Inside Leftthe independent Scottish football blog

In the SPL, Hamilton and St Johnstone battle it out at the bottom of the league for the wooden spoon. Aye, we know, it’s very early in the season for that kind of talk but there’s been very little from either of these two sides to inspire any degree of confidence in their long term survival prospects.  Hamilton fought hard to get something out of the game against Hearts last week, and where unlucky to lose 2 goals in a minute. St Johnstone are scoring at least, but until they start scoring more than the opposition, their stay in the SPL will be mercifully short. They lost 3-2 to Dundee United last week.

Hibs and Dundee United meet in what would have been one of our games to follow, had it not been for the Old Firm derby on Sunday. Hibs won some silverware this week in the shape of a Manager of the Month for John Hughes, and a Player of the Month award for Derek Riordan. The Hibee’s are third in the league, level on points with Rangers. Dundee United find themselves in fourth spot after that win against St Johnstone.

Aberdeen travel to another one of they bogey teams, Kilmarnock. Killie inflicted a lot of pain on the Dons last season, something Mark McGhee will no doubt want to put right. Their performance against Rangers on Saturday showed some of the fighting spirit that’s been  lacking in many Dons performances this season, and McGhee’s faith in the youth in showing some signs of being rewarded. If only the older players in the squad would do the same.

Killie drew 0-0 with Falkirk at the weekend in a game that’s just not worth wasting any more pixels on.

What else? Motherwell against Falkirk and St Mirren against Hearts complete the SPL action on Saturday. Falkirk are finally off the bottom of the league, while Motherwell will have been disappointed with that 1-3 defeat to Hibs on Saturday. Both of these sides had been unbeaten going into the game, so something had to give. Hearts picked up three ,aluable points as their season continues to cough and splutter to get going. They meet St Mirren tomorrow, a team still looking for their first league win since moving to their new ground.

The semi-finals of the Alba Challenge Cup takes place on Sunday. Dundee take on Third Division new boys Annan Athletic, and Inverness Caley are given a chance to avenge the 3-1 defeat inflicted upon them by the boys from Dingwall earlier on in the season.

Annan Athletic chairman Henry McClelland has been busy this week telling everyone just why his side will beat the second biggest spending club in Scotland this week. Nothing to do with events on the pitch, but rather events of it. Allow Mr McClelland to explain:

“There is a primary school in Annan called Elmvale and in 2005, Brooks Mileson presented their end of year school certificates and within 12 months he was in a national final. In 2007, David Rae of Queen of the South did the honours and he was at Hampden within a year. I presented them in June this year so I reckon our place in the Final may just be around the corner.”

Right ….

Elsewhere, the Active Nations Scottish Cup continues with a series of replays.

Bonnyrigg Rose v Fraserburgh
Forres Mechanics v Buckie Thistle
Wick Academy v Clachnacuddin
Wigtown & Bladnoch v Whitehill Welfare

and there’s a nearly full fixture list in both Division 2 and Division 3.

Scottish Third Division
Alloa v East Fife
Arbroath v Clyde
Dumbarton v Stirling
Peterhead v Brechin
Stenhousemuir v Cowdenbeath

Scottish Third Division
Albion v East Stirling
Berwick v Forfar
Montrose v Queens Park
Stranraer v Elgin

Lastly, no round-up would be complete without mentioning the UK’s highest scoring league, the Scot-Ads Highland League. We’ve a derby game on our hands which we’ll feature in our Four to Follow piece soon, but the legendary Fort William take to the field again, fresh from their 7-0 demolition at the hands of ace Junior side Auchinleck Talbot; they take on Turriff United.  Strathspey Thistle, a Fort William in-waiting take on Lossiemouth. Banff side Deveronvale travel up the road to Nairn, and Huntly’s game against Brora completes the action.

Phew.