In another action-packed weekend of Scottish football, Aberdeen fail to capitalise on last week’s epic win against Rangers, Hamilton record a rare win but a tunnel fracas after their game with Hearts will keep the SFA busy this week. And it’s a sign that all is not well in Scottish football when only 16 goals are scored in the Highland League and Fort William win again. Strange days indeed…
Posts Tagged: Scottish Premier League
21
Oct 09
Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic
The 4-1 defeat of Rangers at the hands of Romanian champions Unirea Urziceni last night was the second 4-1 defeat Walter Smith has had to endure in this seasons Champions League campaign and leaves the Ibrox side firmly rooted at the bottom of their group, with only an outside chance of qualifying for the next stage; a victory away in Romania in the next game is an absolute requirement. Continue reading →
14
Sep 09
Preview: Falkirk v Aberdeen
About a year ago – give or take a month – these two sides met for the first time in the League.
Back in October 2008, both Aberdeen and Falkirk had gotten off to a poor start, winning two games each and unable to string enough results together to get themselves out of the bottom half of the table. Indeed, going into this game on the 18th of Octber, the calls for Jimmy Calderwood’s head after a run of four defeats had already started, with Aberdeen rooted firmly at the bottom of the table. Falkirk where immediately above them on goal difference. Like the Dons, Falkirk’s season did not start particularly well either, with four defeats in a row until wins over Hearts and Hamilton got their first points on the board.
It’s interesting then to see that these two sides should meet again under almost similar circumstances. Both are finding their new season as much of a struggle now as they did back then. Aberdeen have recorded only 1 win so far this season (against Hamilton) while Falkirk have yet to put a single point on the board.
Both sides are under new management, and both managers are under pressure to begin delivering results. With only 4 points from 3 games so far, Mark McGhee knows that the sort of form his side is showing needs to be turned around quickly to win back critical and increasingly vocal sections of the Aberdeen support.
The Aberdeen gaffer, who 25 years ago today scored twice against Icelandic outfit Akranes as Aberdeen opened their defence of the Cup Winners Cup, also knows that the fans expect more from the team, especially as this is pretty much the same side that finished fourth last season under Jimmy Calderwood.
Despite the fact that Falkirk are already being touted as potentially relegation candidates along with another struggling side, Hamilton Accies (who lost 3-0 to Aberdeen two weeks ago), for Eddie May and Falkirk, the signs of improvement are beginning to show themselves.
Defeat against Rangers is pretty much a given these days, and Hibs are always a tricky side, but in all those games, and especially in the 2-1 defeat at Dundee United in the last SPL game played before the World Cup qualifiers, the Bairns enjoyed some good spells; it’s obvious that there’s a lot of potential at Falkirk.
Aberdeen will want to put the disappointment of their last league game against Motherwell behind them – a game in which they had no shots on goal – and get their season back on track with a convincing win. Falkirk will be wanting to move away from the bottom spot in front of their home crowd and get their season off to a start.
Falkirk (from): Olejnik, Barr, Scobbie, Twaddle, McLean, Lima, McNamara, O’Brien, Arfield, Flynn, Finnbogason, Finnigan, MacDonald, Mitchell, Marceta,Lynch, Allison, Wagenaar.
Aberdeen (from): Langfield, Foster, Ifil, Considine, Mulgrew, Kerr, Crawford, McDonald, Pawlett, Duff, Fyvie, Aluko, Miller, Mackie, Maguire, Nelson, Young,Paton, Megginson, Hansson, Grassi.
30
Aug 09
Score Prediction Bawbaggery
Score Prediction Bawbaggery.
30.08// Inside Left plumbs new depths of football prediction incorrectness, failing to pick so much as one winner in its Four To Follow.
Hearts drew 2-2 with St Johnstone (we tipped Hearts to win), Inverness Caley suffered a 3-1 home defeat to Ross County (again, we went for Caley) and in the other Fife derby, Cowdenbeath and East Fife’s game ended in a 1-1 draw (And guess what? We went for Cowdenbeath win).
Our final prediction, like all the others we made, seemed such a sure thing we even placed a cheeky bet on it. We reckoned that Livingston where going to overturn Albion Rovers by an enormous margin that our £2.50 stake would return a healthy £6.56 in winnings, or £4.06 profit.
Enough for 6 Aberdeen butteries.
But alas poor Livi: ‘t was not to be, Albion Rovers won 1-0. When we heard that Livi defender Ewan Moyes had put the ball through his own net, a new internet acronym was created: LALAL. Lets All Laugh At Livingston.
Predicting the outcome of a football game is a tricky business.
You can look at league form, a particular player’s form, the head-to-head fixtures from the past and so on. But really, you just have no idea how it’s going to turn out. You might as well sacrifice chickens to read their innards or gather round the ouija board for all the insight it’ll give you.
I mean, he may have predicted the assassination of JFK, but I reckon even Nostradamus would be sitting in front of the telly on a Saturday evening, scratching his head going “Whit?!? Dundee only drew with Airdrie? I was sure they where due a win.”
So how did we do?
Well, Hearts drew 2-2 with St Johnstone (we tipped Hearts to win), Inverness Caley suffered a 3-1 home defeat to Ross County (again, we went for Caley) and in the other Fife derby, Cowdenbeath and East Fife’s game ended in a 1-1 draw (And guess what? Yes, we went for a Cowdenbeath win).
Our final prediction, like all the others we made, seemed such a sure thing we even placed a cheeky bet on it. We reckoned that Livingston where going to thoroughly pump Albion Rovers by an enormous margin that our £2.50 stake would return a healthy £6.56 in winnings, or £4.06 profit.
Enough for 6 Aberdeen butteries.
But alas poor Livi: ‘t was not to be, Albion Rovers won 1-0. When we heard that Livi defender Ewan Moyes had put the ball through his own net, a new internet acronym was created: LALAL. Lets All Laugh At Livingston.
So, complete shite then. At least the one football certainty we know of didn’t disappoint: Fort William lost again. 1-0. To Brora Rangers.
