Inside Left highlights the four games in this weekends Scottish fixture card that you need to keep your eye on. This week we feature a tough fixture for both teams at Pittodrie, a bottom-of-the-table clash in Granton, a mid-table affair in the First division and lastly, the pick of the Scottish Cup games taking place this weekend as Clyde take on Livingston.
Posts Tagged: Wick Academy
4
Oct 09
Special Edition: Fort William win!
Regular readers of Inside Left will know of our fondness for Highland League outfit Fort William.
Easily, and we mean easily one of the worst sides ever to grace a football field, The Fort have not won a game since September 2007 in a 4-2 win over Rothes on the opening day of the 2006/2007 season. In the intervening times they’ve notched up an 11-0, several 7-0 and 6-0 defeats and even a 10-0 drubbing from Junior side Banks O’Dee in the Cup. Having scored just 3 goals (all away) and conceded 26 in only 7 games played so far, it looked like being another long, long season. Continue reading →
14
Sep 09
The Ballbag Contractual Obligation Update
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.
4
Sep 09
2009/10 Scottish Cup First Round draw
This round sees teams from the three leagues underneath the Scottish Third Division (the Highland League, the East of Scotland and the South of Scotland football leagues) begin their Cup run. Although none of these teams will get close to reaching the final, a few of these did make it to the Fourth round last year.
Highland League side Forres Mechanics eased their way past Wigtown & Bladnoch, Keith and Dalbeattie Star, before they finally succumbed 6-1 to Third Division side Forfar.
Another Highland League side made it to the Fourth round. Of all the teams that made it this far, Inverurie Loco Works where rewarded for their progress against Deveronvale, Banks O’ Dee (who earlier knocked out Fort William 10-0) and Vale of Leithen in the previous rounds with a game against SPL side Motherwell. It took five re-scheduled dates before this game finally took place with Motherwell emerging, somewhat unsurprisingly, 3-0 winners.
The final side to make it to the Fourth round where Edinburgh-based Spartans. Their road to their Fourth Round exit was a little more rocky than most. Having dispatched Pollok and Annan Athletic (to which they’d lost their application to join the Third Division), their Third Round fixture against Elgin City was ordered to be replayed after it was discovered that Elgin had fielded an ineligible player, Joe Malin, a loanee from Ross County.
Elgin City where not amused – they won the original game 2-1!
Despite appeals, the game was replayed and this time it was Spartans who emerged as winners. Somewhat ironically, it was later discovered that Spartans had also fielded an ineligible player, Dean Hoskins, in the first game against Elgin City after what Spartans called ‘an administrative error’.
Spartans got their come-uppance in the next round however – they where knocked out by First Division side Airdrie United.
Scottish Cup First Round
Saturday 26 September 2009
Selkirk v Preston Athletic
Clachnacuddin v Wick Academy
Auchinleck Talbot v Fort William
Nairn County v Golspie Sutherland
Edinburgh University v Vale of Leithen
Inverurie Loco Works v St Cuthbert Wanderers
Coldstream v Edinburgh City
Brora Rangers v Irvine Meadow
Buckie Thistle v Forres Mechanics
Whitehill Welfare v Wigtown & Bladnoch
Fraserburgh v Bonnyrigg Rose
Glasgow University v Girvan
Lossiemouth v Newton Stewart
Rothes v Banks O Dee
Civil Service Strollers v Gala Fairydean
Hawick Royal Albert v Huntly
Dalbeattie Star v Keith
