In the SPL we have two teams for whom tomorrow’s game takes on that wee bit of a special meaning.
St. Mirren play their first game at their new ground when Kilmarnock come to visit, while on Sunday, Terry Butcher takes charge of his first game as the new manager of Inverness Caley. It’s going to be a tough run-in to the end of the season, so what better way to get yourself settled in with a game against Celtic, fresh from their marathon League Cup semi-final against Dundee United in midweek. The 21 penalties it took to decide the winner included both goalkeepers taking a shot from 18-yards, but in a touch of complete irony it was Willo Flood who eventually missed the crucial penalty. Flood, who had a medical before (almost) completing his (possible) move to Celtic yesterday, scored a penalty earlier on in the shootout.
We could be wrong, but Willo Flood may well be the first player to lose a semi-final game but still end up playing in the final. Or would he be cup-tied? Do correct us if we’re wrong, we can be reached via the usual channels.
Elsewhere, Falkirk meet Aberdeen again. A tough gig for John Hughes’ men, but the good news for Falkirk is that Aberdeen’s away record is not great. The bad news is that Falkirk’s home record is not much better, Aberdeen are on a run of form at the minute, and, with Caley boosted by a new manager, Falkirk need to get a result in this fixture to put some distance between themselves and the Inverness side – they’re only 2 points behind. Lee Miller scored the winner in the last meeting between the sides earlier on in the season, and we reckon it’ll go the same way again: a win for the Dons in this game.
Hamilton got a vital win at home to Kilmarnock last weekend that sees them push their way into the clutch of teams that sit safely in midtable. They meet Hearts, a team no doubt keen to reclaim third spot from Dundee United. The Jambos had a thrilling (or close, depending on your point of view) 3-2 win over Caley last weekend but it was hard work, suggesting perhaps that this game might also be close, or thrilling, or both.
Next up are Hibernian, who take on a much improved Motherwell at Easter Road. Hibs where a touch unlucky (or just crap) to find themselves 2-0 down after only 10 minutes against Celtic last weekend, but the fact the score remained reasonably respectable (3-1) shows that there’s plenty of fighting spirit to be had amongst Mixu’s men. Motherwell look set to lose top scoring striker Chris Porter to Cardiff in the transfer window, but Mark McGhee no doubt will hope that he’s still around for this fixture – the three points could push them into their highest league position of the season so far, and set them up nicely for the league split in April.
Rangers, who where absolutely terrible at Pittodrie last week need to crank it up for the visit of Dundee United to Ibrox. United of course are a team that have given both sides of the Old Firm some tough challenges of late and are, in fact, the only side not to have lost to the Old Firm in regular time this season. United will be tired and possibly a wee bit demoralised after that midweek Cup exit, while Rangers cruised comfortably through against Falkirk to set up their first Final of the season against Celtic. Much depends on Levein’s ability to pick up his troops for this vital clash, while Rangers just need to keep winning to keep up with Celtic. Four points is the difference at the moment, and manager Walter Smith will want to post a good win here tomorrow to send a shot across the Celtic bows and pile on the psychological pressure. If Levein succeeds in rallying the troops, expect a cracking game; otherwise, a comfortable Rangers win.
So, after all that we end up at the two Gala games in the SPL.
St Mirren v Kilmarnock
Normally this is not a game we’d get all excited about. St. Mirren, Kilmarnock, two teams who never quite set the heather alight and whose seasons so far have been pretty anonymous. St Mirren’s shock win over Rangers earlier on in the season and Killie’s wins over Aberdeen and United (both in terrible form at the time) aside, there’s not much that sticks out.
For anyone writing football previews, like me, these kinds of games always cause much scratching of heads, scouring of facts and endless cups of coffee in order to fill the 200-word minimum write-up required for this site. If you’re counting, we’re at word 106 and so far we’ve said nothing interesting about either of these teams. Well, there’s the fact that Killy have signed Kevin Kyle from Coventry on an 18-month contract, or that St Mirren are offering 42-year-old Craig Brewster a chance to pull on his boots and train with the Buddies (although we think Brewster should do the decent thing and sign up at Forfar Athletic, there to do what all decent footballers do and play out his career in the Third division), but other than that …
But wait: there is something about this game that makes it worthy of a paragraph break. This weekend, those fans heading down to Love Street, Paisley PA3 2EJ will be in for a big surprise (and we’re not talking about the apparent ease of parking around the ground). Tomorrows game marks the end of 114 years of football at Love Street and the first game at the new 8,000 seater St Mirren Park (as ‘Love Street’ was originally called). The new stadium, less than a mile from the old one is funded mainly by the sale of Love Street to supermarket chain Tesco’s for £15m, the money also helping to clear the clubs debts. Nice!
Inverness Caley Thistle v Celtic
For all their woes, Caley actually have a good record against Celtic this season. Sure, they lost both games, but the scores (1-0 and 1-2) suggest that on their day, Caley might just pull it off. Added to that belief is the boost that a new manager brings to a club in his first game in charge. Most managers would prefer a gentle introduction to their reign, but not so Terry Butcher we reckon. An ‘uncompromising’ defender (we’d have called him a ‘hard man’ in my day) who loved to get stuck into the opposition, Terry will no doubt be telling his player to make use of the home advantage and push (perhaps literally) Celtic all the way. It’s important they stamp their authority on this game early on to prevent Celtic taking charge – failure to do so could be lethal. Expect Butcher to get his defence organised a little better than it has been of late, meaning that for Celtic, they’ll have to work hard to get a result. They have the advantage of knowing the Rangers score before they start the game – a defeat for Rangers against United would take some of that pressure off, but should Rangers win, that single point separating the sides at 1230 on Sunday might be the motivation Celtic need to get a good result – and that’s bad news for Caley. An exciting game, we predict a draw: 1-1.
Scottish First Division
With only the one team promoted from the First division, there’s no room for second place. Unlike the SPL, where there is generally always a big gap between the top two and the rest, the First division generally sees a little more in the way of competition and excitement. St. Johnstone still lead proceedings by five points from Dunfermline and Partick Thistle (although both Saints and the Pars have two games in hand). Derek McInnes takes his troops to Greenock this weekend and a tie with Morton. Of the three top teams, they probably have the harder task – Dunfermline take on second bottom Queen of the South while Partick Thistle go one place further down to take on bottom side Airdrie. Dundee meet Clyde in a solid middle-of-the-table clash (a point separates the teams and a win could, in theory move either one of these sides up to fourth or fifth).
All eyes will be on the Almondvale, Livingston where the Livi players are rumoured to not play their game against Ross County as a protest at the somewhat shabby treatment they’ve been getting at the hands of the owners. According to reports, the players have not been paid their wages (for the fifth time in seven months). Not turning up for the game will probably end up with the club incurring heavy fines which, given the financial circumstances is a bit of an own goal. Perhaps (and we’re not suggesting for a moment they do this) scoring a series of own goals might send out a stronger message to the board to stop messing the players about and get their act together. Mind you, knowing the league, they’ll probably get fined for that too …
Scottish Second Division
Like Livingston a division above them, Stranraer are also having a tough time of it. Keith Knox was appointed caretaker-manager earlier on this week, but even if he somehow makes up the seven point gap that separates his team from the rest of the league, he’s got to worry about whether the club will survive that long. It’ll be a tragedy if he keeps the club up (still quite possible with the amount of games left) only for all that effort to go to waste should the club fold under the £250,000 debt the Dumfries side are carrying. They take on Queens Park at Hampden tomorrow.
The Second division game of the weekend takes place in Ayr as second plays first. Raith Rovers lead Ayr United by five points. With six points separating second from third spot, both these sides are ideally placed to fight it out for promotion to the First division. East Fife take on Peterhead, while Brechin will hope that Stirling Albion don’t repeat their eight-goal score against Stranraer last week when the two meet at Glebe Park. Lastly, Arbroath can move up to 8th place if they overcome Alloa at Gayfield Park tomorrow.
Scottish Third Division
The Dumbarton v Montrose game is probably the Third division highlight of the day. The two teams are in third and fourth respectively with only two points keeping them apart. League leaders Cowdenbeath will hope to extend their lead at the top of the Third division when Annan Athletic come to town. You may remember that the Blue Brazil where Annan’s first opponents in the senior league – the 4-1 win for the Galabankies was a bit of a shock result. Don’t bank on history repeating itself though. Stenhousemuir welcome bottom side Elgin to town – the City are under new management but have yet to win a game since the appointment. The City’s last game was a very credible 1-1 draw against Cowdenbeath, but that was nearly two weeks ago and Elgin haven’t played a game since. Expect another defeat tomorrow. In the remaining fixtures, East Stirling will hope to finally shake off our ‘Performance of the Week’ curse then they travel to England to play Berwick Rangers, while Forfar, possibly with Craig Brewster in the lineup, meet Albion Rovers.
Scot-Ads Highland Football League
The Highland League committee met on Wednesday to hear four Junior sides present their cases for election into the league. Formartine United, Strathspey Thistle, Banks O’ Dee and Turrif United all applied following the leagues decision to expand from 15 to 16 teams. The lucky applicants will known the outcome at the end of February, but word on the street is that the league may well consider more than one applicant.
We’d like to take this opportunity to mention Fraserburgh manager Charlie Duncan who suffered a heart attack earlier this week; he’s currently in intensive care at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.
Charlie is expected to make a full recovery, so, on behalf of all at Inside Left, we’d like to wish him a speedy return to health.
The fixtures in the Highland League this weekend are as follows.
Brora v Nairn County
Clachnacuddin v Huntly
Deveronvale v Forres Mechanics
Inverurie Locos v Buckie Thistle
Keith v Wick Academy
Lossiemouth v Fraserburgh
Rothes v Cove Rangers
Right, that’s your lot. As always, let us know how your side got on this weekend!
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With regards to Willo Flood playing in the cup final, he’d surely be cup tied? I may be being a tad dense here, but if a player plays at some point through the competition, and signs on for someone else still in the cup, surely he becomes unable to play for the second team in that cup?
I seem to remember Gillingham(?) fielding an unavailable player in an FA Cup game a few years back and getting a fine or maybe a replay was played. The player had been on loan somewhere, played 5 minutes as a sub for whichever team and when he was sent back to Gillingham(?) they used him as a sub because no-one at the loan team had mentioned it. Neither did the player, the dozy sod.