Inside Left gives you a quick roundup of the various friendlies featuring Scottish teams taking place this evening. In league order, they are:
Cardiff v Celtic
Celtic play their first pre-season game back on British soil when they take on Cardiff City. It’ll be a return to Wales for Dutch defender Glen Loovens who spent three seasons at the Championship side. It’ll be an interesting challenge for Celtic, playing a Championship side. There’s been all this talk of the Old Firm playing in the English leagues, with quite a few pundits in-the-know stroking their beards, stating that the level of Scottish football is such that our sides will struggle, even in the second tier of English football. We’ll see this evening I guess. Cardiff finished 7th last season, losing out to Preston North End for a place in the play-offs, so they’re a decent side.
Perhaps just in case Celtic should wear their new ‘bumblebee’ kit, a kit of such vivid colouring and hues that it would make even a blind man weep.
Following this game, Celtic will travel to London to take part in the Shameless Commercialism Cup, sorry, the Wembley Cup against Tottenham Hotspur and Egyptian side Al-Ahly. And once that sham of a competition is out of the way, Tony and the troops can look forward to a Champions League third qualifying round game against Russian side Dinamo Moscow, currently 7th in the Russian Premier Liga.
Peterhead v Aberdeen
The last time this fixture took place, four goals where scored in a one sided encounter that really showed the difference in class between the divisions. Yes, Peterhead ran out 4-0 winners against a full-strength Aberdeen side in a display we described at the time as a ’shit-fest of epic proportions’. Thankfully it was only pre-season friendly so no damage was done, but still, you’d expect better. Tonight’s fixture sees two members of the Cup Winners Cup winning team leading out their sides: Mark McGhee, new manager of Aberdeen and Neale Cooper, manager at Peterhead. We’ll get another chance to see McGhee’s 4-3-3 in action as the team adapt to this new formation. Keep your fingers crossed.
Chievo v St Mirren
When I was looking up the games for this preview, this particular fixture stuck out. Given that St Mirren have played a few games so far against local sides, it seemed odd that they’d suddenly turn up in Italy for a game against a decent Italian side. There’s quite a few sites that refer to this game (the BBC and Goal.com to name but two), but the official St Mirren website doesn’t mention it. In fact, according to them, the next game will be at home against Morton, next week.
So, after a bit of digging on the forums it turns out this game is actually a behind-closed-doors friendly. Whether this is to spare St Mirren’s blushes is not clear, but there you have it. Seeing as I had already written up the preview on the basis that this game was a full “hang out the bunting, light the flares and let in the Ultras” affair, you can read it anyway. Ignore the bit about the game being streamed. I doubt it very much somehow.
St Mirren have had a relatively straight-forward preseason campaign so far with wins against East Fife, Dumbarton and Ayr United, but for a tougher challenge and a bit of glamour (not to mention good weather) they travel to Italy to take on Serie A side Chievo. The side from Verona, nicknamed “The Flying Donkeys” where promoted form Serie B last season. Incidentally, this game can be streamed online via footballblips.dailyradar.com. Only if you’re really got nothing better to do, mind.
Darlington v Hamilton
Hamilton, enriched by several million quid following the sale of starlet James McCarthy to EPL side Wigan Athletic will travel south to take on League Two side Darlington. Hamilton have also lost influential defender Brian Easton this pre-season (he’s off to join the Scottish revolution at Burnley) and there’s rumours of a possible Colchester move for striker Richard Offiong. If he does go, he’ll be following Joel Thomas at the League One club – he signed earlier this month for £125,000. Manager Billy Reid has pledged to use the transfer money gained to invest in the squad.
Lisburn Distillery v St Johnstone
Freshly promoted from the SPL and still sporting Derek McInnes, the manager they ended last season with. McInnes was tipped to take over from Tony Mowbray at West Brom (he was a former player at the Albion) but decided to stick with The Saints instead. Good news for the Perth side we reckon. St. Johnstone travel to Belfast for a game Ireland’s oldest professional football club, Lisburn Distillery.
Borussia Mönchengladbach v Dundee
Another Scottish team on the road are Dundee, a side we featured earlier this week for their European history. They play their second pre-season friendly against Borussia Mönchengladbach in Bramberg. And not Borussia. Or Mönchengladbach. Whichever.
Having lost their first pre-season against FC Augsburg the Dee where due to play an Austrian side – SV Hallwang – but due to the weather that game was called off. A few phone calls later and now Jocky Scott can look forward to playing some proper Bundesliga opposition. Borussia have already played a few games and managed to lose all of them so far, both against teams that are hard to spell – here we go – Panathinaikos and Steve McLaren’s Twente Enschede. New signing for the Dee Gary Harkins should see his first start in a dark blue shirt.
Forres Mechanics v Inverness CT
Inverness Caley are returning to their roots in the preseason. The Caley, relegated at the end of last season, have been doing the rounds of former Highland League components. In the last few weeks they’ve recorded wins over fellow Inverness side Clachnacuddin (6-1), Buckie Thistle (2-0), Elgin (3-1) and Huntly (5-1). Terry Butcher is determined to return quickly to the SPL, and certainly they’re one of the strongest sides in the Division this season. Forres will use this game to show off their new signings. Midfielder Ross McPherson joined from Forres Thistle and striker Darren Shallicker signed up from Third Division side (and Scottish senior football’s worst team last season) Elgin City.
Dumbarton v Middlesbrough
Dumbarton welcome Championship side Middlesbrough north this evening. Boro will wear black armbands during tomorrow night’s friendly as a mark of respect for Dumbarton skipper Gordon Lennon, who was killed in a car crash last month. Manager Gareth Southgate will also present a bouquet of flowers to the popular right-back’s fiancée, Kelly, and six-month-old son, Kai, before the game.
We’ll update you with the results tomorrow!
Related posts:
- Pre-season friendly results roundup
- The Scottish Football Four to Follow
- Scottish Fitba Weekender
- Scottish League Cup 2nd Round Preview
- Damn you Andrew Little! (or: “The Scottish Fitba Review”)
Tags: Aberdeen, Cardiff, Celtic, Dumbarton, Dundee, Hamilton, Inverness, Pre-season, SFL, SPL, St Johnstone, St. Mirren
