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
30/09/2009
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.
Labels:
Aberdeen,
Asides,
Auchinleck Talbot,
Dundee,
Fort William,
Livingston,
Queen's Park,
Rangers,
Ross County,
Scottish Cup,
SFL,
SPL
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!
Labels:
Celtic,
Dundee United,
Falkirk,
Hamilton,
Hearts,
Hibernian,
Kilmarnock,
Match Day,
Motherwell,
Scottish football,
SPL,
St. Mirren
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)
Labels:
Asides,
Berwick,
Brora,
Clachnacuddin,
Cowdenbeath,
Dumbarton,
East Fife,
East Stirling,
Elgin,
Hibernian,
Highland League,
Livingston,
Montrose,
Morton,
Raith,
SFL,
SPL,
St Johnstone,
Stirling,
Stranraer
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.
Labels:
Aberdeen,
Asides,
Eddie May,
Falkirk,
mark mcghee,
Scottish Premier League,
SPL
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.
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