Team News

Opinion / Team News — 1 Comment
2
Feb 10

The great Celtic gamble

There’s a wave of optimism spreading across the east end of Glasgow.

Tony Mowbray has strengthened his side considerably, bringing in three strikers and two defenders as he continues the chase for his first league title since becoming Celtic boss. The gap between Mowbray and Walter Smith remains ten points, but with Rangers selling rather than buying, can Robbie Keane and the rest of the new Bhoys make the difference between a league title and possibly a very expensive gamble? Continue reading →

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22
Jan 10

Scottish Fitba Weekender

Thank goodness all that Cup nonsense is out of the way.  It’s Saturday, meaning there’s nae work, only good ‘ole League Football. This weekend sees a full fixture list across all four divisions, which given recent meteorological events is a rare occurance indeed. Is this perhaps the first signs of the Second Coming? Well, quite possibly, given our first fixture this weekend.. Continue reading →

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19
Jan 10

Scottish Cup Fourth Round (Part 2)

The Fourth round of this year’s Scottish Cup continues tonight with both Celtic and Rangers in action. Division One’s runaway leaders Dundee also take to the field. We had one upset in yesterday’s games as Motherwell where knocked out by Inverness Caley.

With the games at Raith Rovers and Livingston postponed,  is there still a chance of another upset on the cards this evening…? Continue reading →

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20
Aug 09

Dinamo Zagreb v Hearts Preview

Hearts, along with Celtic and Rangers our remaining sides in European competition travel to the Croatian capital tonight to face Dinamo Zagreb.

Somewhat worryingly for Hearts, the Croatian football season is already into it’s fourth game, with Dinamo leading the Priva NHL league with four wins our of four.

Dinamo, known as “The Blues” have recorded some large scorelines already this season. In their four games they have scored 21 goals and conceded only 3, including a 7-1 win at Istra 1961. Hearts should contend themselves with the fact that while these wins are impressive, the opposition generally came from lower down the leagues.

Dinamo’s only defeat so far this season was the Champions League qualifier against Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg. Their surprise 2-1 defeat at home, in a game where Salzburg where expected to buckle under the pressure of  notoriously fervent supporters in a tight, packed stadium showed that Dinamo are for the taking.

Hearts are boosted by the return of left-back Lee Wallace and central defender Marius Zaliukas is available (his SPL suspension does not count in European fixtures). Hearts will travel without Andrew Driver, Calum Elliot and Laryea Kingston, all out of the game due to injuries.

Prediction

A tough game, in a tough atmosphere against on-form opponents. The defeat to Dundee United had Heart’s getting of to a less than ideal start to their season, but they showed in that game that they’re a decent side. The key to success is containing Dinamo’s explosive strike force: Sammir scored three goals in last weeks 5-0 win over Osijek, while Greek international Papadopolous and midfielder Pedro Morales are all regular goal scorers.

Under manager Csaba Laszlo Hearts have been rejuvenated after a period of mediocrity. While this is undoubtedly not an easy fixture, Hearts need to score at least one goal to give themselves a good chance of getting a result in the return fixture at Tynecastle next Thursday.

I can’t see Hearts winning, but they should be happy with a 2-1 result, which is how I see it going.

Hearts (from): Kello, Kucharski, Bouzid, Goncalves, Jonsson, Santana, Palazuelos, M Stewart, Obua, Witteveen, Black, Nade, Novikovas, Balogh, Glen, J Stewart, Park, Zaliukas.

Hearts in Europe

Hearts

Features / In The News / Off The Ball / Team News — Comments Off
19
Aug 09

Scottish Football Midweek Round-up

Jings, crivens, help ma boab, it’s Wednesday already. The off-season has been going by so slowly that the start of the new league season has caught me by surprise.

And I am glad it’s started. Well, I was until Aberdeen started playing competitive games and ended up shaming the entire north-east back into our crofts. Three games played so far, 11 goals conceded, 2 scored. But there’s no reason to panic, after all, we have a legend at the helm. And don’t forget, we had a bad start to the season last year too, and look where we finished.

So next week we play Hamilton, a sure-fire 3 pointer I reckon. Never mind they beat us last season at this stage also, we’ll gloss over that.

It completely escaped my notice, but the team that struggled to get past the Dons 8-1 on aggregate, Sigma Olomouc, are drawn against shit English side Everton in the first of the Europa League group games later on this week. I’m hoping Everton get a similarly thorough tanking (which is not unfeasible given their own stuffing by Arsenal last week), to prove once and for all that Scottish teams are no worse than English teams (note heavy sarcasm).

Celtic tried to prove that last night against Arsenal, but a combination of dodgy refereeing and Gary Caldwell prevented that truth to be proven once and for all, so we’re just going to ignore that result completely. And I do admit we where perhaps a little over-optimistic in our preview of this game yesterday, but hey, why not big-up Scottish football for once? No one else seems to be doing it.

Also in the group along with Everton and Sigma Thingy are Hearts, the team we’re tipping for third spot in the league this year. They’re taking on a team we once used to have in Subbuteo format – Dinamo Zagreb.

Unlike Hearts, Dinamo are the most successful team in their respective country, ehm, Croatia I think, having won lashings of league titles and shiny silverware. On paper then, expect another classic display of Scottish football at it’s best, considering that Hearts couldn’t even get past Dundee United yesterday.

Meanwhile, over in another corner of Europe, spare a thought for dear Fort William.

For years, the gashest team in senior football had carved out a little niche of terribleness, attracting attention from all corners of the globe, all drawn like flies to a pile of shit to one of the far posts of the Empire – Lochaber – to see for themselves the depths to which Scottish football has plumbed.

But they’ve suddenly got competition for all that media attention that nearly brought large-scale investment from the US: it turns out there’s a team that’s possibly even worse than Fort William.

Grantown-on-Spey side Strathspey Thistle where one of the three teams along with Turriff United and Formartine United promoted from obscurity in the north-east Junior leagues to semi-obscurity in the Highland League last season. So far, their campaign has not exactly got off to a flyer, something which cant be said for the teams that have had the pleasure to play them so far.

In their three games since the season started, Strathspey have conceded a whopping 19 goals, six more than Fort William. On opening day, Strathspey went down 8-1 to Wick Academy, with all the goals coming in the first half, an average of a goal every five minutes, roughly. In their next fixture, their first Highland League fixture on home soil, things got a little better against powerhouse Inverurie, the damage being restricted to only 3 goals. However, it was business as usual the following week when the other football team in Inverness, Clachnacuddin score eight times without reply.

All this makes for an unfamiliar picture: Fort William are no longer propping up the bottom of the table! Quite how long this will last will remain to be seen, but put a mark in your calendars for 28 November when these two giants of the scoreboard meet up!

Livingston finally played their first league game since they emerged out of bankruptcy. The SFA decided to refuse Livi’s desperate attempts at getting themselves re-promoted back into the First Division and upheld their decision to keep the team in the Third Division, a move designed to ensure the club’s long term survival. Or something. I’ve never quite understood how relegating a club one division, let alone two can in any way help a club that’s just struggled to get out of bankruptcy.

Livi where never a huge crowd-drawer in the First division, but down in the Third, when only 632 people turned up to watch game against Montrose, your crowds are going to be massively down, resulting in less income and sponsorship. And this loss of income will just more pressure on the club to survive in already difficult circumstances.

And just to really kill of Livi, the SFA may yet impose further penalties on the club because they refused to play their season-opener against East Stirlingshire. A 15 point deduction has been suggested, something which they’ll no doubt overcome, but it’s a little like getting a spear through the chest, only to discover a gas bill at the end of it. Madness, I tells ye.

So, what is there to look forward to in next week’s fixture list?

Though the tie between Celtic and new boys St. Johnstone looks tasty, without a doubt, the game of the weekend is Sunday’s SPL clash between Rangers and Hearts. Rangers have been suspiciously quiet so far in terms of transfers, but their casual demolition of Falkirk last week set out their intent to chase Celtic all the way this season.

In the First Division, two sides who we reckon will fight it out for promotion this season meet, as Dundee take on Inverness Caley Thistle. Cowdenbeath wont have to travel far to take on Alloa, and down in the Third Division we have the first Angus derby of the season when Forfar travel to Montrose.

Features / Performance of the Week / Team News / Video — 2 Comments
1
Jul 09

The end of the road for Livingston FC?

For the second year in a row, Scottish football faces the real possibility of losing another team before the season even begins.

West Lothian Council have begun legal proceedings against Livingston FC over a rent-arrears, said to be around £280,000, for the use of the Almondvale ground. The club and in particular owner and chairman Angelo Massone, now has 14 days to repay the money or face being wound up.

It’s all such a far cry from the days when they won promotion to the SPL in 2001, finishing third and qualifying for the UEFA cup in their first ever season in Scotland’s top division.

The legal action is the latest in a catalog of financial mismanagement and incompetence at the First Division side. The Inland Revenue where the first to threaten the club with administration as they sought repayment of an unpaid tax bill to the value of £100k. Earlier this month, Scottish Power cut the electricity to the ground over an unpaid £32k bill. To make matters worse, the club where also fined by the SFA for failing to submit end-of-season accounts “properly”, while last month the Scottish Football League withheld a £50,000 payment to Livingston.

Owner Massone has had a turbulent reign at the helm since he bought the club for £1 from Pearse Flynn in June 2007. Making claims to make Livingston the ‘third force in Scottish football” within three seasons certainly got every one’s attention. Following the lifting of the embargo on transfers at the club after Massone settled a dispute with ex-captain Emmanuel Dorado and paying him 50,000 in back wages Dorado was owed, Livingston appointed a new manager, Roberto Landi, ex-Celtic legend Davie Hay as Director of football and managed to hold on to most of their star players over the summer transfer season.

With the club leading the First division by September things seemed to be going well down at the Almondvale. But by November, the first signs of trouble emerged. A series of creditors, including the Inland Revenue, Scottish Power and a mobile disco began making claims. By December, the club where without a manager as Landi is sacked following a shock defeat to East Fife in the Homecoming Scottish Cup. Having taken just just four points from a possible 18 in the league, it all suddenly seemed to be going wrong for Livingston

Paul Hegarty was appointed manager shortly afterwards, but within four months he had been suspended for what the club called “gross misconduct”. The former Dundee United player was formally sacked by the club last month, with neither Hegarty or his assistantGraeme Roberts having been paid by the club since April of this year.

With the debts showing no signs of being settled and Massone clearly struggling to keep the club afloat, he launched a fund-raising appeal to supporters which rather embarrassingly raised just under £150. Some funds where raised following the sale of Leigh Griffiths to Dundee for £125,000, but it’s unlikely to be enough to keep the council – and the other creditors – from doing what seems sadly inevitable. With the club once again in administration for the second time in its short and turbulent history, few doubt that there will be First divison football in the town come the start of the 2009/10 season.

The situation at Livingston bears some resemblance to those that eventually saw the end of Gretna as a footballing concept. Both had rich owners subsidising the team, with Massone claiming on several occasions that it was his money that kept the club alive. This was demonstrated very ably when, after the electricity was cut off, Massone announced that he had deliberately not paid the bill to show that unless he spent his own money, the club could not function.

The late Brooks Mileson was in a similar position. Effectively he bankrolled Gretna, overseeing the rise of the Dumfries side from playing in the lowest reaches of Scottish football to the SPL in six seasons until he too ran into difficulties, partly through overspending on staff not being backed up with performances on the pitch or attendances in the stand. When he withdrew his financial support, it sent the club into financial free-fall. With debts of nearly £4m at the time of Mileson’s withdrawal the club was forced into administration and by the spring of 2008 it was revealed by administrator Wilson Field that Gretna had creditors of nearly £4m and assets of less than £1m. HM Revenue and Customs was also owed nearly £600,000. The club was relegated to the Third Division before finally collapsing in a mountain of debt, ending their meteoric rise up the leagues and consigning 42 years of history to the football book of remembrance.

Back at Livingston, Massone’s reluctance at seeing the consequences his actions are causing has seen frustration rise amongst the supporters and town officials. The Livi Lions Supporters Group was planning a protest at the stadium, while MSP Angela Constance has called on Massone to “pay up or go”.

Earlier on this week there was still some hope of a reprieve for Livingston. Former Dumbarton owner Neil Rankine was in discussion with Massone over a rescue package, but Massone has said he will not sell his stake, turning down an offer from former Cowdenbeath chairman Gordon McDougall to buy the club.

The future certainly looks bleak. With no main sponsor for this season (the RDF group pulled out earlier), even if a new owner is found before the club is shut down, Livingston face another issue:  following a safety inspection at the ground, their safety certificate was annulled meaning the club are not able to host football matches with the public in attendance until the safety concerns are addressed. With the next inspection not until 30 July, the friendly game against Plymouth, due to be played on 20 July  will have to be cancelled or played behind closed doors.

In a final desperate act, Massone today named former goalkeeping coach John Murphy as manager, but few doubt he’ll have much to do as the players returned to Almondvale on for pre-season training.  Should Livingston go under, the clubs to benefit include Airdrie and Cowdenbeath, last seasons losing play-off finalists. It will also mean having to elect a new team to replace Livi – candidates include two teams that lost out to Annan Athletic in the race to replace Gretna: Cove Rangers and Spartans, who used to play at the City Parkground, once the home of Ferranti Thistle, who,  together with Meadowbank Thistle are one of the forerunners of the current Livingston FC.

Whatever happens, for the sake of the supporters of Livingston FC, let’s hope that a resolution is found soon.

Match Programme / Team News — Comments Off
5
Jun 09

World Cup Qualifiers – Group 9

The Scottish domestic season might be over, but the qualification campaign for World Cup 2010 goes on. Scotland are not action until August – a home game against Norway – but on the 6th and 10th June, Scotland’s fellow Group 9 hopefuls will be wanting to edge a few points closer to making the finals.

Our stuttering World Cup qualifying campaign can be helped along a great deal with a series of fortuitous  results. Norway, with their two games in hand could in theory leapfrog Scotland into second place; to do that they’d need to beat Macedonia on Saturday and The Netherlands next Wednesday evening. Defeat for the Norwegians in both of those games – the ideal scenario for Scotland – would effectively end any hopes they have of reaching second spot.

Two real threats to Scotland’s place in the table comes in the shape of Macedonia and Iceland, who play each other on Wednesday. Iceland play runaway group leaders Holland tomorrow in Rekjavik and look unlikely to pull of a shock result against the Dutch. The group leaders, who lead Scotland by 8 points go into their next two games boosted by their highest placing in the FIFA rankings for some time – 2nd behind European Champions Spain and one place ahead of bitter rivals West Germany.

As always seems to be the case with Scotland’s Qualification campaigns, our progress depends largely on the misfortunes of others.

Macedonia, against whom Scotlandlost their opening Group 9 game conclude their roundof games with a home tie against Iceland, but go into their games without the coach who oversaw the win against Scotland. Coach Srecko Katanec resigned after the defeat to Hollandat the beginning of April following a dressing room bust-up with star player Goran Pandev.

George Burley is all too familair with with player conflict in this campaign. Following Kris Boyd’s resignation from the Scotland set-up and the whole saga around Allan McGregor and Barry Ferguson, Burley can only hope that new Macedonia coach Mirsad Jonuz (who formerly managed the Macedonian U-21’s) has not had enough time to settle himself and the team, and that at best they lose or draw.

Scotland’s next game is against Egil Olsen’s men in Oslo on August 12 where victory would present an excellent chance of qualification. If he has recovered from injury Celtic skipper Stephen McManus will captain Scotland, after Barry Ferguson was stripped of the captain’s armband following the Boozegate scandal.

Following the Norway game, Scotland conclude the qualifying campaign with two home games: Macedonia visit on September 5th, followed four days later by the return visit of The Netherlands on the 9th. By that time, the battle for second place should be a lot clearer. Though we’ve beaten the Dutch before at Hamdpen, thanks to a James McFadden first-half goal during the Euro 2006 qualifiers, the lack-luster performance against the Dutch back in March (3-0) is not something we want to repeat; Burley and the Tartan Army can only hope that by that time, the final game against the Dutch is not a ‘must-win’ affair.

Team News — 1 Comment
27
Jan 09

Butcher to the rescue?

Inverness Caley are team in trouble.

Bottom of the Scottish Premier League, the distance between themselves and the teams occupying the safety zone (i.e. 10th place and upwards) is increasing with every passing weekend. Following a run of results started when Caley lost away at Parkhead in November and which looks set to continue when Celtic make the return trip this Saturday, Caley are two points behind Falkirk, with the Bairns themselves six points behind St Mirren, the team in 10th place.

Craig Brewster’s sacking last week came as no surprise. With the season more than half-way through, results on the field showed no sign of improvement. Only one home win this season, itself one of only five games won so far in this campaign is the sort of form that gets you into the mess they’re in now and with the financial boost SPL survival gives clubs like Caley something had to be done before the situation became irretrievable. And so, following the 1-0 defeat to Hamilton Accies the weekend before last, the club stepped in and dismissed Brewster.

The search for a replacement started pretty much soon afterwards. Several names appeared in the papers, including former Caley managers Charlie Christie and John Robertson, as well as Chris Sutton. Ross Tokely, currently player at the Caledonian Stadium was also linked with the job.

The appointment of Terry Butcher, perhaps the most well known of the names in the running for the job (aside from Ossie Ardilles, World Cup winner with Argentina and someone with a particularly poor record in football management) makes sense considering the predicament Caley find themselves in. Despite having a fairly mediocre record as manager, there’s no denying the good record Butcher has in saving stricken clubs from relegation. And it is probably that record that has won him the job.

The image of a bandaged and bleeding Butcher during the Italia ‘90 World Cup qualifying game against Sweden is a lasting homage to a player whose not afraid to get stuck in when the going gets tough and who will battle against the odds to get results.

When Butcher quit Rangers to become manager of English side Coventry (at 32, he was the youngest manager in the Football League) in time for the 1990-91 season, the Sky Blues where struggling in the relegation zone; Butcher was tasked with saving the side from relegation. A managerial baptism of fire against Liverpool (a 1-0 defeat) started his career and despite a very inconsistent season that saw them beat the likes of Aston Villa, Tottenham and Nottingham Forest and lose the last game of the season 6-1 to Arsenal, Butcher did the improbable: Coventry finished 16th and relegation was avoided for another season. A similar Harry Houdini trick followed at Sunderland, where as player-manager he saved the Black Cats from relegation from the Championship end of the 1992-93 season.

Nearly 10 years later, Butcher, this time manager at SPL side Motherwell found himself faced with a similar task. Motherwell where in deep trouble, bottom of the league and heading for relegation. Throughout most of that season, 2001/02, Butcher was assistant manager to Erik Black, finally making the position his own following Blacks’ resignation two games before the end of that season. Through a mixture of good luck and a poor St. Johnstone side, Motherwell remained in the SPL for another season.

Three clubs in relegation trouble, and three times Butcher managed to save the day. Clearly then, Butcher is the man you go to when you need to get your team out of trouble. And there’s no team in more trouble (other than perhaps Stranraer) than Inverness Caley Thistle.

But where his managerial record seems to fall down is what happens the season after relegation is avoided.  At Coventry he lasted until January of the following season before being sacked, while at Sunderland a poor start in the 1993/94 season had the club third from bottom of the old First division by the time he was sacked in November of that year. And following Motherwell’s survival in at the end of the 2001/02 season, in his first full season in charge Butcher led his charges to the foot of the table once more, this time staving off relegation by Falkirk’s stadium not meeting SPL criteria.

But there is a little ray of hope.  In Butcher’s defence, the following season, 2003/04 he recovered well, Motherwell finishing comfortably in 6th place, while in 2005 his side reached the Scottish League cup Final where they got comprehensively trounced by Rangers, 5-1. In his final season at Firs Park, Motherwell finished in the bottom half of the table, but the club’s fortunes had been turned around: Butcher brought through youngsters like James McFadden and Stephen Pearson into the side from the youth setup, players that where eventually sold on (McFadden’s £1.25m transfer to Everton and Pearson’s £350k move to Celtic) with the money helping Motherwell out of administration.

Butcher is reunited at Inverness Caley with Maurice Malpas, his assistant at Fir Park for several years. Malpas himself took over the reigns from Butcher (who left for his short and disastrous spell at Australian minnows Sydney FC), but his only season in charge had the side finishing only 6 points off the bottom of the table.

While we don’t doubt Butcher’s fighting spirit, we’re not sure that he’s the man to lead the club into safety in the season’s ahead. His record tells us that he suffers from second season blues (ironically like his former side Motherwell this season). Perhaps this fact has not gone unnoticed at the Caledonian – both Butcher and Malpas are on 18 month contracts.

Survival depends largely on being able to bring out the best in the players he has at his disposal, but more than anything else, convincing the Caley supporters he’s the right man for the job. This Saturday, Caley welcome Celtic, Butcher’s old foes from his Rangers days to Inverness. You can’t help but think that, knowing the uncompromising way he played his football, he’ll encourage his teams to get stuck in, have a go, fight for the points and who knows maybe even get a result.

As Butcher himself says, between now and the end of the season, Caley will be playing 15 Cup finals, including some tasty ties against Dundee United (A), Rangers (A) , Aberdeen (A) and his former side Motherwell (H).  He’d do well to remember that the teams relegated in previous seasons had anywhere between 28 to 40 points – some 11 to 23 short of where he is now. If he can get results against teams he plays in between those fixtures (Hibs, St Mirren, Falkirk and Kilmarnock) he may well be OK.

Looking back over Butchers’ managerial record, we instinctively regard his first season in charge of his sides as the one with a purpose, namely survival; the instructive parallel however, lies in the season that follows.

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