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The Gala Weekend Scottish Football Preview

Friday, February 6th, 2009

The fifth round of the Scottish Cup takes place this weekend. As you’d expect at this stage of the competition, there’s no fewer than four all-SPL ties. For those of you following teams in the SFL, there’s three interesting games for you too; East Fife, Queens Park and Forfar all take on SPL opposition.

We preview the weekends action, and the staff at Inside Left give us their views and predictions on the weekends action (standard disclaimers apply). We begin this weekends preview with the Fifth round Scottish Cup fixtures.

The Homecoming Scottish Cup

Aberdeen v East Fife

A win for Aberdeen in this game should be the end result, but you just never know. Aberdeen are one of those sides that can surprise you and as we’ve already seen in this years Cup competition, they’re not always comfortable playing lower league opposition. The Dons are in good form, now having won seven games in a row at Pittodrie. East Fife have won quite impressively in recent weeks (Stenhousemuir, Arbroath and Queen’s Park), but the 3-0 defeat against Peterhead last Saturday put an end to that run. My prediction: possibly tight, a car crash waiting to happen. 2-0 to Aberdeen (SG)

Airdrie v Dunfermline

(postponed, frozen pitch)
A nice all First Division tie. The Pars lost, somewhat surprisingly, at home to Queen of the South last week. Despite a good start to the season, Dunfermline now lie six points behind St Johnstone (who have two games in hand). Against Airdrie then, I fancy them to get a result. (DG)

Celtic v Queen’s Park

A clash of two of the giants of the Scottish game, and the first one since 1986. The days when Queen’s Park regularly beat their Glasgow rivals are long gone – we’re talking the 1890’s – and I don’t see anything other than a thumping Celtic win here tomorrow either. Celtic manager Gordon Strachan has already come out saying he wont underestimate Queen’s, and will be putting out a strong side to make sure of a victory. My prediction: a gala day out for Queen’s, a comfortable win for Celtic. (AK)

Forfar v Rangers

(Sunday)
Provided this game goes ahead, expect Rangers to cruise to an easy victory here. That’s not to take anything away from Forfar, but Rangers are simply going to be too strong. If I was Walter Smith, I’d put out a full strength team, and try and break some scoring records. Nothing boosts morale like a good double-digit victory against some hapless opponents. In the past Rangers have come close (9-1, 7-0, 5-2, 6-0), but no cigar. Player lower league teams comes with a certain degree of risk – mainly injuries to fragile SPL players not accustomed to the pitch and the more heavy-handed approach commonly found the lower down you go in the leagues – but the Quarter Final beckons for Rangers. (SG)

Throw Ins : Scottish Cup news from the BBC

Aberdeen v East Fife
Celtic v Queen’s Park
Forfar v Rangers

Hamilton v Dundee United

Hamilton have yet to lose to United in the League this season, and their fortunes have taken a bit of a turn of late. Recent wins against Hearts, Inverness Kilmarnock and Aberdeen have seen the team rise into mid-table safety, defying our pre-season predictions of a swift return to the First division. United lost to Rangers last weekend, the first time they’ve been beaten by either half of the Old Firm this season. Both United and Hamilton survived the January transfer window reasonably intact; United lost Willo Flood to Celtic, but got Paul Caddis and Cillian Sheridan in return on loan, while Hamilton got aonther Celtic youngster, Rocco Quinn (loan) as well as former Gretna hitman Kenny Deuchar. It should be an interesting game; I’ve got to go for a United win. (AK)

In the other games, Hearts take on Falkirk (Hearts win), Inverness go for their first win under Terry Butcher when they take on Kilmarnock (a 1-1 draw, Killie to win the replay), while St Mirren travel the short distance to Motherwell (a St Mirren win)

Scottish First Division

Livingston v Dundee

The Livingston bandwagon rolls on. The much-rumoured players strike over unpaid wages failed to materialise which was just as well really – the 4-2 win over Ross County, coupled with Partick Thistle’s home defeat against bottom side Airdrie now puts Livi only 1 point behind Thistle. Following the departure of James McPake to Coventry in the January transfer window, Chris Innes has been named as new club captain. Innes, who arrived on a free transfer over the summer was previously captain at Gretna. Dundee will be going for their first back-to-back win this season; the Dee beat Clyde 2-1 last weekend.

Ross County v St Johnstone

Ross County, with new player-coach Craig Brewster welcome title contenders St Johnstone to Dingwall. The Saints good run of form has come to a bit of a halt of late, with goalless draws against Thistle and Morton. In fact, Derek McInnes’ men haven’t won a game since the end of December. Weather played a large part of that (they’ve got two games in hand) but only four goals in seven outings is not the sort of form that’ll keep you at the top of the table for too long. Admittedly they’re not losing, but you’d have to wonder how all those dropped points are going to impact them come May.

Scottish Second Division

Alloa narrowly lost to Arbroath last weekend, a second-half penalty proving to be the difference. The Wasps face another tricky tie this weekend when Ayr United visit. Ayr United had a cracking game against league leaders Raith Rovers last weekend (2-2), doing well to come back from 2-0 down to earn a share of the points. Peterhead, who won 3-0 away at East Fife, welcome Arbroath while struggling Stranraer (who drew 1-1 with Queens Park) will play Brechin.

Scottish Third Division

Aside from Forfar and Cowdenbeath, there’s a full fixture card in the Third division. Montrose will be looking for a win to keep them in the play-off places; they take on second from bottom Berwick Rangers. East Stirling could jump into fourth spot should Montrose lose, but they’ll need to beat Albion Rovers to do so. Stenhousemuir will move to within a point of Cowdenbeath with a win over Annan, but there’s little Elgin City can do to prevent them from finishing bottom of the league. Adrift by some 19 points, they take on third placed Dumbarton.

Highland Football League

It remains to be seen how many of these games will get the go-ahead, but the games to keep an eye out for are the local derby up in Buckie, as well as the game up at Bellslea Park when second placed Keith take on a much improved Fraserburgh side, currently lying four points behind the Maroons. Defending champions Cove Rangers take on Nairn County. Inverurie Locos will hope to put the disappointment of their Scottish Cup exit at the hands of Motherwell behind them when Clachnacuddin come to Harlaw Park. Lossiemouth make a relatively short trip (some 143 miles each way) to play Wick Academy.

The full fixture lists looks like this:

Buckie Thistle v Deveronvale
Cove Rangers v Nairn County
Fort William v Rothes
Fraserburgh v Keith
Huntly v Forres Mechanics
Inverurie Loco Works v Clachnacuddin
Wick Academy v Lossiemouth

The Inside Left Predictions

Doug Gillman

The meeting between Forfar and Rangers will be a slaughter so it’s probably best to stay away from Station Park if you’re of a nervous disposition – or a Forfar fan. Like our erstwhile Editor, I believe the Aberdeen-East Fife game has upset written all over it. In the league,  Dumbarton are in action this weekend against bottom side Elgin City – an easy three points by any standards given our respective league positions, though it took a Ray Logan goal 15 minutes from time to salvage a point back in August.  With Cowdenbeath not playing, second placed Stenhousemuir have a good opportunity to close the gap with a win over Annan Athletic.

Elaine Garrow

Who needs the Scottish Cup for thrills when without doubt the biggest game this weekend is the meeting between Buckie Thistle and Deveronvale at the Victoria Ground. Deveronvale are unbeaten away from home in the league this season though of course they’ll be out to avenge that 2-0 defeat up in Banff back in November – it was the first win for new Buckie boss Gregg Carrol and set them off on a run of results that now has the Jags in fourth place – seven points behind league leaders Deveronvale. Given the proximity of the teams in the Highland League, practically every fixture is a derby game, but this one is one of the more keenly contested.

As for the other games – I reckon Fort William might win this weekend. They play third from bottom Rothes at home (weather permitting of course) a team to whom they lost 3-0 in August, but only 1-0 in their second meeting back in November. They’ve got to win sometime – perhaps this is the one? Craig Brewser, the ‘Peter Pan’ of football, puts on his boots once again as he takes to the field in the dark blue of Ross County. The 42 year-old has signed on as player-coach with the Dingwall team following his sacking from Inverness Caley the other week. He’s on the team sheet for the league game against St Johnstone, but whether he’ll actually get on remains to be seen.

Andy Kennedy

Clearly the game of the weekend is up at Pittodrie. And I say that not just as an Aberdeen fan, but because if there’s going to be any shocks or upsets this weekend, you can bet the barn that this is where it’s going to happen. Surprisingly (or perhaps ominously) East Fife have a good Scottish Cup record against the Dons, having won the majority of the Cup fixtures the two teams have played. The most recent meeting was back in 1965, when East Fife won 1-0 in a replay with Aberdeen’s only(!) Cup win against East Fife was back in 1959. On paper of course, Aberdeen are easy favourites but our performances against Ayr United and Alloa in the previous rounds would suggest that we’re not comfortable against lower league opposition. Jimmy Calderwood has already said he’ll put out a strong squad, no doubt hoping to avoid the Queen of the South incident from last year.

Elsewhere, I fear for Forfar – history is not on their side in this fixture. A full house at Station Park should spur the team on, but you cant help feeling it’s going to be a long afternoon. Terry Butcher faces another stern test in the form of Kilmarnock. They did well last week to get that draw with Celtic and the confidence it must have given them will do them well against Killie. The results went against Thistle (both Falkirk and Hamilton won), making the task that Butcher faces to keep Caley from the drop much harder still but the point (any point) is welcome at this stage.

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The AFC Update

Saturday, December 6th, 2008

With today’s game against Killie called off because they forgot to switch the under soil heating on, here’s a quick update on everything that’s happened down Pittodrie-way in the last two weeks or so.

Aberdeen – the greatest team north of the Tay – played their game against Rangers (a 2-0 defeat at Castle Greyskull) and they won their third home game in a row when they cruised past a completely crap Motherwell (a nice 2-0 win, to make up for that dip in the ‘GA’ column incurred against the Orcs).

So, a win and a defeat. All in all, not too bad. In the game against Rangers, we where by far the better side in the opening 45 minutes. Lee Miller and Sone Aluko caused enough grief in the Rangers defence (Lee McCulloch, a defender – aye, that will be right), while Mark Kerr had a good game in the midfield. Together with Gary McDonald – who we rate quite highly though he’s no Barry Nicholson – the two had a satisfying afternoon. But, as usual, it was the defence, or lack thereof that proved our own undoing. Like the game against Hibs, where we lost 2 crap goals after being two goals up, we conceded sloppy stramashy goals we shouldn’t be conceding at this level. Aye ok, so Rangers where all over us like a cheap suit in the second half and we did well to hold out as long as we did but really Jimmy needs to get that defence sorted out in January if we’re to stand any chance of staying in the top half.

So with those three points staying in Govan and the wait for a victory at Greyskull continues (it has only been 17 years, sure we can wait a bit longer), Aberdeen had a game against Motherwell to look forward to. In itself not particularly exciting, but what made this game stand out was that it was Mr Calderwood’s 200th game in charge of the Dandies. He’s certainly lasted longer that most would have wished, but the fact remains that he’s been our most succesfull manager since that Ferguson guy. Ok, success is relative these days with the Old Firm dominating the league and all that, but a third and fourth spot in the last few years is not bad by Scottish Premier League standards. Like most Aberdeen seasons (and for that matter, Aberdeen managers) it’s been 200 games of highs (European football last year and that cracking 4-0 win over Copenhagen), some lows (getting knocked out of the League Cup by Queens Park) and lots (and we mean *lots*) of mediocrity in-between. Still, follow, follow, we will follo … oh shit no, wrong song.

You know what I mean.

So, on to Motherwell and boy oh boy, they where guff. It wasn’t a great game (one for the ‘mediocre’ column), but that’s not to take away anything from the fact that Aberdeen played well (in our opinion, one not shared by everyone): Scott Severin and Mark Kerr in particular looking good while Sone Aluko had another blinder until he got substituted. The win got us into 5th spot, miles behind the Arabs but there’s still plenty of time to catch up.

Despite the win, it didn’t stop the rumours about Jimmy’s future starting up again. In midweek, director of football and all-round club legend Willie Miller said “I’ve no doubt about his coaching ability, I think he’s a very, very good coach. I hope the fans stay with him.” We hope the club sticks with him, not because we think he’s a great coach per se, but there’s not really anyone better out there. We’re not wanting to fan the flames of speculation, but Mark McGhee’s name has been mentioned – mind you, after that showing against Motherwell I think we could do a lot better. Then again, given Motherwell’s season so far (a good example of second season blues) we think Motherwell could do a lot better.

This Saturday we would have travelled down to deepest Ayrshire for a game against another struggling side, Kilmarnock, but the game got cancelled unfortunately. Ti’s a shame, we where so looking forward to the four hour drive south.  Killie lost games against teams below them in league (2-1 at home to Caley and 1-0 away to Hamilton) so either we’d have given them a pasting (like we did at the start of November, the crushing 1-0 win at Pittodrie starting our now unbeaten run at home), or it would have been another 4-2 defeat like in the League Cup back in September.

Our next game is at home to Falkirk, who lost at home to St. Mirren this weekend. It’s a game we should win based on our home form of late but assumptions are the mothers of all fuckups so lets wait and see. Whatever happens, lets hope it’s a game we can put down in the ‘incredible highs’ column, though we’d settle for ‘mediocre’.

Just not another ‘incredible low’ please – I’m not sure I could take it.

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The Weekend’s Action – 29th November

Friday, November 28th, 2008

As we approach the half-way point of the season, it is business as usual in the SPL. Celtic lead the table, Rangers second and then a huge (symbolic) gap as Hearts and the rest of the chasing pack trail miles behind. It’s hardly exciting at this stage – the league has been won. And that is not just the bitter and cynical opinion of an Aberdeen fan, it’s just a cold, hard fact. We cant quite work out whether making third or fourth spot still merits a European spot – thanks to the woeful performance of Scottish teams in Europe this season – but even if it doesn’t, the rest of us all know that the team that finishes third is the real champion of Scotland.

So given that the SPL is largely pointless, how glad we are to see in our Little Red Book that this weekend is Scottish Cup weekend! Yes, it’s time for the grass-roots of the game to show the superfly nancyboys of the SPL what football is really all about. As always in these preliminary rounds (technically it’s the Third round) there’s a bunch of teams we’ve never heard of but they add that little bit of colour to the Scottish game that is so desperately lacking in the SPL.

In the SPL, the game of the week is without doubt the clash between Hearts and Rangers. Rangers, second. Hearts, third. With Celtic having a relatively easy game (famous last words), Rangers would need a win here to keep the pressure up on Celtic, whom they trail by four points. Hearts lost the first meeting with Rangers earlier this season but since then they’ve put together a good run of results that has seen them rise to third spot, but this will be their first real test since their 2-0 defeat to Celtic earlier on this season.

Elsewhere, Celtic welcome Inverness Caley to Parkhead for an easy three points no doubt. Much improved Falkirk meet another team that has started to show signs of life – courtesy of last weekends 4-1 demolition of Motherwell – Hibernian. Bottom of the league Hamilton take on Kilmarnock and Dundee United make their last trip to Love Street where Gus McPherson’s St. Mirren lie in wait. Aberdeen get another chance to improve on their terrible home record when former Aberdeen legend Mark McGhee takes his Motherwell team ‘oop north. For manager Jimmy Calderwood it’s his 200th game in charge of the Dons. It seems like a lot more somehow …

The game between Dundee and their rivals from up the road St. Johnstone, is the only game of the weekend in the First division, the rest of the league taking their chances against lower, lower, lower league opposition in the Scottish Cup. Unless you’re Livingston in which case you’ll be better off spending the weekend looking for pennies behind the sofa.

St. Johnstone of course, are leading the First division, something we had not expected to be honest. We had Dundee as favourites for promotion this season but, managerial issues aside, Dundee have been pure keech so far. New manager Jocky Scott is starting to string the results together (a draw and two wins since he took over, including wins against teams above them in the league) but tomorrow’s game will be a real test for the Dee’s. St. Johnstone are looking like real contenders this season – lets just hope they can keep up the form until the New Year: since the 2004/05 season, the team in first place on New Years day also won promotion (Inverness, Falkirk, St. Mirren, Gretna and Hamilton).

With pishing rain forecast for most of Scotland, expect many of the games in the Scottish Cup to be called off. The Highland league is represented by four teams, all except current league leaders Inverurie playing opposition from further up the league structure. There’s only two matches that feature two teams from the same division. East Fife take on an Arbroath side that has managed to get themselves off the bottom of the Second division table, while two more Second division teams in the shape of league leaders Raith and Alloa do battle.

The full list of fixtures is as follows, with all games kicking off, weather permitting at 3pm.

Airdrie Utd v Cove Rangers
Albion v Queens Park
Clachnacuddin v Stenhousemuir
Clyde v Montrose
East Fife v Arbroath
East Stirling v Livingston
Edinburgh City v Brechin
Elgin v Spartans
Forfar v Stranraer
Forres Mechanics v Dalbeattie Star
Inverurie Locos v Vale Of Leithen
Lochee Utd v Ayr
Peterhead v Morton
Raith v Alloa
Ross County v Dumbarton
Stirling v Partick Thistle

There are five games in the Highland League. Wick Academy travel to Banff to take on Deveronvale hoping to avoid the 10-0 pounding they Vale handed out to Fort William last week. Speaking of which, the Fort take on Keith up in Lochabers. Could there be another goal fest on the cards?

Deveronvale v Wick Academy
Fort William v Keith
Lossiemouth v Huntly
Nairn County v Brora
Rothes v Buckie Thistle

Those are the fixtures for the weekend. If you’re going to any of the games, drop us a line when you get back and tell us how your team got on.

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The Weekend Action in Scotland – 25th October

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

It’s been another gala day of football across Scotland.  Plenty of goals, with lots of drama and controversy. The second round of the Scottish Cup started today as well so it was another good chance for the lower league sides to show us what they’re made of.

There where a few surprises in the SPL, while elsewhere the problems continue for  Dundee and Arbroath, who both lost.  In the Scottish Cup three Highland League clubs record wins to progress into the third round of the Scottish Cup. But first …

Why do we do it? Why do we continue to do score predictions when we know we’re garbage at them? Yes, thanks to Chuck from the Arab Blog, we caved in to peer pressure and had another desperate attempt at predicting the outcome of the games. We’ve said before we wouldn’t do it, given our track record but ah well, one more wont hurt, will it? Here’s how we saw it:

Celtic 2 v 0 Hibernian
Dundee United 0 v 1 St Mirren
Hamilton 0 v 3 Rangers
Hearts 1 v 1 Aberdeen
Kilmarnock 2 v 1 Falkirk
Inverness 1 v 0 Motherwell

and this is what actually happened

Celtic 4 v 2 Hibernian
Dundee United 2 v 0 St Mirren
Hamilton 1 v 3 Rangers
Hearts 1 v 1 Aberdeen
Kilmarnock 1 v 2 Falkirk
Inverness 1 v 2 Motherwell

In summary, we picked the right winner in two of the games, the right score in one of them; the rest where just plain wrong. So Chuck, and everyone else who emailed us asking us for our predictions, the answer is no.

There where no surprises at New Douglas Park in the early kick off as Rangers demolished Hamilton 3-1. Even Kris Boyd, a striker much in the news of late scoring two goals came as no surprise, just more business as usual. Nacho Novo, possibly soon to be seen in a Scotland shirt (in place of Boyd, for added irony) added the third. Accies did gave Rangers a scare by cheekily going ahead on the half hour mark when Brian Easton headed home. New signing Trent McClenahan then conceded a penalty allowing Rangers – through Kris Boyd – to draw level before the break. Shortly after the restart, Boyd added a second, heading in from close range, before Nacho Novo took advantage of some poor defending to add a third with 10 minutes to go.

The eagerly awaited return of Derek Riordan to Parkhead failed to inspire a famous Hibs victory as Celtic maintained their lead at the top of the SPL with a 4-2 win. McManus, Sheridan, Loovens and Scott Brown got on the scoresheet for Celtic, while Steven Fletcher and Colin Nish scored for the Hibees. An exciting game by all accounts and credit to Hibs for pulling back to 2-2 at Parkhead.

Hearts and Aberdeen fought out an eventful 1-1 draw at Tynecastle in conditions that can at best be described as ‘testing’. Strong winds and rain made for a scrappy encounter. It was Aberdeen who struck first from an impressive start – Darren Mackie got on the end of a cracking Andrew Considine pass, worked his way past Zaliukas  before driving a low ball Janos Balogh in the Hearts’ goal. The least was only short however, as Lee Wallace and Christian Nade interchanged passes before Wallace fired the ball high into the net past Langfield. Both sides had chances to score as both Nade and Jamie Mole missed from close range, while Aberdeen where unlucky when both Hodgkiss and Miller where denied by the woodwork as the game wore on. There was time for some more controversy though just before the end. Michael Stewart appeared to be brought down by Langfield in the final five minutes of the game. Referee Steve Conroy awarded the spot kick to the home team but after protests from Langfield, Conroy consulted his linesman and changed his mind, deciding instead that Stewart had dived and awarded a goal kick instead. Somewhat surprisingly, the Hearts midfielder was not booked for diving. Charlie Mulgrew, so often an effective ‘impact’ substitution came on for Lee Miller with only a few minutes left. His first action was to clear of the line in the dying minutes to keep the score level at 1-1 and secure the point for the Dons.

Two late goals see Dundee United beat St. Mirren in a highly emotionally charged game at Tannadice. The first home game since the death of chairman Eddie Thompson last week saw 11,000 United supporters maintain a minutes silence before kickoff. Goals from Craig Conway and Roy O’Donovan (his first in United colours) in the last 10 minutes secured the points for a clearly relieved Craig Levein. Check with The Arab Blog for a review of that game soon.

There where two away wins for teams we though would lose yesterday. Former Aberdeen striker Steve Lovell’s scored one of Falkirk’s goals in the 2-1 win over Kilmarnock (he’d later get sent off). Youngster Scott Arfield’s second half penalty was enough to send the points back to Falkirk, despite the late consolation goal from Donovan Simmonds. Motherwell also won away from home, this time at Inverness Caley Thistle. Bob Malcolm and Chris Porter’s goals saw Motherwell take all three points at a wet and windy Caledonian Stadium. Adam Rooney had given the home side the lead two minutes into the second half.

Hamilton’s defeat at home to Rangers now has them in bottom place in the SPL. Celtic remain top while Kilmarnock remain third despite the defeat, yet they still trail second placed Rangers by a massive seven points. Walter Smith’s team have a game in hand, as do Dundee United who now occupy fourth spot.

In the First Division, Queen of the South are now clear at the top of the table following their 2-0 win over Ross County in Dingwall. St. Johnstone continue their fine form with a convincing 3-0 win over Partick Thistle, while the problems continue for Dundee, as they go down 2-0 away to Morton who have now won two games in a row. Clyde also record a much needed 2-1 win over Livingston.

The Doonhamers remain top, followed closely by St. Johnstone, who trail the Dumfries side by one point. Dunfermline, Livingston and Partick make up the chasing pack. Morton remain bottom but are now only two points behind troubled Dundee.

There where no real surprised in the Second Division. Leaders Brechin won 2-1 at Queens Park (two goals in a minute for either side late in the second half tipping the balance in favour of the Glebe Park outfit). Raith Rovers remain second after their 2-0 win away at Stranraer and there where victories for East Fife, who beat Arbroath 3-2 despite playing most of the game with only nine men, and Alloa, who beat Peterhead thanks to a late John Grant goal. Ayr and Stirling played out a 1-1 draw – the Honest Men had Ryan Stevenson sent off just after the break.

Scottish Cup

On a wet and windy day across Scotland, the games at Annan, Civil Service Strollers (they play in  Edinburgh) and East Fife where abandoned due to waterlogged pitches, but there where still plenty of games to keep the crowds entertained.

Albion Rovers, Dumbarton, Elgin City, Forfar Athletic, Montrose and Stenhousemuir all recorded victories in their games. They’ll be joined in Monday’s draw by Lochee United (who beat Highland League outfit Buckie Thistle), Cove Rangers, Clachnacuddin and Inverurie Locos, who beat local side Banks ‘O Dee 5-1. Other Highland League teams still in the running include Wick Academy (who drew their game with Edinburgh City 0-0) as well as Forres and Keith, who’ll need a replay to decide the winner; the sides drew 1-1. Dalbeattie Star, who play in the East of Scotland League recorded the top score of the day when they beat fellow division team Selkirk 6-0.

East Stirling take on Preston Athletic in todays game (weather permitting, of course). The results in full where as follows:

Berwick 1-2 Albion
Brora 1-3 Forfar
Clachnacuddin 1-0 Crichton
Cove Rangers 1-0 Whitehill Welfare
Cowdenbeath 1-2 Elgin
Dalbeattie Star 6-0 Selkirk
Edinburgh City 0-0 Wick Academy
Forres Mechanics 1-1 Keith
Fraserburgh 0-1 Dumbarton
Inverurie Locos 5-1 Banks O'Dee
Lochee Utd 3-0 Buckie Thistle
Montrose 2-0 Huntly
Stenhousemuir 5-0 Threave Rovers

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The Midweek Update

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

Aye aye all, it’s Wednesday (if only just), so just time for a quick update. This week we have news of another disastrous week of European football for the only Scottish team left in the Champions League and the third managerial casualty of the season tries to make ends meet with his Giro. We begin though with a team that gets regular billing on Inside Left.

As regular readers will know, we’ve been following the developments at Highland League outfit Fort William for some time now. The Fort, arguably one of Scotland’s worst senior league teams will be taking part in a revolutionary reality show called “America’s Team”, in which a selection of American players, chosen by the subscribers to the show will become part of the team and work towards improving the clubs results. It’s a similar setup to the one currently going on at Ebbsfleet United in England, where members get a vote on transfers as well as player selection and all major decisions.

This week, Paul McDonald, who owns the media company behind “America’s Team”, PMAC Tonight Entertainment, was in the town to watch the side take on Skye outfit Ballachulish in a friendly game at the fantastically situated Claggan Park. The Fort ran out comfortable 9-3 winners and cameras where on hand to record the events.

For more information about the goings on at Fort William, check out the official site, www.AmericasTeamFC.com.

While all this was going on, Dundee manager Alex Rae was having a much less entertaining afternoon. On Saturday, his side went down 2-1 at home to Ross County, a defeat which led to the board relieving the former Rangers player of his duties, despite getting assurances from the board the previous week that his job was safe. Assistant manager David Farrell will take care of first team duties until a successor has been appointed.  Favourites for the vacant position at Dens include Queen of the South manager Gordon Chisholm, Billy Dodds, Airdrie United’s Kenny Black and Jimmy Nicholl, presently assistant with Aberdeen.

Dundee take on another team struggling with form this Saturday when they travel to Greenock to take on Morton. The Ton manager Davie Irons is another manager who should be worried about his job – Morton are bottom of the First division and won only their first home game of the season on Saturday against Clyde, the team directly above them in the league. The victory, courtesy of a James Grady goal probably saved Irons his job.

Alex Rae’s sacking, no doubt prompted by the title-challengers slide down the table from 1st to 8th, follows on from that of Stephen Frail at Hearts and Jim Weir at Montrose earlier this month. This got us thinking about other managers under pressure in the SPL currently. Here’s who we think might be in trouble if things don’t start improving soon.

Jimmy Calderwood, the Aberdeen manager, is in his fourth season at the club and while there’s no denying that the general trend has been one of slow, if not stellar improvement, this season has been pretty horrendous so far. Still without a home win, the Dons picked up their first win in six attempts last week against Falkirk. While the squad is strong, on the field things are just not quite coming together, making many wonder if Calderwood has enough experience to make the changes required and get the Dons back to a respectable position. Given that love-hate relationship that the supporters have with the manager, affectionately known as ‘Tango’ to most supporters, it wont take much more to make the calls for his sacking that bit louder. The Dons play Hearts and Kilmarnock next – defeat in both those games, and the knives may well be out.

John McGlashan, currently manager at Arbroath. The Red Lichties are bottom of the Second division, with one win in ten games; they squandered a deserved half-time lead  in their 2-1 defeat at Alloa. Without a win since the 2nd of August, the team look to be heading down from whence they came.

Robbie Williamson, manager at Third division Elgin City. Saturday´s surprise win over league leaders Stenhousemuir may have kept the former Clachnacuddin manager in job for a wee while longer, but a poor result is never far away for the Black and Whites. A series of heavy defeats, not mention a dreadful disciplinary record that has seen the team lose 7 players in 10 games (including three in the 6-1 defeat to Albion Rovers), not to mention more yellow cards than most teams get in a full season suggest that problems are abound up at the Moray club. There´s no relegation of course in the Third, but with all the rumblings about opening up the leagues to a ´pyramid´ type set-up, Elgin would want to sort out their form and their discipline before they find themselves back in the Highland League in a few years time.

Lastly, Celtic did the nation proud by going down 3-0 to English and European Champions, Manchester United. The goals, two of which where offside, where scored by new signing from Spurs, Dimitar Berbatov, and England international Wayne Rooney. Though we didn’t see the game, we’re reliably informed that Celtic where unlucky, but gash. The best the Parkhead side can do now is beat Aalborg and end up in the Uefa Cup. Hey, it’s better than nothing though, right?

The defeat was not unexpected, such is the gulf between the Scottish and English top divisions. Considering that ManYoo spent about as much on one player than the entire spending on transfers in all of Scotland over the summer (possibly) it’s not hard to see anything other than a mauling being the end result after 90 minutes. And alright, the referee had a shiter of game, but not as much as Celtic who where (according to most pundits) pretty shite themselves.

In any case, Scottish representation in Europe has been pretty laughable and the sooner it’s all over, the better; I mean, Hibs getting turned over by a Swedish side, Rangers by a Lithuanian team, Queen of the South to a Danish team and Motherwell to some third-rate French mid-table arsefest. None of this is particularly impressive when viewed in the cold light of day. A while back we had an article about how Motherwell and Celtic had to win their respective European cup competitions to avoid Scotland sliding down the Uefa rankings (that determines the number of automatic European qualification places allocated to each member country). Well, the new updated rankings are not out just yet, but you can bet your last 50p piece that finishing in top four this season in the SPL will mean First round qualifiers in places such as the Faroe Islands, Liechtenstein and San Marino.

Imagine Rangers getting drawn against a Vatican City XI in the first round of the Uefa Cup. Christ, thanks to Celtic, it might just happen.

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