Graeme

Tough losses for Broxburn and HoB. Brutal trips for Broxburn, HoB, Brora, Buckie and Wick. Whose bright idea was it to have Scottish Cup on Boxing day instead of local derbies...

Aye that's right, always going to be a massive loss for those relegated losing out on the betfred cup money. Promotion of the big ex juniors at the expense of the bottom half of the lowland which has some clubs with barely any support would make the relegation more bearable though. Reality is most clubs getting relegated are likely to face revenue loss no matter what league they are in, but improving the standard and size of the fanbases in the league they are dropping into will soften the impact.

It took a long time to accept relegation because before the pyramid in its current format was established, lowland league was a backwater with a couple of decent sides and the clubs relegated would face massive loss of revenue. League is stronger now and with more clubs that have a fanbase (bonnyrigg, kelty, bo'ness from below, shire and berwick from above). I agree though, bottom team in league 2 should go down, no chance of a play-off. No disrespect to the bottom half of the lowland, but if they were eventually replaced with the top sides of the EOSFL and WOSFL relegation from league 2 wouldn't be seen as such a disaster. For those relegated to the highland league it might still be seen as a potential slide into oblivion but that's another matter. The juniors were invited originally but from what I understand it was a slap dash, last minute attempt at getting them onboard. Don't see how that's relevant to the point that the lowland should have more relegation places though.

Aye good point. With the better ex juniors the lowland league would have a similar standard and crowd sizes to the current league 2, wouldn't be as much of a disaster for the teams coming down from the SPFL as well.

That's right, they knew what they were signing up for but it's better for Scottish football and the lowland to improve the strength in depth of the league. Nothing against edinburgh uni, vale of leithen etc. probably better for them too if they play at a level they're more competitive at. Seems crazy to only have 1 team being relegated from a 16/17 team league with 3 feeder leagues below.

Edinburgh Uni pumped 9-0 at home by east kilbride today Absolute state of 'tier 5' in Scottish football when you've got Edinburgh uni, vale of leithen, dalbeattie star etc. a league up from Hurlford, Irvine, Tranent, Btoxburn and all the other decent ex junior sides. 3 relegation places from the lowland can't come soon enough, but they don't seem interested in speeding up the lowland's shift towards a standard that truly reflects tier 5 so that'll probably be no time soon.