dumbarton 0-3 Cowdenbeath (Division 2)
Stirling 3-0 East Fife (Division 2)
Elgin 3-3 Berwick (Division 3)
Montrose 0-3 East Stirling (Division 3)
Stranraer 0-3 Livingston (Division 3)
Brora 0-3 Clachnacuddin (Highland League)
Those scores in full:
Hibernian 3-0 St Johnstone (SPL)
Raith 3-0 Morton (Division 1)
Dumbarton 0-3 Cowdenbeath (Division 2)
Stirling 3-0 East Fife (Division 2)
Elgin 3-3 Berwick (Division 3)
Montrose 0-3 East Stirling (Division 3)
Stranraer 0-3 Livingston (Division 3)
Brora 0-3 Clachnacuddin (Highland League)
14/09/2009
Preview: Falkirk v Aberdeen
About a year ago - give or take a month - these two sides met for the first time in the League.
Back in October 2008, both Aberdeen and Falkirk had gotten off to a poor start, winning two games each and unable to string enough results together to get themselves out of the bottom half of the table. Indeed, going into this game on the 18th of Octber, the calls for Jimmy Calderwood's head after a run of four defeats had already started, with Aberdeen rooted firmly at the bottom of the table. Falkirk where immediately above them on goal difference. Like the Dons, Falkirk's season did not start particularly well either, with four defeats in a row until wins over Hearts and Hamilton got their first points on the board.
It's interesting then to see that these two sides should meet again under almost similar circumstances. Both are finding their new season as much of a struggle now as they did back then. Aberdeen have recorded only 1 win so far this season (against Hamilton) while Falkirk have yet to put a single point on the board.
Both sides are under new management, and both managers are under pressure to begin delivering results. With only 4 points from 3 games so far, Mark McGhee knows that the sort of form his side is showing needs to be turned around quickly to win back critical and increasingly vocal sections of the Aberdeen support.
The Aberdeen gaffer, who 25 years ago today scored twice against Icelandic outfit Akranes as Aberdeen opened their defence of the Cup Winners Cup, also knows that the fans expect more from the team, especially as this is pretty much the same side that finished fourth last season under Jimmy Calderwood.
Despite the fact that Falkirk are already being touted as potentially relegation candidates along with another struggling side, Hamilton Accies (who lost 3-0 to Aberdeen two weeks ago), for Eddie May and Falkirk, the signs of improvement are beginning to show themselves.
Defeat against Rangers is pretty much a given these days, and Hibs are always a tricky side, but in all those games, and especially in the 2-1 defeat at Dundee United in the last SPL game played before the World Cup qualifiers, the Bairns enjoyed some good spells; it's obvious that there's a lot of potential at Falkirk.
Aberdeen will want to put the disappointment of their last league game against Motherwell behind them - a game in which they had no shots on goal - and get their season back on track with a convincing win. Falkirk will be wanting to move away from the bottom spot in front of their home crowd and get their season off to a start.
Falkirk (from): Olejnik, Barr, Scobbie, Twaddle, McLean, Lima, McNamara, O'Brien, Arfield, Flynn, Finnbogason, Finnigan, MacDonald, Mitchell, Marceta,Lynch, Allison, Wagenaar.
Aberdeen (from): Langfield, Foster, Ifil, Considine, Mulgrew, Kerr, Crawford, McDonald, Pawlett, Duff, Fyvie, Aluko, Miller, Mackie, Maguire, Nelson, Young,Paton, Megginson, Hansson, Grassi.
Back in October 2008, both Aberdeen and Falkirk had gotten off to a poor start, winning two games each and unable to string enough results together to get themselves out of the bottom half of the table. Indeed, going into this game on the 18th of Octber, the calls for Jimmy Calderwood's head after a run of four defeats had already started, with Aberdeen rooted firmly at the bottom of the table. Falkirk where immediately above them on goal difference. Like the Dons, Falkirk's season did not start particularly well either, with four defeats in a row until wins over Hearts and Hamilton got their first points on the board.
It's interesting then to see that these two sides should meet again under almost similar circumstances. Both are finding their new season as much of a struggle now as they did back then. Aberdeen have recorded only 1 win so far this season (against Hamilton) while Falkirk have yet to put a single point on the board.
Both sides are under new management, and both managers are under pressure to begin delivering results. With only 4 points from 3 games so far, Mark McGhee knows that the sort of form his side is showing needs to be turned around quickly to win back critical and increasingly vocal sections of the Aberdeen support.
The Aberdeen gaffer, who 25 years ago today scored twice against Icelandic outfit Akranes as Aberdeen opened their defence of the Cup Winners Cup, also knows that the fans expect more from the team, especially as this is pretty much the same side that finished fourth last season under Jimmy Calderwood.
Despite the fact that Falkirk are already being touted as potentially relegation candidates along with another struggling side, Hamilton Accies (who lost 3-0 to Aberdeen two weeks ago), for Eddie May and Falkirk, the signs of improvement are beginning to show themselves.
Defeat against Rangers is pretty much a given these days, and Hibs are always a tricky side, but in all those games, and especially in the 2-1 defeat at Dundee United in the last SPL game played before the World Cup qualifiers, the Bairns enjoyed some good spells; it's obvious that there's a lot of potential at Falkirk.
Aberdeen will want to put the disappointment of their last league game against Motherwell behind them - a game in which they had no shots on goal - and get their season back on track with a convincing win. Falkirk will be wanting to move away from the bottom spot in front of their home crowd and get their season off to a start.
Falkirk (from): Olejnik, Barr, Scobbie, Twaddle, McLean, Lima, McNamara, O'Brien, Arfield, Flynn, Finnbogason, Finnigan, MacDonald, Mitchell, Marceta,Lynch, Allison, Wagenaar.
Aberdeen (from): Langfield, Foster, Ifil, Considine, Mulgrew, Kerr, Crawford, McDonald, Pawlett, Duff, Fyvie, Aluko, Miller, Mackie, Maguire, Nelson, Young,Paton, Megginson, Hansson, Grassi.
08/09/2009
Livingston lose appeal
Unless the club decide to take their case to a higher authority, it looks as if Livingston FC will have to accept their fate and resign themselves to live in the lowest tier of senior football in Scotland.
An SFA appeals panel, chaired by Lord McLean, upheld an earlier decision by the Scottish Football League management committee to relegate the West Lothian club for breach of league rules over insolvency, having been forced into administration after previous owner Angelo Massone had accumulated debts over over £1m. While the club are free to take their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, victory there seems unlikely.
Despite all the public mud-slinging we spoke about yesterday (link), the facts remain the same: Livi where bankrupt and in breach of league rules. Livingston must now give up pursuing lost causes and concentrate on getting themselves our of the Third Division.
Where I do have sympathy for Livingston - and for that matter any club relegated after getting into financial difficulties - is that the punishment does not fit the crime. I've never understood how relegating a club and depriving them of the sources of revenue (gate receipts, sponsorship, TV-rights etc.) is a sensible way of dealing with clubs who are in financial trouble.
Relegation does two things: firstly, it penalises the fans, who now have to trudge along to less attractive fixtures, which in turn results in lower attendance and lower gate receipts; and secondly, it penalises the club, who end up paying higher division wages to players playing in an league where income is restricted already.
Both of these penalties place more strain on the very source of a club's problems: finances.
A better solution - and one suggested in the case of Livingston, but rejected by the SFL - is a points penalty, which would allow the club to continue to play in the same league while efforts are made to stabilize or sell the club to new owners. An added benefit of keeping a team in the league is that it would prevent the disruption we saw with Livingston's demotion (and Gretna's the year before).
The main drawback of keeping a club in the same division is that it can take time to lead the club out of difficulty while a solution is found to the club's predicament. It's possible therefore that after weeks and months of trying, the administrator decides that the club cannot be saved.
Putting a club into administration is not a sporting issue of course, but a legal one, one designed to ensure that creditors are paid, while at the same time keeping the core business in existence. Only in cases where this was not possible, as for example with Gretna, will the club be wound up. When that happens, for example, 3 months into the season, the chaos it would cause is immense.
Clearly, how to deal with clubs in administration is not an easy problem to solve. Obviously, not letting clubs spend beyond their means (e.g. Dundee a few years back, Gretna not to long ago) is one possible solution, but the SFA or the SPL has no direct say in how a club, which is essentially a business like any other, is run at Board level - the football authorities can only act after the event, and even then their only available course of action is to penalise the clubs even further.
Solving the question of Scottish football's finances is a debate that will rumble on for many years, by which time several more clubs may well have gone out of business. Losing a club is not only devastating for the fans of the club, but also for the communities that the clubs take an active part in.
Something needs to be done, but relegating a club and placing it into even more difficulty is not the answer.
An SFA appeals panel, chaired by Lord McLean, upheld an earlier decision by the Scottish Football League management committee to relegate the West Lothian club for breach of league rules over insolvency, having been forced into administration after previous owner Angelo Massone had accumulated debts over over £1m. While the club are free to take their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, victory there seems unlikely.
Despite all the public mud-slinging we spoke about yesterday (link), the facts remain the same: Livi where bankrupt and in breach of league rules. Livingston must now give up pursuing lost causes and concentrate on getting themselves our of the Third Division.
Where I do have sympathy for Livingston - and for that matter any club relegated after getting into financial difficulties - is that the punishment does not fit the crime. I've never understood how relegating a club and depriving them of the sources of revenue (gate receipts, sponsorship, TV-rights etc.) is a sensible way of dealing with clubs who are in financial trouble.
Relegation does two things: firstly, it penalises the fans, who now have to trudge along to less attractive fixtures, which in turn results in lower attendance and lower gate receipts; and secondly, it penalises the club, who end up paying higher division wages to players playing in an league where income is restricted already.
Both of these penalties place more strain on the very source of a club's problems: finances.
A better solution - and one suggested in the case of Livingston, but rejected by the SFL - is a points penalty, which would allow the club to continue to play in the same league while efforts are made to stabilize or sell the club to new owners. An added benefit of keeping a team in the league is that it would prevent the disruption we saw with Livingston's demotion (and Gretna's the year before).
The main drawback of keeping a club in the same division is that it can take time to lead the club out of difficulty while a solution is found to the club's predicament. It's possible therefore that after weeks and months of trying, the administrator decides that the club cannot be saved.
Putting a club into administration is not a sporting issue of course, but a legal one, one designed to ensure that creditors are paid, while at the same time keeping the core business in existence. Only in cases where this was not possible, as for example with Gretna, will the club be wound up. When that happens, for example, 3 months into the season, the chaos it would cause is immense.
Clearly, how to deal with clubs in administration is not an easy problem to solve. Obviously, not letting clubs spend beyond their means (e.g. Dundee a few years back, Gretna not to long ago) is one possible solution, but the SFA or the SPL has no direct say in how a club, which is essentially a business like any other, is run at Board level - the football authorities can only act after the event, and even then their only available course of action is to penalise the clubs even further.
Solving the question of Scottish football's finances is a debate that will rumble on for many years, by which time several more clubs may well have gone out of business. Losing a club is not only devastating for the fans of the club, but also for the communities that the clubs take an active part in.
Something needs to be done, but relegating a club and placing it into even more difficulty is not the answer.
04/09/2009
2009/10 Scottish Cup First Round draw
This round sees teams from the three leagues underneath the Scottish Third Division (the Highland League, the East of Scotland and the South of Scotland football leagues) begin their Cup run. Although none of these teams will get close to reaching the final, a few of these did make it to the Fourth round last year.
Highland League side Forres Mechanics eased their way past Wigtown & Bladnoch, Keith and Dalbeattie Star, before they finally succumbed 6-1 to Third Division side Forfar.
Another Highland League side made it to the Fourth round. Of all the teams that made it this far, Inverurie Loco Works where rewarded for their progress against Deveronvale, Banks O' Dee (who earlier knocked out Fort William 10-0) and Vale of Leithen in the previous rounds with a game against SPL side Motherwell. It took five re-scheduled dates before this game finally took place with Motherwell emerging, somewhat unsurprisingly, 3-0 winners.
The final side to make it to the Fourth round where Edinburgh-based Spartans. Their road to their Fourth Round exit was a little more rocky than most. Having dispatched Pollok and Annan Athletic (to which they'd lost their application to join the Third Division), their Third Round fixture against Elgin City was ordered to be replayed after it was discovered that Elgin had fielded an ineligible player, Joe Malin, a loanee from Ross County.
Elgin City where not amused - they won the original game 2-1!
Despite appeals, the game was replayed and this time it was Spartans who emerged as winners. Somewhat ironically, it was later discovered that Spartans had also fielded an ineligible player, Dean Hoskins, in the first game against Elgin City after what Spartans called 'an administrative error'.
Spartans got their come-uppance in the next round however - they where knocked out by First Division side Airdrie United.
Saturday 26 September 2009
Selkirk v Preston Athletic
Clachnacuddin v Wick Academy
Auchinleck Talbot v Fort William
Nairn County v Golspie Sutherland
Edinburgh University v Vale of Leithen
Inverurie Loco Works v St Cuthbert Wanderers
Coldstream v Edinburgh City
Brora Rangers v Irvine Meadow
Buckie Thistle v Forres Mechanics
Whitehill Welfare v Wigtown & Bladnoch
Fraserburgh v Bonnyrigg Rose
Glasgow University v Girvan
Lossiemouth v Newton Stewart
Rothes v Banks O Dee
Civil Service Strollers v Gala Fairydean
Hawick Royal Albert v Huntly
Dalbeattie Star v Keith
Highland League side Forres Mechanics eased their way past Wigtown & Bladnoch, Keith and Dalbeattie Star, before they finally succumbed 6-1 to Third Division side Forfar.
Another Highland League side made it to the Fourth round. Of all the teams that made it this far, Inverurie Loco Works where rewarded for their progress against Deveronvale, Banks O' Dee (who earlier knocked out Fort William 10-0) and Vale of Leithen in the previous rounds with a game against SPL side Motherwell. It took five re-scheduled dates before this game finally took place with Motherwell emerging, somewhat unsurprisingly, 3-0 winners.
The final side to make it to the Fourth round where Edinburgh-based Spartans. Their road to their Fourth Round exit was a little more rocky than most. Having dispatched Pollok and Annan Athletic (to which they'd lost their application to join the Third Division), their Third Round fixture against Elgin City was ordered to be replayed after it was discovered that Elgin had fielded an ineligible player, Joe Malin, a loanee from Ross County.
Elgin City where not amused - they won the original game 2-1!
Despite appeals, the game was replayed and this time it was Spartans who emerged as winners. Somewhat ironically, it was later discovered that Spartans had also fielded an ineligible player, Dean Hoskins, in the first game against Elgin City after what Spartans called 'an administrative error'.
Spartans got their come-uppance in the next round however - they where knocked out by First Division side Airdrie United.
Scottish Cup First Round
Saturday 26 September 2009
Selkirk v Preston Athletic
Clachnacuddin v Wick Academy
Auchinleck Talbot v Fort William
Nairn County v Golspie Sutherland
Edinburgh University v Vale of Leithen
Inverurie Loco Works v St Cuthbert Wanderers
Coldstream v Edinburgh City
Brora Rangers v Irvine Meadow
Buckie Thistle v Forres Mechanics
Whitehill Welfare v Wigtown & Bladnoch
Fraserburgh v Bonnyrigg Rose
Glasgow University v Girvan
Lossiemouth v Newton Stewart
Rothes v Banks O Dee
Civil Service Strollers v Gala Fairydean
Hawick Royal Albert v Huntly
Dalbeattie Star v Keith
02/09/2009
The Ballbag
It's not been a tremendously exciting end to the transfer window. Driving home last night from work, tuned into TalkSport Radio, it was obvious that the program was struggling to make the final hour of the transfer window sound anything other than what it was - boring.
Continuously switching from one correspondent to another dotted about the country, all relating their non-events, the only real excitement was to be had from the various rumours being peddled about by listeners. Earlier on in the day, these rumours seemed somewhat credible, but towards the end, as the final minutes ticked away they started to get more ridiculous such as Fernando Torres moving to Manchester United and - my favourite - a rumour from a listener who texted in to say he saw Lionel Messi at Leeds bus station.
Being an English radio station, the coverage of the Scottish transfer window was limited to put it mildly. A sad reflection, if one was needed, that as far as TalkSport is concerned, Scottish football ranks just below sightings of Edwin van der Sar at the HMV in Hull.
So, what of the Scottish transfer window? Well, in short summary:
Mickael Antoine-Curier moved from Dundee to Hamilton, Mark Brown joins Kilmarnock from Celtic, Yassin Moutaouakil goes from Charlton to Motherwell, Celtic's Darren O'Dea leaves for Reading. Kris Renton swaps one provincial backwater for another as he joins Brechin from Norwich. Arguably the biggest transfer of the day sees Paris St Germain winger Jerome Rothen move to Rangers.
Note that given the times we found ourselves in, all these transfers are loan deals.
We're just too lazy to do the research, so there's nothing we can tell you about these players that you couldn't possibly find out for yourself with a bit of google-ing. Do feel free to leave us your opinions.
As with all transfer windows, for most clubs with saleable assets the biggest fear for any supporter at this time of year is not who comes, but who gets left behind. For example, Middlesboro fans will be stuck with Alfonso Alves for another season at least, and the Liverpool faithful will no doubt be saddened that another great dud, Lucas, will be at Anfield next Saturday.
As an Aberdeen supporter, the loss of our saleable assets is not something that keeps us awake at night. After all, the club has no saleable assets (or at least none that couldn't be replaced by a visit to our local sports shop). There's been stories circulating that Zander Diamond would move to Celtic, or Lee Miller would leave for a variety of clubs down south, but the squad will remain intact until January at least.
The frustration at the lack of any transfer activity at Pittodrie is a cause of concern amongst large sections of the Red Army. Dundee United, Hamilton, Hibs, Falkirk and Hearts - with the exception of Hearts all smaller clubs - all strengthened their squads, while Aberdeen managed to sign a few journeymen defenders and a reserve goalkeeper. Mark McGhee's frustration at not being able to bring in new talent in the transfer window did nothing to lighten his mood after the Motherwell game at the weekend, which saw his new side draw 0-0 with his old side in a game where Aberdeen had not one single shot on goal.
The parallel with Motherwell is interesting. Like Aberdeen, Motherwell lost three first team players during the off-season (Hughes, Clarkson and Smith for Motherwell, Severin, Mair and Smith for the Dons) but in return they've brought in players as well as bringing in a new manager and rebuilt a squad that has Motherwell playing better than the squad it had this time last year.
Much of that money came from the £200,000 Aberdeen had to pay Motherwell for McGhee's services. In contrast, Aberdeen paid out £400,000 to outgoing manager Jimmy Calderwood and his management team - funds which might well have been used to strengthen the squad. Director of Football Willie Miller was quick to point out that while the club has not brought in any new players (of note), the club does have a pool of young talent such as Peter Pawlett, Michael Paton, Fraser Fyvie and Jonathan Crawford and Chris Maguire. As Miller says, these players will form the backbone of Aberdeen squads into the future.
Which is management speak for "we've no money now and we'll probably have no money next year either. Or the year after that, so get it right up ye".
While I applaud the club's stance on youth development, it's a move made more out of desperation than any valiant sporting principles. For even a small outlay, possibly less than £500,000, small change to a man like Milne, Aberdeen could have moved for pretty much any of the players signed by our nearest rivals United, Hibs or Hearts.
Someone once said that you don't win anything with youngsters and quite honestly, Aberdeen wont win anything with these youngsters either. The club is blessed with a comparatively rich owner (Stewart Milne is reputed to be worth over £400m) but he seems reluctant to spend. We'll see how this season works out, but the omens don't look good.
One squad that will be one player lighter is Deveronvale. The Highland League outfit who finished second last year, have sold midfielder Sam MacKay to fellow Highland League side Wick Academy.
Now, what makes this transfer interesting is that a) it is the only transfer we can find in Scotland that actually involved the exchange of cash and b) Sam MacKay is the first player that Wick Academy have actually paid for in 12 years.
The fee itself is not mentioned, but it's unlikely to go into four figures. MacKay was a former Young Player of the Year at Deveronvale but decided to move as the distance he needed to travel (it's 138 miles to Banff from his home town of Golspie, as opposed to 45 miles north to Wick) was causing problems. With a bit of luck he should be in Wick's lineup for Saturday's game against Brora Rangers.
Continuously switching from one correspondent to another dotted about the country, all relating their non-events, the only real excitement was to be had from the various rumours being peddled about by listeners. Earlier on in the day, these rumours seemed somewhat credible, but towards the end, as the final minutes ticked away they started to get more ridiculous such as Fernando Torres moving to Manchester United and - my favourite - a rumour from a listener who texted in to say he saw Lionel Messi at Leeds bus station.
Being an English radio station, the coverage of the Scottish transfer window was limited to put it mildly. A sad reflection, if one was needed, that as far as TalkSport is concerned, Scottish football ranks just below sightings of Edwin van der Sar at the HMV in Hull.
So, what of the Scottish transfer window? Well, in short summary:
Mickael Antoine-Curier moved from Dundee to Hamilton, Mark Brown joins Kilmarnock from Celtic, Yassin Moutaouakil goes from Charlton to Motherwell, Celtic's Darren O'Dea leaves for Reading. Kris Renton swaps one provincial backwater for another as he joins Brechin from Norwich. Arguably the biggest transfer of the day sees Paris St Germain winger Jerome Rothen move to Rangers.
Note that given the times we found ourselves in, all these transfers are loan deals.
We're just too lazy to do the research, so there's nothing we can tell you about these players that you couldn't possibly find out for yourself with a bit of google-ing. Do feel free to leave us your opinions.
As with all transfer windows, for most clubs with saleable assets the biggest fear for any supporter at this time of year is not who comes, but who gets left behind. For example, Middlesboro fans will be stuck with Alfonso Alves for another season at least, and the Liverpool faithful will no doubt be saddened that another great dud, Lucas, will be at Anfield next Saturday.
As an Aberdeen supporter, the loss of our saleable assets is not something that keeps us awake at night. After all, the club has no saleable assets (or at least none that couldn't be replaced by a visit to our local sports shop). There's been stories circulating that Zander Diamond would move to Celtic, or Lee Miller would leave for a variety of clubs down south, but the squad will remain intact until January at least.
The frustration at the lack of any transfer activity at Pittodrie is a cause of concern amongst large sections of the Red Army. Dundee United, Hamilton, Hibs, Falkirk and Hearts - with the exception of Hearts all smaller clubs - all strengthened their squads, while Aberdeen managed to sign a few journeymen defenders and a reserve goalkeeper. Mark McGhee's frustration at not being able to bring in new talent in the transfer window did nothing to lighten his mood after the Motherwell game at the weekend, which saw his new side draw 0-0 with his old side in a game where Aberdeen had not one single shot on goal.
The parallel with Motherwell is interesting. Like Aberdeen, Motherwell lost three first team players during the off-season (Hughes, Clarkson and Smith for Motherwell, Severin, Mair and Smith for the Dons) but in return they've brought in players as well as bringing in a new manager and rebuilt a squad that has Motherwell playing better than the squad it had this time last year.
Much of that money came from the £200,000 Aberdeen had to pay Motherwell for McGhee's services. In contrast, Aberdeen paid out £400,000 to outgoing manager Jimmy Calderwood and his management team - funds which might well have been used to strengthen the squad. Director of Football Willie Miller was quick to point out that while the club has not brought in any new players (of note), the club does have a pool of young talent such as Peter Pawlett, Michael Paton, Fraser Fyvie and Jonathan Crawford and Chris Maguire. As Miller says, these players will form the backbone of Aberdeen squads into the future.
Which is management speak for "we've no money now and we'll probably have no money next year either. Or the year after that, so get it right up ye".
While I applaud the club's stance on youth development, it's a move made more out of desperation than any valiant sporting principles. For even a small outlay, possibly less than £500,000, small change to a man like Milne, Aberdeen could have moved for pretty much any of the players signed by our nearest rivals United, Hibs or Hearts.
Someone once said that you don't win anything with youngsters and quite honestly, Aberdeen wont win anything with these youngsters either. The club is blessed with a comparatively rich owner (Stewart Milne is reputed to be worth over £400m) but he seems reluctant to spend. We'll see how this season works out, but the omens don't look good.
One squad that will be one player lighter is Deveronvale. The Highland League outfit who finished second last year, have sold midfielder Sam MacKay to fellow Highland League side Wick Academy.
Now, what makes this transfer interesting is that a) it is the only transfer we can find in Scotland that actually involved the exchange of cash and b) Sam MacKay is the first player that Wick Academy have actually paid for in 12 years.
The fee itself is not mentioned, but it's unlikely to go into four figures. MacKay was a former Young Player of the Year at Deveronvale but decided to move as the distance he needed to travel (it's 138 miles to Banff from his home town of Golspie, as opposed to 45 miles north to Wick) was causing problems. With a bit of luck he should be in Wick's lineup for Saturday's game against Brora Rangers.
01/09/2009
Scottish League Cup Third Round Draw
The next round of the Scottish League Cup throws up some interesting fixtures.
Terry Butcher returns to one of his former teams as he takes his current side Inverness Caley south to Motherwell. Dundee manager Jocky Scott returns to his home town, as he prepares to take on Aberdeen. Scott made 52 appearances for the Dons between 1975 and 1977 and went on to co-manage the club in the late 80's
There's three all-SPL ties: Hibs take on St Johnstone and Falkirk will play Celtic. Kilmarnock and St Mirren complete the trio of fixtures. Both Hearts and Dundee United face First Division opposition in the shape of Dunfermline and Ross County respectively.
Completing the SPL teams taking part, we have Rangers taking on Queen of the South in a repeat of the 2008 Scottish Cup Final.
Back then, an exhausted Rangers side, recently returned from the UEFA Cup Final (where they lost 2-0 to Zenit St Petersburg) and two days after losing the League on the final day with a 2-0 defeat at Pittodrie, struggled to beat a tenacious Queen of the South. Kris Boyd netted the winner with 20 minutes to go to secure a 3-2 victory for Walter Smiths men.
Can Queen of the South overcome Rangers this year? We'll see!
Motherwell v Inverness
Hearts v Dunfermline
Dundee v Aberdeen
Hibs v St Johnstone
Falkirk v Celtic
Kilmarnock v St Mirren
Queen of the South v Rangers
Ross County v Dundee United
The games will be played 22nd and 23rd September 2009.
Terry Butcher returns to one of his former teams as he takes his current side Inverness Caley south to Motherwell. Dundee manager Jocky Scott returns to his home town, as he prepares to take on Aberdeen. Scott made 52 appearances for the Dons between 1975 and 1977 and went on to co-manage the club in the late 80's
There's three all-SPL ties: Hibs take on St Johnstone and Falkirk will play Celtic. Kilmarnock and St Mirren complete the trio of fixtures. Both Hearts and Dundee United face First Division opposition in the shape of Dunfermline and Ross County respectively.
Completing the SPL teams taking part, we have Rangers taking on Queen of the South in a repeat of the 2008 Scottish Cup Final.
Back then, an exhausted Rangers side, recently returned from the UEFA Cup Final (where they lost 2-0 to Zenit St Petersburg) and two days after losing the League on the final day with a 2-0 defeat at Pittodrie, struggled to beat a tenacious Queen of the South. Kris Boyd netted the winner with 20 minutes to go to secure a 3-2 victory for Walter Smiths men.
Can Queen of the South overcome Rangers this year? We'll see!
Scottish League Cup Third Round Draw
Motherwell v Inverness
Hearts v Dunfermline
Dundee v Aberdeen
Hibs v St Johnstone
Falkirk v Celtic
Kilmarnock v St Mirren
Queen of the South v Rangers
Ross County v Dundee United
The games will be played 22nd and 23rd September 2009.
27/08/2009
Hearts exit stage right. Cue: Rangers..
And then there where two.
Celtic and Rangers remain Scotland's sole representatives in European football this season as Hearts proved unable to overturn the 4-0 scoreline against Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb. Despite goals from Michael Stewart and Marius Zaliukas in what was from all accounts a stirring and battling performance from the Jambos, the damage had been done in Zagreb.
A full report is available from the BBC site.
Meanwhile, the draw for the group stages of the Champions League were held this evening. Rangers should be pleased with their draw which, along with Group H is probably the easiest of the 8 groups. Drawn alongside the Gers are Sevilla, Stuttgart and Unirea Urziceni.
Sevilla are undoubtedly the top side in the Group. The Spanish side finished 3rd in La Liga last year behind Real Madrid. VfB Stuttgart also finished 3rd last season in the German Bundesliga, a league they last won in 2007. Romanian League winners Unirea Urziceni are the fourth team in the group and should be considered the minnows, although time will tell!
Rangers will start their campaign in Stuttgart on September 16. Sevilla come to Ibrox on September 29 while Unirea visit on October 20, with Rangers making the return trip on November 4. Rangers then play Stuttgart at home on November 24, and finish with a flourish in Spain on December 9.
Celtic and Rangers remain Scotland's sole representatives in European football this season as Hearts proved unable to overturn the 4-0 scoreline against Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb. Despite goals from Michael Stewart and Marius Zaliukas in what was from all accounts a stirring and battling performance from the Jambos, the damage had been done in Zagreb.
A full report is available from the BBC site.
Meanwhile, the draw for the group stages of the Champions League were held this evening. Rangers should be pleased with their draw which, along with Group H is probably the easiest of the 8 groups. Drawn alongside the Gers are Sevilla, Stuttgart and Unirea Urziceni.
Sevilla are undoubtedly the top side in the Group. The Spanish side finished 3rd in La Liga last year behind Real Madrid. VfB Stuttgart also finished 3rd last season in the German Bundesliga, a league they last won in 2007. Romanian League winners Unirea Urziceni are the fourth team in the group and should be considered the minnows, although time will tell!
Rangers will start their campaign in Stuttgart on September 16. Sevilla come to Ibrox on September 29 while Unirea visit on October 20, with Rangers making the return trip on November 4. Rangers then play Stuttgart at home on November 24, and finish with a flourish in Spain on December 9.
26/08/2009
Scottish League Cup Results (Part 2)
There where no real surprises in the second batch of games in this years Scottish League Cup. St Johnstone put six past Arbroath. Steve Milne and Kenny Deuchar both scored twice to put the Saints into the Third Round. St. Mirren score either side of half-time against a 10-man Ayr United.
The Fife derby between Dunfermline and Raith Rovers ended in a comfortable 3-1 win for the Pars. Mark Cambell scored an own goal for Raith in that game.
On a side note, it's nice to see Neil McGregor back in action with Dunfermline. The former Clyde player, released from the club following their relegation and financial difficulties at the end of last season was a favourite in Inside Left's desperate attempts at playing Football Manager. No matter which team I was busy getting relegated, Neil came with me, often with great results.
Where was I?
Ah yes. Hibs. Another own goal, this time from Brechin's Ian Nimmo, helped John Hughes' men to an easy win over the Second Division side. Derek Riordan and a 25-yard belter from Paul Hanlon finished any resistance the Glebe Park outfit had to offer.
The complete list of teams to go into the hat for the Third Round draw is as follows: Hibernian, Dunfermline, St Mirren, St Johnstone, Dundee United, Dundee, Inverness Caley, Kilmarnock, Ross County and Queen of the South. They'll be joined by our lucky European qualifiers, uhur, Celtic and Rangers (the spongy ball and the ribbed ball respectively, allegedly), Aberdeen, Motherwell and Falkirk.
No idea when the draw is, sorry, but it'll be soon. Possibly.
The Fife derby between Dunfermline and Raith Rovers ended in a comfortable 3-1 win for the Pars. Mark Cambell scored an own goal for Raith in that game.
On a side note, it's nice to see Neil McGregor back in action with Dunfermline. The former Clyde player, released from the club following their relegation and financial difficulties at the end of last season was a favourite in Inside Left's desperate attempts at playing Football Manager. No matter which team I was busy getting relegated, Neil came with me, often with great results.
Where was I?
Ah yes. Hibs. Another own goal, this time from Brechin's Ian Nimmo, helped John Hughes' men to an easy win over the Second Division side. Derek Riordan and a 25-yard belter from Paul Hanlon finished any resistance the Glebe Park outfit had to offer.
The complete list of teams to go into the hat for the Third Round draw is as follows: Hibernian, Dunfermline, St Mirren, St Johnstone, Dundee United, Dundee, Inverness Caley, Kilmarnock, Ross County and Queen of the South. They'll be joined by our lucky European qualifiers, uhur, Celtic and Rangers (the spongy ball and the ribbed ball respectively, allegedly), Aberdeen, Motherwell and Falkirk.
No idea when the draw is, sorry, but it'll be soon. Possibly.
The Ballbag - Arsenal v Celtic
Tonight, Celtic aim to do the practically impossible and overturn a two-goal deficit away at Arsenal, and so book themselves into the group stages of the Champions League.
Having read various web sites previewing this game, there's not one blogger out there that gives Celtic anything more than hee-haw chance of getting through, let alone get a result.
Let's be honest and get this out of the way: Celtic will not win this game.
Arsenal are a side brimming with confidence, having got off to a flyer in the league. The 2-0 defeat of Celtic at Parkhead was sandwiched between a 6-1 demolition of Everton and a 4-1 destruction of Portsmouth.
Celtic have not exactly been shabby either in the goal scoring department. The 3-0 win at Aberdeen was followed by a seven-goal thriller against St. Johnstone, so, like Arsenal, Celtic are going into this game on a high, despite being two goals down before a ball is even kicked.
The form comparisons are all very well, and admittedly, Portsmouth are a poor side this season and Everton are having a 'mare of a time of it as well, losing to Owen Coyle's Burnley, but neither of these two sides should be easily dismissed: on their day, they'd give most SPL sides a run for their money.
And even without captain Cesc Fabregas, Arsenal are simply awash with talent: Van Persie, Eboue, Arshavin, Gallas, Denilson, Clichy. The list goes on.
So, what is the point of this post?
The point is this: when the final whistle goes on this game, I hope that none of my fellow bloggers write scathing articles about the state of Scottish football. God knows we've had enough of those already this week.
Celtic will still be in Europe, they'll still be flying the flag for Scottish football. Arsenal are not Artmedia Bratislava. Arsenal are no FBK Kaunas, or FC Vaduz or Sigma Olomouc. There will be no shame to suffer, no crisis to have caused, and no country to have let down.
It's just one team, beaten by a better team. That's football. That's all it is. No more, no less.
Alright Chick?
Having read various web sites previewing this game, there's not one blogger out there that gives Celtic anything more than hee-haw chance of getting through, let alone get a result.
Let's be honest and get this out of the way: Celtic will not win this game.
Arsenal are a side brimming with confidence, having got off to a flyer in the league. The 2-0 defeat of Celtic at Parkhead was sandwiched between a 6-1 demolition of Everton and a 4-1 destruction of Portsmouth.
Celtic have not exactly been shabby either in the goal scoring department. The 3-0 win at Aberdeen was followed by a seven-goal thriller against St. Johnstone, so, like Arsenal, Celtic are going into this game on a high, despite being two goals down before a ball is even kicked.
The form comparisons are all very well, and admittedly, Portsmouth are a poor side this season and Everton are having a 'mare of a time of it as well, losing to Owen Coyle's Burnley, but neither of these two sides should be easily dismissed: on their day, they'd give most SPL sides a run for their money.
And even without captain Cesc Fabregas, Arsenal are simply awash with talent: Van Persie, Eboue, Arshavin, Gallas, Denilson, Clichy. The list goes on.
So, what is the point of this post?
The point is this: when the final whistle goes on this game, I hope that none of my fellow bloggers write scathing articles about the state of Scottish football. God knows we've had enough of those already this week.
Celtic will still be in Europe, they'll still be flying the flag for Scottish football. Arsenal are not Artmedia Bratislava. Arsenal are no FBK Kaunas, or FC Vaduz or Sigma Olomouc. There will be no shame to suffer, no crisis to have caused, and no country to have let down.
It's just one team, beaten by a better team. That's football. That's all it is. No more, no less.
Alright Chick?
25/08/2009
Scotland squad named for crunch World Cup qualifiers
The Scotland squad for the two crucial games Group 9 games against Macedonia and The Netherlands where named this afternoon at Hampden.
Craig Gordon has been included in the squad, having recovered from a long term injury. His lack of match practice might be a factor however, with Burley perhaps opting for the more match-fit David Marshall. The presence of Sunderland's Craig Gordon means Aberdeen's Jamie Langfield will have to wait longer for his chance in goal - he's been dropped in favour of Rangers' Neil Alexander.
Veteran defender David Weir is recalled to the squad as the Scottish defensive options are dwindling through injuries (Steven Caldwell, Christophe Berra and Stephen McManus) and suspension (Gary Caldwell). The 39-year-old was named captain of Rangers following Barry Ferguson's controversial expulsion from the Scotland setup.
Kilmarnock's Kevin Kyle is also included, as is Falkirk defender Darren Barr. The two make up the only Scottish-based players to make the squad and who do not play their club football with either Rangers or Celtic.
The unexpected heavy defeat in Norway earlier in the month has meant that Scotland need to win both games to have any chance of making the World Cup Finals next year. Burley's men begin on 5 September with the home game against Macedonia, with Holland to come four days later.
A win against Macedonia is a tough proposition. With a good home crowd supporting the side, I believe we can get a result against Macedonia. It will be a huge task, not to mention a tense fixture: Macedonia, like Scotland also need to win their next two games to have a chance of qualifying.
Macedonia play their last game against Norway, who play Iceland on the same night that the Scots take on Macedonia.
Assuming we beat Macedonia, our last Group 9 game against The Netherlands is then another must-win game. The Dutch qualified at a canter conceding only 2 goals while scoring 16, and we can only hope that they bring the reserve squad for a run-about in, what is for Bert van Marwijk at least anyway, a meaningless fixture.
Gordon (Sunderland), N Alexander (Rangers), Marshall (Cardiff)
Barr (Falkirk), McManus (Celtic), Berra (Wolves), G Caldwell (Celtic), S Caldwell (Burnley), Davidson (Preston), Hutton (Tottenham), McAllister (Bristol City), Whittaker (Rangers), Weir (Rangers)
G Alexander (Burnley), Brown (Celtic), Commons (Derby), D Fletcher (Manchester United), Hartley (Bristol City), McFadden (Birmingham), Maloney (Celtic)
Clarkson (Bristol City), S Fletcher (Burnley), Kyle (Kilmarnock), Miller (Rangers), Naismith (Rangers).
Craig Gordon has been included in the squad, having recovered from a long term injury. His lack of match practice might be a factor however, with Burley perhaps opting for the more match-fit David Marshall. The presence of Sunderland's Craig Gordon means Aberdeen's Jamie Langfield will have to wait longer for his chance in goal - he's been dropped in favour of Rangers' Neil Alexander.
Veteran defender David Weir is recalled to the squad as the Scottish defensive options are dwindling through injuries (Steven Caldwell, Christophe Berra and Stephen McManus) and suspension (Gary Caldwell). The 39-year-old was named captain of Rangers following Barry Ferguson's controversial expulsion from the Scotland setup.
Kilmarnock's Kevin Kyle is also included, as is Falkirk defender Darren Barr. The two make up the only Scottish-based players to make the squad and who do not play their club football with either Rangers or Celtic.
The unexpected heavy defeat in Norway earlier in the month has meant that Scotland need to win both games to have any chance of making the World Cup Finals next year. Burley's men begin on 5 September with the home game against Macedonia, with Holland to come four days later.
A win against Macedonia is a tough proposition. With a good home crowd supporting the side, I believe we can get a result against Macedonia. It will be a huge task, not to mention a tense fixture: Macedonia, like Scotland also need to win their next two games to have a chance of qualifying.
Macedonia play their last game against Norway, who play Iceland on the same night that the Scots take on Macedonia.
Assuming we beat Macedonia, our last Group 9 game against The Netherlands is then another must-win game. The Dutch qualified at a canter conceding only 2 goals while scoring 16, and we can only hope that they bring the reserve squad for a run-about in, what is for Bert van Marwijk at least anyway, a meaningless fixture.
Scotland Squad
Gordon (Sunderland), N Alexander (Rangers), Marshall (Cardiff)
Barr (Falkirk), McManus (Celtic), Berra (Wolves), G Caldwell (Celtic), S Caldwell (Burnley), Davidson (Preston), Hutton (Tottenham), McAllister (Bristol City), Whittaker (Rangers), Weir (Rangers)
G Alexander (Burnley), Brown (Celtic), Commons (Derby), D Fletcher (Manchester United), Hartley (Bristol City), McFadden (Birmingham), Maloney (Celtic)
Clarkson (Bristol City), S Fletcher (Burnley), Kyle (Kilmarnock), Miller (Rangers), Naismith (Rangers).
21/08/2009
The Ballbag's Scottish Football Four to Follow
Despite the somewhat tepid performances of our teams in Europe this week which led to our total rant last night following the Hearts game against Dinamo, Scottish football, for all its faults, lives to play on another week.
It's only really when Scottish teams play in Europe that Inside Left ends up hiding behind the sofa; when it comes to our domestic game, the thrill and excitement is still the same for us, whether or not we have TV rights, sponsorship or even a rosy future to look forward to.
There's nothing to beat the feeling of walking down the road to the ground, sitting in the stands watching your team, and no amount of dodgy results against diddy teams from Europe (or even England) will change that.
So, with that said, let's get on with our Four to Follow!
In the SPL, there's a few games that stick out for various reasons. The fixture between champions Rangers and Hearts would probably have been the game of the weekend if Hearts had managed to not lose by quite so many goals. A 2-1 defeat for the Jambo's would have set up a cracking tie, with two teams in good spirits going into this game. As it was, we all know what happened to Hearts, so I fear that this game is going to be another standard win for Rangers.
Another interesting fixture sees Celtic take on new boys St Johnstone at Parkhead. Celtic of course got off to that cracking start against a useless Aberdeen side, while the Saints more than acquitted themselves last week against Motherwell. Perhaps if they managed to hold on to their leads, then this might have been an interesting fixture.
Or there's Aberdeen against Hamilton, two sides looking for their first win of the season following heavy defeats last week.
But the first of our Four to Follow matches is not one that would immediately grab your attention, but it's made more interesting by the fact that both sides are under new management, and that both sides have a point to prove.
Falkirk are a bit of an oddity. A side that was noted for playing some excellent football, a side that reached the semi-final of the League Cup and the final of the Scottish Cup (losing to Rangers on both occasions), yet which only avoided relegation by the skin of their teeth. Most of last season Falkirk struggled to make much of an impact in terms of their league position, but manager John Hughes somehow managed to pull the results out of the bag when the going got tough, not least that nerve racking win over Caley on the last day of the season, which kept the Bairns up and that relegated Caley.
Of course, Hughes jumped ship over the summer, instead taking up the reins at the team with which he'll return to Falkirk with tomorrow, Hibernian.
Hibs missed out on European football this season, finishing sixth, bringing to an end another distinctly average campaign that saw early exists from Europe and domestic Cup competitions. It cost Mixu Paateleinen his job, and the Hibs fans will be expecting much from Hughes. He's already brought over a few of his old team mates from Falkirk, including Patrick Cregg and Kevin McBride and also some of the old playing style. Hibs had to fight for the win against 10-man St. Mirren last week, but a win's a win, so they're full of confidence going into this game.
Eddie May, who had the pleasure of leading Falkirk into Europe had to suffer the shame of losing to a team from Liechtenstein. Not the best start to your tenure, but it's early days yet. Despite losing to Rangers 4-1 on the opening day of the season, Falkirk actually didn't have a bad game, with some encouraging spells which may well work against non-Old Firm teams, such as Hibernian.
So, two teams with something to prove: Falkirk for proving they're better than most people give them credit for, and for sticking it up John Hughes; and Hibernian for continuing their winning start and John Hughes for sticking it up Falkirk. Expect a passionate, committed game. We go for a Hibs win.
Dundee are many bookies candidates for promotion to the SPL. They drew 2-2 with Raith Rovers at the weekend, having to come from behind in the process to earn that draw. The opening day win against Morton was also a little more troublesome than you'd want really. Progress through the Cup competitions is on track, with convincing wins against Cowdenbeath and Stranraer along the way, but then you'd expect them to win those anyway.
Inverness, like Dundee have won one and drawn one game so far, but they've probably got the best chance of going straight back up. For one, they're playing First Division football with an SPL division squad. Not only that, in Terry Butcher they've got a manager who, while not having one of the more illustrious managerial track records, is a real fighter and campaigner, the sort to get the fire in the belly that Caley need to ensure a rapid return to the SPL.
So, this game is between two sides we feel will be challenging for the title all the way. Although it might have been better to have the first meeting between the later on in the season to judge how good both sides are (or not), we may get an early indication here of how this battle for promotion might pan out.
For some reason, and this is completely the fault of my keyboard and not some kind of subliminal thought process, I keep mistyping 'Stirlingshire' into 'Stirlingshite'. A few years ago this may well have been more appropriate but The Shire have really matured and grown into a solid enough side of late. Gone are the days when they where the subject of a book and BBC news crews, all wanting to see the worst side in Britain.
The team that took over that crown last year was Elgin City. The Borough Briggs outfit finished bottom of the table on 26 points having won only seven games all season. East Stirlingshire, in contrast, nearly made it to the Second Division, the side losing out to Cowdenbeath in the play-offs. That play-off game was also the cause for Jim McInally receiving a 16 game touchline ban from the SFA for "excessive misconduct", along with a £1,000 fine. You'd wonder what he did or said to deserve such a ban; McInally has started an appeal process.
Both sides have had encouraging starts to the season, which should make for an entertaining game. We'll go with an East Stirlingshire win.
Our final game today is between two of the top sides in the Highland League. Deveronvale are currently top of the league, with Inverurie Locos not far behind. Neither of these two sides ventured from top 5 last season. Past meetings between the sides have been high scoring games (although that's no indication - most Highland League games are high scoring!), with the Banff side winning the last encounter 3-2 back in April, revenge for their 5-2 defeat in the Scottish Cup at the start of last season. Because of home advantage, We'll go with a Deveronvale win.
Clydesdale Bank Premier League
Celtic v St Johnstone
Falkirk v Hibernian
Hamilton v Aberdeen
Motherwell v Kilmarnock
St Mirren v Dundee Utd
Rangers v Hearts
The Irn-Bru First Division
Ayr v Morton
Dundee v Inverness CT
Dunfermline v Airdrie Utd
Queen of South v Partick Thistle
Ross County v Raith
The Irn-Bru Second Division
Cowdenbeath v Alloa
Dumbarton v Clyde
East Fife v Arbroath
Peterhead v Stenhousemuir
Stirling v Brechin
The Irn-Bru Third Division
Berwick v Livingston
East Stirling v Elgin
Montrose v Forfar
Queens Park v Albion
Stranraer v Annan Athletic
Highland League
Brora v Buckie Thistle
Deveronvale v Inverurie Locos
Formartine Utd v Fort William
Forres Mechanics v Wick Academy
Keith v Turriff United
Lossiemouth v Clachnacuddin
Nairn County v Fraserburgh
Rothes v Cove Rangers
Strathspey Thistle v Huntly
It's only really when Scottish teams play in Europe that Inside Left ends up hiding behind the sofa; when it comes to our domestic game, the thrill and excitement is still the same for us, whether or not we have TV rights, sponsorship or even a rosy future to look forward to.
There's nothing to beat the feeling of walking down the road to the ground, sitting in the stands watching your team, and no amount of dodgy results against diddy teams from Europe (or even England) will change that.
So, with that said, let's get on with our Four to Follow!
In the SPL, there's a few games that stick out for various reasons. The fixture between champions Rangers and Hearts would probably have been the game of the weekend if Hearts had managed to not lose by quite so many goals. A 2-1 defeat for the Jambo's would have set up a cracking tie, with two teams in good spirits going into this game. As it was, we all know what happened to Hearts, so I fear that this game is going to be another standard win for Rangers.
Another interesting fixture sees Celtic take on new boys St Johnstone at Parkhead. Celtic of course got off to that cracking start against a useless Aberdeen side, while the Saints more than acquitted themselves last week against Motherwell. Perhaps if they managed to hold on to their leads, then this might have been an interesting fixture.
Or there's Aberdeen against Hamilton, two sides looking for their first win of the season following heavy defeats last week.
But the first of our Four to Follow matches is not one that would immediately grab your attention, but it's made more interesting by the fact that both sides are under new management, and that both sides have a point to prove.
Falkirk v Hibernian
Falkirk are a bit of an oddity. A side that was noted for playing some excellent football, a side that reached the semi-final of the League Cup and the final of the Scottish Cup (losing to Rangers on both occasions), yet which only avoided relegation by the skin of their teeth. Most of last season Falkirk struggled to make much of an impact in terms of their league position, but manager John Hughes somehow managed to pull the results out of the bag when the going got tough, not least that nerve racking win over Caley on the last day of the season, which kept the Bairns up and that relegated Caley.
Of course, Hughes jumped ship over the summer, instead taking up the reins at the team with which he'll return to Falkirk with tomorrow, Hibernian.
Hibs missed out on European football this season, finishing sixth, bringing to an end another distinctly average campaign that saw early exists from Europe and domestic Cup competitions. It cost Mixu Paateleinen his job, and the Hibs fans will be expecting much from Hughes. He's already brought over a few of his old team mates from Falkirk, including Patrick Cregg and Kevin McBride and also some of the old playing style. Hibs had to fight for the win against 10-man St. Mirren last week, but a win's a win, so they're full of confidence going into this game.
Eddie May, who had the pleasure of leading Falkirk into Europe had to suffer the shame of losing to a team from Liechtenstein. Not the best start to your tenure, but it's early days yet. Despite losing to Rangers 4-1 on the opening day of the season, Falkirk actually didn't have a bad game, with some encouraging spells which may well work against non-Old Firm teams, such as Hibernian.
So, two teams with something to prove: Falkirk for proving they're better than most people give them credit for, and for sticking it up John Hughes; and Hibernian for continuing their winning start and John Hughes for sticking it up Falkirk. Expect a passionate, committed game. We go for a Hibs win.
Dundee v Inverness CT
Dundee are many bookies candidates for promotion to the SPL. They drew 2-2 with Raith Rovers at the weekend, having to come from behind in the process to earn that draw. The opening day win against Morton was also a little more troublesome than you'd want really. Progress through the Cup competitions is on track, with convincing wins against Cowdenbeath and Stranraer along the way, but then you'd expect them to win those anyway.
Inverness, like Dundee have won one and drawn one game so far, but they've probably got the best chance of going straight back up. For one, they're playing First Division football with an SPL division squad. Not only that, in Terry Butcher they've got a manager who, while not having one of the more illustrious managerial track records, is a real fighter and campaigner, the sort to get the fire in the belly that Caley need to ensure a rapid return to the SPL.
So, this game is between two sides we feel will be challenging for the title all the way. Although it might have been better to have the first meeting between the later on in the season to judge how good both sides are (or not), we may get an early indication here of how this battle for promotion might pan out.
East Stirlingshire v Elgin
For some reason, and this is completely the fault of my keyboard and not some kind of subliminal thought process, I keep mistyping 'Stirlingshire' into 'Stirlingshite'. A few years ago this may well have been more appropriate but The Shire have really matured and grown into a solid enough side of late. Gone are the days when they where the subject of a book and BBC news crews, all wanting to see the worst side in Britain.
The team that took over that crown last year was Elgin City. The Borough Briggs outfit finished bottom of the table on 26 points having won only seven games all season. East Stirlingshire, in contrast, nearly made it to the Second Division, the side losing out to Cowdenbeath in the play-offs. That play-off game was also the cause for Jim McInally receiving a 16 game touchline ban from the SFA for "excessive misconduct", along with a £1,000 fine. You'd wonder what he did or said to deserve such a ban; McInally has started an appeal process.
Both sides have had encouraging starts to the season, which should make for an entertaining game. We'll go with an East Stirlingshire win.
Deveronvale v Inverurie Locos
Our final game today is between two of the top sides in the Highland League. Deveronvale are currently top of the league, with Inverurie Locos not far behind. Neither of these two sides ventured from top 5 last season. Past meetings between the sides have been high scoring games (although that's no indication - most Highland League games are high scoring!), with the Banff side winning the last encounter 3-2 back in April, revenge for their 5-2 defeat in the Scottish Cup at the start of last season. Because of home advantage, We'll go with a Deveronvale win.
Scottish Football Fixture List, 22nd August 2009
Clydesdale Bank Premier League
Celtic v St Johnstone
Falkirk v Hibernian
Hamilton v Aberdeen
Motherwell v Kilmarnock
St Mirren v Dundee Utd
Rangers v Hearts
The Irn-Bru First Division
Ayr v Morton
Dundee v Inverness CT
Dunfermline v Airdrie Utd
Queen of South v Partick Thistle
Ross County v Raith
The Irn-Bru Second Division
Cowdenbeath v Alloa
Dumbarton v Clyde
East Fife v Arbroath
Peterhead v Stenhousemuir
Stirling v Brechin
The Irn-Bru Third Division
Berwick v Livingston
East Stirling v Elgin
Montrose v Forfar
Queens Park v Albion
Stranraer v Annan Athletic
Highland League
Brora v Buckie Thistle
Deveronvale v Inverurie Locos
Formartine Utd v Fort William
Forres Mechanics v Wick Academy
Keith v Turriff United
Lossiemouth v Clachnacuddin
Nairn County v Fraserburgh
Rothes v Cove Rangers
Strathspey Thistle v Huntly
18/08/2009
ALBA Challenge Cup Second Round Results
It took a last minute goal from Peter Watson to secure a place in the next round for Annan, and Elgin City score three times in the second half to edge out league leaders Albion Rovers 3-0 at Borough Briggs.
Elsewhere there where no real upsets or surprises, with the First Division sides all going through. Dundee beat Cowdenbeath, with Leigh Griffiths, Gary Harkins and Mickael Antoine-Curier getting on the scoresheet. Partick Thistle trash Forfar Athletic 6-1 to secure their place in the Quarter Finals and there where wins for Caley, Ross County and Queen of the South.
Elsewhere there where no real upsets or surprises, with the First Division sides all going through. Dundee beat Cowdenbeath, with Leigh Griffiths, Gary Harkins and Mickael Antoine-Curier getting on the scoresheet. Partick Thistle trash Forfar Athletic 6-1 to secure their place in the Quarter Finals and there where wins for Caley, Ross County and Queen of the South.
The full results are as follows, with links to the BBC website.
Annan Athletic 1-0 East Stirling
Cowdenbeath 0-3 Dundee
Dunfermline 1-2 Queen of South
Elgin 3-0 Albion
Forfar 1-6 Partick Thistle
Inverness CT 3-0 Stranraer
Ross County 2-1 Morton
Stirling 3-1 Stenhousemuir
The Quarter Final games will be played on Sunday 6 September.
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