Highland ITFC

Further to the above & looking back on results, they've certainly finished / finishing the season very much on the up, winning 6 of their last 9 games since end-February, drawing away with Celtic & Rangers B teams, & just the one loss somewhat bizarrely to Edinburgh Uni. And one win each between the two teams in the league, so all set up for a good competitive semi.

Just seen that Cumbernauld Colts has declared as being against the conference proposal.

Dave Edwards, a very well known figure around HL circles has put his thoughts out there: "Conference League will do untold damage to grassroots football in Scotland Highland League stalwart Dave Edwards has his say on the controversial Conference League proposal. You may think, what makes me qualified to voice an opinion on this most contentious of subjects? Well, my first ever memory, at the age of five, 65-years ago, was of Tommy Martin, the captain of my local football club, Rothes, and legendary Rothes, later to be Elgin City striker, ‘King’ Willie Grant, holding aloft the Highland League championship trophy for the only time in the club’s history. At the age of ten I was appointed assistant groundsman at Rothes’ Mackessack Park, and on leaving Elgin City in 1972, I also played in goal for my home town team, Rothes, before joining local junior club, Rothes Decimals. After moving to Aberdeen I also played in the junior ranks with St Machar before finally joining West of Scotland amateur club, Rhu Amateurs. In addition, I reported on the Highland League for 12 years on Moray First Radio, and was the Press and Journal’s full-time Highland League correspondent for 23 years before retiring three years ago – however I’m still in the saddle as it were, as a freelance reporter for the P & J. My 60-year association with Highland League football, I think, entitles me to state my case – without a shadow of doubt, if the SFA member clubs, and of course the various associations, who also have a vote at the national associations AGM in June, vote in favour of this proposal, they are in effect relegating every club below the current League Two level, some of whom may not survive the undoubted financial blow, and go the same way as the late lamented Third Lanark, Clydebank and Gretna. Yes, Rangers and Celtic, along with Hearts, and possibly the other club I support, Aberdeen (although I hope against hope that the Dons’ board will see sense and pull out), will form part of the so-called Conference League, along with four teams from the Lowland League and just two from the Highland League. Of course the potential ‘lucky’ or ‘ambitious’ clubs accepted into this new league will look to share in the £100,000 invested by the four ‘B’ teams every season for the next five seasons, many will see it as a ‘pot of gold’ – but remember, they are not being promoted on merit, they are progressing through the back door. There is no doubt that the SFA are pushing this, I know for a fact that when this was first mooted, only a few months ago, the Highland League were given three options, none of them very palatable, and no, the ‘status quo’ wasn’t one of them – that, in my book, is quite scandalous. It was a case of Hobson’s choice, or in other words, no choice at all – so shame on whoever at the SFA has thought up this hair-brained scheme which, in my humble opinion, could, and would do untold damage to grass roots football as we know it in Scotland. There is much more I could say, as I am passionate about lower league football, and the Highland League in particular, but I will leave it for others to also state their position. In conclusion, I urge all of those with influence, be they supporters, sponsors, officials or even players, to lobby their own clubs and hopefully, working together, we can stop this madness!"

Yup, spot on! A quick scan of the National League, NLN & NLS in England shows c.20 former football league clubs that have dropped down, & accordingly their places taken by ambitious clubs coming up from the lower leagues. The stellar example of this is Dorking Wanderers, who since being formed in 1999 have climbed from the Crawley & District League to the National League, England's Tier 5. This kind of opportunity for natural fluidity should also exist in the Scottish game, & what is needed is a proper plan to implement real promotion & relegation flow throughout the pyramid, either as it currently stands, or maybe with a restructuring of the number of clubs in divisions / leagues if that's what an open & transparent review showed to be the preferred option. Imagine opening up this consultation for fans to be able to give input aswell? What an opportunity for real buy-in & 'ownership' from Scotland's football fanbase. In the meantime, if one of the social media / forum fan groups that is leading / hosting objection to the current conference plan was to draft up a consistent form of words / statement laying out the key issues with it, & then make this available to fans to all email or tweet to the SFA, then with potential tens of thousands of the same message received, they'd maybe start to appreciate the strength of feeling & groundswell of opinion against this 'Frankenstein' league that would effectively serve to relegate the majority of the countries football clubs in one fell swoop!

A steady stream / flood of similar statements from Tier 5 & below would one hope put pressure on the SFA to seriously consider the groundswell of opinion within the game....one would hope?!

Nice little film. He has a very nice way about him, & always like watching / listening to folk that are genuinely passionate about the game, & look to find the positives in their approach.

Probably only a couple of hundred. It was Cumbernauld's end-of-season players' family day, so would say that the majority were there for the home side, & didn't hear much obvious support for OG. The teams meet again on the 29th in the first round of the LL Cup, & OG are the home side, so will be interesting to see if there's any difference then.

Took in the Cumbernauld-Open Goal 'Battle of Broadwood' game yesterday. First time seeing the latter & they certainly seemed to have the look of an outfit trudging towards season-end, lacking in motivation & spirit other than when showing dissent to the ref, which resulted in something like 4 or 5 of their players being booked, & one sent off for two yellows for said offense. Colts were comfortably the better side, putting themselves on the front foot with an early opener, & then effectively killing the game with the second just before the break. OG made for a bit of twitchy bum time for their hosts, converting a penalty on the 90th minute to make it 2-1 & then pushing for an equaliser, but to no avail. The only OG player that looked to offer a consistent threat going forward was Broque Watson, & other than him they looked devoid of creativity & ideas in their opponent's half. Cumbernauld will be looking to end the season on a high, with Gretna & Dalbeattie being their final two opposition, & if they can keep their squad together going into next season, & do what all sides seek to do in the close season in adding some additional quality, then would say that they have potential to push for something like a top-six place next term.

And winning the British Universities league aswell!

...or, the pro-B teamers may argue to look at the amazing effect that one season of them in the LL has had on the Scotland national team

Took this one in yesterday. It was 'one of those days' for both teams, from differing perspectives of course. Edinburgh set up to sit in & frustrate, & accordingly Colts had much of the ball for much of the game, but struggled to regularly find ways to break down their visitors. When they did create chances, shots on target were all straight at the 'keeper, other efforts went wide, the crossbar was struck twice, & two open goal opportunities went unconverted. Edinburgh having been under the cosh for most of the first period managed to force an own goal just before the break, & could have been two up when a penalty award straight after the goal was skied over the bar. And whilst Colts had a couple of chances to equalise in the early minutes of the second period, it was the visitors that took one of their less frequent chances to make it two, & the run of the game continued a bit further into the half when they made it three. Colts huffed & puffed to & eventually got a small reward from a Craig Holmes freekick, but couldn't find anything else. Seemed a little like they just felt that they needed to turn up to take the points, whereas fair play to Edinburgh who executed their game plan well & earned what was likely an unexpected three points. Heard one of their supporters after the game say "Well that didn't turn out to be the cricket score that I was expecting." Colts certainly have the makings of a side that can be competitive higher up the table, having taken good points from the Colts sides this season, but need to sort out their consistency as I think I'm right in saying that they're the only team to lose to both Edinburgh & Dalbeattie, albeit the latter in the Cup. And if Edinburgh manage to stay up come season end, then on the basis of performances like yesterday, they've got the opportunity to build on not ending up quite so far off the pace next term.

Yup, that's been my take on it, having seen Buckie, Brechin, Spartans & Stirling this season. Each with their own strengths & weaknesses, but pretty even overall. Should make for good run-ins in each league, & then hopefully some decent hard-fought & close play-off games. The relative strength of Club 42 is of course the unknown, as there's no lost cause cast adrift at the bottom of SPFL2 this season, & Albion & Bonnyrigg have both shown that they can have their moments.

Spartans play out of their skins, or a long season - including their uni league endeavours - caught up with UoS?

So there was some truth in this then, of not quite the correct format -

Seemingly didn't benefit Rangers much though, given the scoreline?

I live in the Highlands & my staple football diet over the last few years has been HL, but this season have also had the opportunity to take in some LL games, including seeing both Spartans & Uni of Stirling. Have also seen Buckie & Brechin this year. Based on what I've seen, there looks to be very little between those four sides, with each having their own specific strengths, & as somebody else has said, think it will likely come down to who gets more things right on the days, come the playoff games.

Was at the Stirling Uni-Cumbernauld game yesterday, & have to say that I was very impressed with what I saw from the student side. As well as having a lot of decent players, one can really see the benefit of all the training time that they have together, as so many little nice details in how they set up & play & how well drilled they are, including a good number of routines for corners & freekicks that have clearly been worked through on the training ground. They were comfortably the better side yesterday, bettering Colts in terms of possession, territory & the quality of football played. Their was one key susceptibility though which was to quick ball movement & pace on the break, & whilst Colts didn't play much football, they certainly troubled SU on the break, & on balance I would say shaded the best of the chances. A combination though of poor finishing & top quality goalkeeping from the home 'keeper meant that didn't take any, whilst SU took a couple of theirs & accordingly the win & the points. With the way that all results yesterday, looking like they may just now be edging it as slight favourites for the play-off spot.

Was speaking to somebody yesterday who was mentioning about the Lowland League Cup being played in a group stages going into knockout format across April & into May, which would give some more fixtures at the back end of the season. Is that correct?

Brechin dropping a couple of points yesterday at Nairn, which as I suspected wasn't an easy awayday for them. Buckie back on top. Fraserburgh look to have a head of steam up at present, winning by the single goal at Brora yesterday, who themselves look to have blown their chance yesterday's loss & last week's to Buckie. Whilst it doesn't look like Fraserburgh can challenge for the title, I believe that Brechin still have to play them twice, so they could still have a big say in proceedings. Could be looking at a final day face-off when Brechin travel to Buckie.

Top work! Thanks!

Think I recall earlier in the season seeing a revised league table with the B teams removed & likewise all their results? Is that right, or am I imagining things? If right, would be interesting to see how this would make the table look now as the final run-in nears.

The Tiwi transfer got a mention & a little clip of him doing what he does on A View From The Terrace last night.

Brechin need to win the HL first. Looking good at present, but very much still a three-way challenge with Buckie & Brora very much in contention, albeit Buckie letting themselves down with two points dropped yesterday. Brechin still to play both I believe. Buckie-Brora is a big one next Saturday, & any one of the three possible results will have a big say in proceedings. Brechin have the resurgent Nairn the following week. Would be surprised to see Brechin just stroll to the winning post, & reckon as per yesterday's Huntly 1-1 Buckie result, that there will be a hiccup or surprise or two along the way.

Looks like a tight three-way battle for the play-off spot, & would be good to see all three keeping it going right to the wire. Seven or eight sides (depending upon how Hearts go from here) then in a mid-table mini-league, with the likes of EK & OG seeking to get some kind of solace from their seasons. Cumbernauld look to have missed their chance to climb into that group with their recent draw vs Berwick & loss yesterday to Gala. So looks like another mini-league of 4 or 5 (again depending upon Hearts) to try & finish as far away from the doomed bottom two as possible.

Cumbernauld are on a half decent run at present, with something like 13 points from last 7 games, including three clean sheets & wins over EK, Braves & yourselves, so thinking that a bit of credit likely due to them re yesterday?