Lothian and Ayrshire Predominance

[th1stleandr0se]

A look at the Superleague tables shows that teams from the former Edinburgh District and Ayrshire leagues are dominating. The first Tayside representatives are the bottom two in the East Superleague with two Fife and eleven Lothian (including Sauchie and Camelon, traditionally from the Edinburgh District league) teams above them. In the West, the top division has eight teams from the old Ayrshire league including the top four.

I don't think this is just a freak occurence as the trend has been visible for a while now. In the East I can see that possibly player availability has an effect but Dundee has a decent-sized population. Are Montrose, Brechin, Forfar and Arbroath taking the players who would otherwise be Juniors? What's the story in the West? Why are there few Glasgow teams challenging?

Any theories?

[Hertha_BJFC]

Most of my life supporting junior football Ayrshire teams pay the best wages and better wages than our Glasgow counterparts.

It goes in phases regarding the team but it was the all conquering Kilwinning rangers team of the mid to late 90s who were paying out the great wages under Allan mckluckie senior.

After the buffs and mckluckie went seperate ways irvine meadow stepped up several years later as the heavy wage payers and they had a great spell in winning lots of trophies and attracting top quality players.

Now in Ayrshire we've seen hurlford as the new boys in town in terms of spending decent cash on players and wages .

All three clubs mentioned have achieved lots of success in doing so and when you throw in auchinlecks steady in house running and their pedigree as the biggest club in junior football then you have 4 examples of Ayrshire clubs being dominant.

The only club outside of Ayrshire to win the super premier league title is pollok who've done so 4 times but other than them its been a firm Ayrshire stronghold with beith, Kilwinning , meadow and talbot all winning the super premier division.

[LongTimeLurker]

Better support from local councils where grounds are concerned is sometimes mentioned as being an advantage enjoyed by Ayrshire clubs. Being further from ibrox and Parkhead probably helps as well?

[superpollok]

However the west of scotland super premier league has been won by one central league side 33% of the time since it's existence!!!

No doubt in last 4/5 seasons Ayrshire teams have began to dominate it though.

Hopefully Tony can get us back to the premier and get us back competing with Talbot and Meadow again.

[RobRoyGuy]

A look at the Superleague tables shows that teams from the former Edinburgh District and Ayrshire leagues are dominating. The first Tayside representatives are the bottom two in the East Superleague with two Fife and eleven Lothian (including Sauchie and Camelon, traditionally from the Edinburgh District league) teams above them. In the West, the top division has eight teams from the old Ayrshire league including the top four.

I don't think this is just a freak occurence as the trend has been visible for a while now. In the East I can see that possibly player availability has an effect but Dundee has a decent-sized population. Are Montrose, Brechin, Forfar and Arbroath taking the players who would otherwise be Juniors? What's the story in the West? Why are there few Glasgow teams challenging?

Any theories?

The main reason is the top ayrshire sides pay far better than the glasgow sides bar psossibly pollok , most of your ayrshire teams full of Glasgow based players that in turn effects the quality of players the glasgow teams can attract .Meadow - ashfield scenario being a classic example.