Inside Left.net

Aye aye all, welcome to another week in the wonderful world of Scottish football.

Sorry for the somewhat prolonged absence since we last posted on Thursday. I sat down with good intentions on Friday morning to select fixtures in our Four To Follow series, but, ah well – it just didn’t happen. As the popular saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions…

Given our shocking track record in score predictions it’s probably not a bad thing either. One of the games I was going to pick was the Celtic/Dundee United game, which to us had a Celtic win written all over it. But when I checked the score midway through the afternoon to see United had taken the lead, I knew another upset was on the cards. In the end Celtic drew level shortly afterwards and the points where shared, but standing in the queue in the supermarket muttering “no more predictions, no more predictions” certainly drew a few stares.

Something else that was drawn a lot this weekend where the other scores in the SPL. Rangers and Motherwell drew nil-nil, and the game in Paisley between St Mirren and St Johnstone ended in an entertaining 1-1 draw. As befitting a St Mirren game, there was more refereeing controversy when St Mirren’s Stephen McGinn was brought down in the box by Dave Mackay. McKay accused McGinn of diving but the referee was having none of it.

The only team to actually record a win in the top flight where Hamilton Accies, who, somewhat against current form beat Hibs 2-0 at home. Mickael Antoine-Curier scored on his debut as Hamilton picked up their first Scottish Premier League points of the season.

The only other interesting nugget of information to come out of this weekends fixtures was that, with one exception, all the away teams ended up with 10-men before the end of the game: Colin Nish was sent off for Hibs, Bougherra for Rangers and Scott Robertson for Dundee United. St Johnstone managed to finish the game with the same number that started it, but with 6 players booked they came pretty close.

A lorry fire on the M80 took care of two games this weekend. The Kilmarnock team bus, on their way to play Hearts couldn’t make it past the carnage near Shotts. Right behind them was Stranraer’s mini-van, who where on another epic journey from one end of the country to the other (or, in this case, a completely other country altogether) – their game against Berwick was also called off.

Ross County completed their double of Queen of the South with a 3-2 win in Dingwall: this victory takes County to the top of the First Division.  Elsewhere, Annan Athletic finally win a game(just ask Chris Jardine)  against League leaders Forfar no less, and Livingston finally get some more points as their campaign to Escape to Victory continues when they beat Elgin City 3-2.

So aye, I had a strange dream last night.

I dreamt the BBC news was on, and Mishal Hussein was telling me all about a new record high-scoring football game, namely a 47-0 win for Wick Academy over Rothes. The Highland League is renowned for its high-scoring games, but even this one scaled new heights. Imagine my disappointment then when I woke up to check the scores to find it was only 7-1.

So, that’s it then. Rangers remain top of the SPL, level on points with Celtic but with a better goal difference. Ross County take the lead in the First division, taking advantage of Raith’s 1-1 draw with Partick Thistle. Alloa are three points clear in the Second Division thanks to a 1-0 win at home against Stirling Albion and Forfar stay in pole position in the Third Division despite that surprise defeat against Annan Athletic. Berwick, who didn’t play this weekend can overtake the Loons once their rearranged fixture against Stranraer is played.

In the Highland League, Cove Rangers remain top (their game against Fort William was postponed). Deveronvale leapfrog Fraserburgh into second place; the two sides played out an entertaining game which the Banff side won 3-2. The chasing pack all won – Huntly beat Forres Mechanics and Inverurie defeated Brora Rangers, both by 3 goals to 1. The games between Nairn and Strathspey and Turriff and Buckie Thistle fell foul to the weather.