Scotland Update

Apparently, I find it too difficult to do this on a weekly basis. So, in order not to cheat those who actually click the link for a Scotland post, I'll expand the one I do. SPL, SFL, Highland League, and whatever else I can fit in after the break.

As per usual in the SPL, it was a six game slate this weekend.

Rangers 5-0 Inverness CT
Rangers won the fast start award, knocking in five first half goals against Inverness Caley Thistle. The home fans were undoubtedly thrilled to see a hat trick from Kris Boyd in between the opener from never-to-be-a-Scot-international Nacho Novo and the final goal from Kenny Miller. For the American readers, Beasley came in on 74 minutes, while Edu did not leave the subs' bench.

Aberdeen 1-0 Kilmarnock
Sone Aluko fired home for the Dons to earn the team's first home win in six tries this season. Aberdeen had a flurry of chances around the half-hour mark, but wouldn't find the net until shortly after half-time. Aluko peeled in from the left and blasted a shot from a rather tight angle in the 50th minute. Killie had some late chances after Aberdeen failed to expand their lead, but (thankfully) Aberdeen held on with a nervous win.

Motherwell 2-0 Hamilton Academical
Chris Porter scored once in each half for the home side as Hamilton fell further behind at the foot of the table. Porter's first half goal was a redirect of a Bob Malcolm free kick. His second came at the expense of the offside rule, apparently. Still, the goal counted, and Hamilton had no reply. On the back of Porter's brace, Motherwell move up to third in the table. Hamilton have lost six straight and eight out of nine.

Falkirk 0-0 Dundee United
St Mirren 0-0 Hibernian
*yawn* What is this, Ligue 1 from two seasons back? Score some goals, you tossers. That's right, on Saturday 10 teams played, and eight goals were scored by three teams. I'm not even going to attempt to find something to talk about from these matches.

Hearts 0-2 Celtic
Hey, an away team scored goals! On Sunday, Celtic took over Tynecastle. In a surprise to none, Celtic had already put the game out of reach on twenty minutes, when Gary Caldwell scored Celtic's second. Hearts went a man down early in the second, but acquitted themselves well in not collapsing completely. In fact, they had some attempts on goal, but Boruc was always equal to the task.

Celtic top the SPL table on 28 points from 11 games. Rangers are on 25 points, but have a game in hand and, thanks to those five goals, are even on GD with Celtic. Motherwell lead a pack of six who are on between 14 and 16 points, while Hamilton are starting to drift off the back.

In other SPL news, UEFA announced that next season, should Rangers blow it again in CL qualifying, they will go directly into the Europa League instead of being dumped out of Europe entirely. (Yes, that means Rangers are finishing second. Got a problem with that?)

St Johnstone lead the First Division by two points over Queen of the South. The Johnnies picked up first place by defeating Dunfermline over the weekend, while QotS lost to Partick Thistle. Morton are propping up the table, two points behind Clyde.

Raith currently top the Second Division on goal difference over Brechin City. Brechin lost first place on Saturday after a humiliating 5-1 loss to fifth-place Peterhead. Ratih took over the top spot after a twelve minute flurry of three second-half goals to defeat Alloa. Arbroath sit at the bottom with six points from twelve game, three points below Straraer.

Stenhousemuir maintained their Third Division lead over Dumbarton with 3-0 away win over fifth-placed Montrose. Dumbarton kept pace on points, though, by defeating struggling Berwick Rangers 5-2. Berwick are in ninth place, right above Elgin City, but still behind the fading newbies Annan Athletic

In the Highland League, Inverurie Locos are unbeaten in seven to start the season and beat Rothes on Saturday 5-2. Cove Rangers and Deveronvale are also off to hot starts this season with both teams sitting just two points back of the league leaders. Rothes are one of the two bottom teams, joined by the always-woeful Fort William FC on one point.

Finally, in the second round of the Scottish Cup, Spartans of Edinburgh were able to extract some revenge on Annan Athletic, who beat them out for the offseason's SFL spot, by winning 2-1 on the road. Of course, it's small consolation when the team that finished five spots below you in competition last season gets picked to jump ahead of you in league status, but they will take what they can get.

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Scotland Round Up

Yeah, I didn't get to this last week. The pain of seeing my club go bottom of the SPL precluded me from writing about it. Even Rangers shit-the-bed performance against previously last place St. Mirren couldn't rouse me to write about the SPL. That was pretty funny, though. Also, I will not be talking about the Scotland NT's performance against Norway. Suffice it to say that I was cheering in my living room before I had to stare blankly at my computer screen. "Why aren't they celebrating?" is the nicest way to put what went though my head.

Instead, I'll be looking at the different divisions of the SFL. I hope they don't disappoint me as well. I'd hate to have to start writing Highland League updates and explaining the difference between Junior and Senior clubs. Again.

In the First Division, two team are tied on points at the top. Queen of the South and Livingston both have 18 points after nine games. QotS, though, are clear leaders at this points, having a much better goal differential (+11 to +2). The reason? Queens slaughtered Livingston last week in their first head to head matchup, 6-1. Ouch.

The three SFL leagues all have 10 teams a league, and each team plays a double home and home with each other club. That's a fancy way of saying that each club has now played every other club in their league once. Close behind the two First Division leaders are Dunfermline, Partick Thistle and St Johnstone. Greenock Morton sits in last place, five points adrift of the ninth place squad.

Division Two sees Brechin City at the top by one point over Ayr United. Just off the pace are Raith Rovers and MJD's favorite place name, Peterhead. Not a lot to talk about there, excapt for the so far non-challenge put up by East Fife. There were pundits before the season who said that East Fife would pull off a double promotion with ease. Right now, they sit seven points back, due to some horrible home form. Four points in five games at Bayview will keep you midpack, or worse.

In Division Three, Stenhousemuir have gotten out to a blazing start. Undefeated through nine, they hold a strong five point lead over Dumbarton. Annan Athletic, the new team to the SFL, started the season off in a flyer. They have since come back to earth, losing their last three league matches. The match of the season, so far, for entertainment values, has to be Elgin City hosting Albion Rovers on September 20. The hosts picked up three red cards (one straight, two cumulative yellows), gave up six goals, but never gave up hope. In the 88th minute, down five goals and down to eight men, Elgin City's Darren Shallicker scored. Of course, Albion scored right back, but that's beside the point. Elgin City, somehow, sit bottom of the Third Division table.

Finally, for those that miss the SPL coverage, well I don't have anything for you. What I do have is a new SPL map from BillSportsMaps. Enjoy.

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Starved for football?

While we were all preoccupied with continued EPL transfer rumors and Becks' shenanigans, play quietly started north of the border this weekend. No, I'm not talking about Rangers' dismantling at the hands of Liverpool, I'm talking about Divisions One, Two and (go figure) Three of the SFL. Sure, I can't write about Aberdeen, as is my wont, but at least one league has started on time (I'm looking at you Poland).

Since you are undoubtedly as starved as we are for actual action, join us after the jump for a light dissection of the lower levels of Scottish football.

The big story of the weekend was Annan Athletic, the new boys on the block. Annan, who finished seventh in the East of Scotland League last season went behind early to the relegated-from-Division-Two Cowdenbeath. Annan rose to the challenge. They put in four goals while The Blue Brazil just rolled over. On the heels of the shock win, Annan finds themselves at the top of the Division Three table based on the third tiebreaker, goals scored. Stenhousemuir, Forfar and other relegatee Berwick Rangers also won in the first round.

In Division Two, the most interesting match up was between East Fife, who won Divison Three in a romp last season, and MJD's favorite place name, Peterhead. Despite being pegged as Divison Two favorites, East Fife had nothing to offer on the day, giving up two first half strikes. East Fife fought back furiously in the second half, but had troubles with placement and an efficient netminder. Peterhead took the match 2-0. Joining Peterhead on three points after one round are the Angus double Arbroath and Brechin City.

Finally, in the top not-the-top-flight divison, UEFA Cup qualifiers Queen of the South hosted promotees Airdrie United. By all accounts it was a dour affair with QotS showing no attacking verve and Airdrie content to sit back. Even the match's straight red card, normally an exciting event, was for no more than the pulling back of an opponent, presumably by the last man back. A nil draw, just what the fans want. St Johnstone take the immediate lead at the top of the table, while Dundee and Partick Thistle (nil) also pulled all three points.

Alright, you can go back to not caring now. I hear there is trouble in La-la land.

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And the Winner is...

The SFL voted today on which team would replace Gretna. Early favorites Spartans of Edinburgh polled poorly and dropped out. Finally, in the third round of voting, with all of the Central Belt teams having dropped out, it was down to Annan Athletic in the South and Cove Rangers in the North. Annan Athletic won the vote 17 to 12.

What I labeled as, at best, a sentimental choice won out in the end. It seems that there were four factors leading up to their admission.
1) Location-This team is located in the under-represented South of the country, where Gretna were also from. The sentiment here is that this area had lost a team, and needed another team to replace it.
2) Stadium-This may have been the top reason for Annan's inclusion. While the other four teams had various approvals in place for expansion, Annan's ground was the only one deemed immediately up to snuff and ready for play.
3) Central Belt glut-When Edinburgh City joined the race, that made for 3 of 5 squads in the Lothian area running for inclusion. Presumably, though vote totals have not been released yet, these three squads split early vote totals causing them all to drop out.
4) Anti-Northern Bias-So when it came down to Annan and Cove Rangers, teams took into account travel distances and cost, and that had been Cove Rangers achilles heel from the start. Traditionally, Northern squads have had a tough time gaining entry into the league, and this time was no different.

So, the club that enters the league is the one that had the poorest season of all the contenders last term, finishing seventh in the East of Scotland league, behind all of their Edinburgh-area counterparts, as well as Cove, who finished first in the parallel Highland League. There has been some mention of an England-style non-league promotion into the SFL in the coming years, which would have favored Cove or the non-running Whitehill Welfare this past season. However, since any such setup would require the approval of member clubs, don't look for a unanimous passing any time soon.

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Breaking: We were right and then some on Gretna

Back at the start of March, when the Gretna story was at its saddest, we put 2 and 2 together in a way that no one else had done yet, saying that Gretna would be in the Second Division next season, a two-tier drop. Well, it looks like we underestimated the hatred the SFL had for Gretna. It was announced in the last half-hour that Gretna have been dropped three tiers, into the Third Division for next year. As a result, Airdrie and Stranraer have both been kicked up a division each.

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