I've stolen the first couple of week's fixtures from the Lossie forum. Who will win the league? Will it be Fort? Not an appetising opening fixture for Clach.

FIXTURES FOR 2008-09:

Sat 02/08/2008
Scot-Ads Highland League
Brora Rangers v Keith
Cove Rangers v Wick Academy
Deveronvale v Rothes
Forres Mechanics v Buckie Thistle
Fraserburgh v Clachnacuddin
Lossiemouth v Fort William
Nairn County v Inverurie Loco Works
Huntly Free

Sat 16/08/2008
Scot-Ads Highland League
Buckie Thistle v Huntly
Clachnacuddin v Deveronvale
Fort William v Nairn County
Inverurie Loco Works v Forres Mechanics
Keith v Lossiemouth
Rothes v Brora Rangers
Wick Academy v Fraserburgh
Cove Rangers Free

...take yer pick, mate...who'd have picked cove last season? the hfl title could go to any one of 3 or 4 teams, tho not, i fear, the locos this season...

Elgin?

It is quite an open race. Having seen all the title challengers last season (apart from Buckie) Locos will be right up there.

I just hope Clach don't lose Robbie Duncanson.



Boom boom.

Oi!



Depends on who is left in it after the Gretna farce is over. That said, I don't think an SHFL team will get elected.

Forget who will win it, Lets all take a guess how many goals Fort William will ship

Does this mean no 16th club has been admitted? So is the AGM over? What if Huntly join the SFL?

No 16th club for the SHFL, no. I assume that the AGM has all been done and dusted already.

Huntly have announced that they won't apply for any SFL vacancy should Gretna fold next week. Cove Rangers, however, fully intend to. But I can't see them getting in ahead of Spartans or Annan.

...huntly are making the right decision - they'd be stuck in the 2 lower divisions for ever more, making up numbers...and you are right, cove wont get in either, seems like spartans are a shoo-in (where is spartan anyway?)...

Spartans are from Edinburgh. If they don't get the place then I do not know who will.

I think it would be foolish to presume Spartans only need to turn up to get in. Annan and Preston, together with clubs like Gala and Edinburgh City, could all put up a strong fight for this vacancy.

Back to the original topic, it's good to see the HFL starting on the first weekend in August again - they've been a bit all over the shop in recent years IIRC. The SFL starts the same weekend, and the SOSFL will be away a few weeks before I'd guess. The SPL are having an extra weeks hols, and are off on August 9th. EOSFL is not decided yet, but I believe August 2nd is planned there too.

IMHO Huntly were at it anyway - they seized on a chance to get their club's name in the papers for a few months. They'd be better focusing on getting a winning park on the side in the Highland League. Was it not said that the rise of Locos has seriously dented them?

...there's little doubt that the locos arrival did huntly no favours, both clubs draw players from the same limited pool and locos ahve, up til now anyway, been able to outspend huntly...whether that continues is a open to debate, it sure looks like we're drawin in the purse strings a fair bit for the new season...if i had to pick a winner, i'd go for deveronvale...no i widna...LOCOS FOR THE TITLE!!!....

...aye chiel i knew spartans came fae embra, i wiz attempting (and patently failing) to be humorous ...for the life of me i do not understand why none of the junior teams fae the large new towns never make an attempt for this gig -east kilbride, kirkintilloch, irvine, glenrothes and the like would all have a better chance of actually progressing through the leagues than the clubs mentioned...the sfl surely has enough teams from towns of circa 10,000 people, surely doesn't need any more...(and i'm aware embra has a few more than 10,000, but really, spartans?)...

edited TWICE for speeling erorrs

Few if any Junior clubs have the stands/terraces/lights/facilities to join the SFL at 8 weeks notice.

...fair enough hibee, so why don't they start working towards it? is there no desire or is it a case of no money?...

With no pyramid - why bother? Spartans, Annan and Preston have all spent massive sums on their respective grounds, yet they have to wait for a vacancy to pop up once or twice a decade. I firmly believe large numbers of Junior clubs would develop aspirations if the footballing system in this country was the same as every other major country on earth. What other nation, in the year 2008, is still filling a vacancy in their top 42 clubs by holding elections and counting ballots?

In the Junior circles, there are no ground criteria hardly (nothing as strict as the SFA), so any club spending cash on stands/lights/facilities would be doing so solely with the intention of joining the SFL some day. But, unlike Spartans or Annan or Preston, they don't play in the Scottish Cup and boost their profile and meet current SFL clubs; and also unlike those senior clubs, they don't get the cash benefits of Scottish Cup/SFA participation to help finance it all.

When you think about it: a club like Spartans or Preston or Annan have spent huge sums, putting together excellent facilities, that they only require for a league they're unlikely to reach soon!!

Ed

I'd heard that the cutting of the wage bill was down to DC who didn't want huge gaps in players wages as it caused splits in dressing room - something that was widely rumoured to have happened before he arrived.
Whether this is the right thing to do or not, I don't know. We clearly lost Jarvie partly to do with money, but he's been replaced by the reserve keeper from the worst team in Scotland last year

What's your feeling on the players we've signed?
I certainly don't think Bisset could have significantly improved since we last had him to become first choice full back

DC talks a good game. He now needs to put it in to practice

Also, whats the rumours around Inverurie about not going for the SFL place?
Steve Innes never hid his ambition to get in the league, but he has been strangely quiet the last few weeks!

graeme m
...i think you're just about spot on with your assessment of why the changes are being rung judging by the rumour mill...and it's hard to tell exactly how the new players are going to work out - the tail of the season was chalk and cheese - abysmal one week and feckin great the next, tho that's probably something to do with the divisions and the fact some players knew they were on their way out the door...i have misgivings about DC as well, he certainly did a good job in the juniors but his record in the hfl is fairly debateable, but i'll give him the benefit of the doubt meantime - whatever we have to stop chopping n changing at the top and give SOMEONE a chance to bring some consistency...as for the sfl, your guess is as good as mine - seems like that changes on a weekly basis as well - i certainly hope NOT, i'm really not keen to fork out twice the money to watch pretty much the same standard of football and with the best will in the world the lococs are never going to do much more than peterhead have managed; top end of div 2, maybe the odd season as whipping boys in div 1...i'm seeing a fella later this week who has some inside knowledge though and if i hear anything of interest i'll post it up here...

more abysmal than feckin great though from what I remember, cup final excepted. And I'm not too keen to go up to the Broch again.

The addition of Rusty is brilliant, but I'm a bit worried about the defence next season. Could be some high scoring matches.