Aye aye, and welcome to another season of Scottish football.
There’s a lot to look forward to this season, we hope, but given the national side’s dismal display against Norway on Wednesday, it’s safe to assume that none of us will be booking flights to South Africa anytime soon. Miracles do happen of course, but we’re talking Walt Disney-esque miracles here, the ones involving fairies and rainbows and so on.
Sure, who wants to go to South Africa anyway? Too hot, too dangerous and the wine is pure pish. Nah, once George Burley get’s the auld heave-ho moments after the final whistle blows following the game against Holland in September, we can look forward to getting ourselves to Rio in 2014.
So, away from international humiliation, there’s the start of the SPL season tomorrow to get ready for. We’ve got four clubs with new managers all making their season debuts: two of those meet in the early game at Pittodrie as Celtic travel to Aberdeen.
The SFL season started last Saturday of course. Judging by the number of yellow cards handed out, the players where more than eager to get stuck in. In total 45 yellow cards where handed out and 7 players where sent off. Cowdenbeath, back in the Second division thanks to Livingston’s free-fall through the divisions celebrated their return by having two of their players sent off and losing 2-1 at home to Arbroath.
Futher north in the Highland League, we’re into game 3 already. Now, regular readers of Inside Left will know that we like to keep an eye on Fort William, arguably the worst team in senior football. Generally bottom of the table for most of the season and regularly on the end of heavy defeats, a casual glance at the table tells you that there’s currently a team even worse than Fort William. Strathspey Thistle, one of the three new teams in the Highland League this season are propping up the table. On goal difference mind you, having lost their two games so far 8-1 and 3-0, as opposed to Fort William’s 6-0 and narrow 3-4 defeats.
And now, we’re pleased to introduce our new regular feature, the Ballbag. Every week, rather than write up every game (which takes too long, and we’re quite lazy), we’ll pick four of the top games across Scotland that you need to know about.
Aberdeen v Celtic
What better way to open up your term as manager of your new club than against a club you not only played for but also expressed more than eager interest in managing. Mark McGhee, the Aberdeen manager faces a stern test when Celtic come to town. Aberdeen’s problems in their pre-season campaign have been described elsewere on this site, but suffice to say it’s not exactly been covered in glory. Between struggling to get players and struggling to get wins, you’d be forgiven for thinking Aberdeen are in for a long and rocky season.
Celtic, by comparison are full of beans. They also have a new manager, former West Brom coach and Celtic player Tony Mowbray, and have a pretty good pre-season under their belt. The win away to Dinamo Moscow in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League them claw back a 1-0 deficit in Glasgow to a stunning 2-1 aggregate win. Celtic are more than ready for the start of the season, strengthened by Marc-Antoine Fortune and Landry N’Guemo from Nancy.
It’ll be interesting to see if McGhee fields a 4-3-3 against Celtic at home, or if he’ll go for a more conservative and traditional 4-4-2. Aberdeen should get on the scoreboard, but should Zander Diamond not play (he’s been out with an injury, amid speculation of a possible move to Celtic) then Aberdeen might be in for a tough afternoon – the defence has been a cause for concern given recent displays. New signing from Swindon Town, defender Jerel Ifil is in for a baptism of fire, while Mark Kerr might have wished for an easier game than this to begin his spell as the new captain of Aberdeen.
Prediction: A win for Celtic: 1-3
Raith v Dundee
Raith Rovers, last seasons Second division champions came within seconds of recording an opening day victory against Queen of the South. A late equalizer from Derek Holmes, in a game in wich both teams where reduced to 10 men saw a share of the points. Dundee meanwhile had a tough enough time against a spirited Morton side. Sean Higgins scored after the break to give the Dens side all three points, but they had to defend for most of the second half to fight back a Morton comeback. Prediction: tough to call, but I’ll go for a Raith win: 1-0.
Alloa v Peterhead
Peterhead came so close to a play-off place last season, only falling behind at the final run-in to the season. They gave Aberdeen a run for their money during the off-season, Neale Cooper’s men 2-0 up at halftime before an Aberdeen comeback saw them lose 3-2. Clearly things are afoot in Peterhead, who opened their 2009/10 campaign with a 2-0 win over troubled Clyde.
Alloa, also known as the Wasps got off to a buzzing start when John Grant, Brian Carrigan and Stuart Noble helped them to a 3-1 win over Dumbarton. Prediction: home advantage, got to go with Alloa: 2-1.
Livingston v Montrose
The only really intersting thing about this game is the fact that Livingston are going to turn up at all. The club are mightily pissed at being relegated to the Third divison following their administration earlier on and are launching an appeal to have their relegation overturned and themselves returned to the First Division. The club are arguing that since they’ve come out of adminstration, there’s no real reason to be in the Third and refused to play their opening game against East Stirlingshire on the grounds it might “prejudice their appeal” to the SFA.
It’s hard to see an organisation as stuck in their ways as the SFA overturning their earlier decision, especially given that the games involving the other impacted teams (Cowdenbeath and Airdrie, both promoted as Livingston where demoted) have already played their games.
Experience, mixed in with a little indignant anger should see Livi emerging from this game with all three points. Prediction: Livi to win 3-0.
Tags: Aberdeen, Alloa, Celtic, Dundee, Four to Follow, Livingston, Peterhead, Predictions, Raith, SFL, SPL
The Livingston situation is an absolute shambles. If they win their appeal to the SFA, then does the SFL back down and re-instate them to Division One?
If they lose their appeal, does this mean that any other club that goes into administration faces automatic relegation? It would cause further chaos, but it would be the only fair outcome. And what happens if an SPL club does likewise?
Imagine if the appeal takes a month. That would have us four games down the line. Livi win the appeal and get reinstated. What happens to Airdrie and Cowdenbeath, not to mention their results?
You cant just reinstate Livi, because that would be to the detriment of the other clubs. Imagine if Cowdenbeath are leading the Second division at the time?
It’s a mess alright, with no easy solution.
Oooft spot on with your prediction Seb for the Dons v Celtic game. But in all honesty the first half the Dons took a tanking. So much so that some of their fans left at half time…dunno whats more worrying the side being walked over like that or fans leaving at half time????