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Amateur as good as Junior ??


Viewparker

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I took the opportunity to watch Oban Saints today as they had a match in Coatbridge and I'd heard they were a decent team.  Wow. What a well drilled outfit that played at a level I didn't expect. I have been watching Junior football for many a year and they were as good as anything I've seen in the District leagues.  I took in the Bellshill match after it and saw no difference between them. Any other amateur teams of this level or better ??

 

 

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53 minutes ago, Viewparker said:

I took the opportunity to watch Oban Saints today as they had a match in Coatbridge and I'd heard they were a decent team.  Wow. What a well drilled outfit that played at a level I didn't expect. I have been watching Junior football for many a year and they were as good as anything I've seen in the District leagues.  I took in the Bellshill match after it and saw no difference between them. Any other amateur teams of this level or better ??

 

 

Thing about Saints is that there is no alternative for players in that part of Argyll if they want to play competitive football. Same in Lochgilphead where I am - I saw that Red Star skelped Inverclyde Ams - two leagues above them, in Saints' league - 7-0 today. Some very good players from this area and unless they move to Glasgow, will stay playing in this area. Saints seem to have a settled team year in, year out (ex Lok player Brian Mackay sometimes plays for them) while Lochgilphead are bringing through some very talented youngsters who in some cases have been Pro Youth before joining them, others have come through the youth team.

A bit of a ramble but basically - in the more rural areas where there is no Junior football, the teams can be pretty decent.

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10 hours ago, Hughheffner69 said:

Junior football is over rated
Top amateur teams would compete with any team below the premier or super first

so because a handful of amateurs could maybe compete in the 3rd tier of Junior football it's over rated as a whole? your point makes no sense.

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11 hours ago, Viewparker said:

I took the opportunity to watch Oban Saints today as they had a match in Coatbridge and I'd heard they were a decent team.  Wow. What a well drilled outfit that played at a level I didn't expect. I have been watching Junior football for many a year and they were as good as anything I've seen in the District leagues.  I took in the Bellshill match after it and saw no difference between them. Any other amateur teams of this level or better ??

 

 

Oban Saints at the summer tournament each year nearly always give a good account of themselves against Scottish League clubs like Dundee Utd or Alloa. I've never been sure whether our four North Juniors Scottish Cup qualifiers over the years are semi pro or amateur, Culter, Banks O' Dee, Hermes and Sunnybank, the line between semi pro and amateur is blurry in the North Juniors as many teams do not pay their players, but I'm not sure how far up this goes. Inverness City are a good example of a strong amateur club playing at Junior level.

Halkirk up in Caithness have been a very good amateur side for a few years playing in the North Caledonian League and there are some decent teams from the Islands. Also we have a very good side playing in the Inverness Amateurs from Avoch. They joined the Inverness amateur league about 3 years ago and destroyed everyone in their path up the leagues often winning games in double figures. It would be nice to see a football club from the Black Isle move up into the North Juniors or into the NCL.

I've often wondered how many amateur teams play in the West and East Regions or are they all semi pro?

 

 

 

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44 minutes ago, CityDave said:

Oban Saints at the summer tournament each year nearly always give a good account of themselves against Scottish League clubs like Dundee Utd or Alloa. I've never been sure whether our four North Juniors Scottish Cup qualifiers over the years are semi pro or amateur, Culter, Banks O' Dee, Hermes and Sunnybank, the line between semi pro and amateur is blurry in the North Juniors as many teams do not pay their players, but I'm not sure how far up this goes. Inverness City are a good example of a strong amateur club playing at Junior level.

Halkirk up in Caithness have been a very good amateur side for a few years playing in the North Caledonian League and there are some decent teams from the Islands. Also we have a very good side playing in the Inverness Amateurs from Avoch. They joined the Inverness amateur league about 3 years ago and destroyed everyone in their path up the leagues often winning games in double figures. It would be nice to see a football club from the Black Isle move up into the North Juniors or into the NCL.

I've often wondered how many amateur teams play in the West and East Regions or are they all semi pro?

 

 

 

Thanks for that great info. We get a wee bit insular down here in the big smoke and forget that a decent level is played elsewhere. I will look out for the teams you and others have mentioned on this thread and make a point of watching them if they are in the Central belt. 

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57 minutes ago, CityDave said:

Oban Saints at the summer tournament each year nearly always give a good account of themselves against Scottish League clubs like Dundee Utd or Alloa. I've never been sure whether our four North Juniors Scottish Cup qualifiers over the years are semi pro or amateur, Culter, Banks O' Dee, Hermes and Sunnybank, the line between semi pro and amateur is blurry in the North Juniors as many teams do not pay their players, but I'm not sure how far up this goes. Inverness City are a good example of a strong amateur club playing at Junior level.

Halkirk up in Caithness have been a very good amateur side for a few years playing in the North Caledonian League and there are some decent teams from the Islands. Also we have a very good side playing in the Inverness Amateurs from Avoch. They joined the Inverness amateur league about 3 years ago and destroyed everyone in their path up the leagues often winning games in double figures. It would be nice to see a football club from the Black Isle move up into the North Juniors or into the NCL.

I've often wondered how many amateur teams play in the West and East Regions or are they all semi pro?

 

 

 

Vast majority of district league sides will be expenses only. I believe that well over half the SJFA membership operate on effectively amateur terms - almost all of the North plus the lower leagues of East and West.

The now redundant retention lists of the past illustrate this point well - you could only retain 20(?) people who were either Contract (paid to play) or Non Contract Professionals (ex paid to play players but now on expenses only). Anyone not listed is either on a 2 yr pro deal or was a bona fide amateur who had never been paid to play in past... or someone the club didn't wish to retain which would mean no fee - unlikely.

http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/resources/documents/SJFAFiles/DocumentsandDownloads/ExpiryofContract2012/EXLIST12-13.pdf

So while the lists doesn't tell you if they are CP or NCP, it gives a clear indication of the teams loaded with amateurs, either by their absence from the list altogether or the lack of names under their heading.

The fewer players a club lists the more likely they are to be Non Contract and the club effectively amateur.

Only 113 clubs retained players in 2011-12, and assuming the membership was c160, around 50 clubs retained no one and where likely fully amateur, and that's before some of those listed are counted with one or two NC professionals retained (eg Thornton, Rosyth, Luncarty etc).

Junior clubs can of course change approach which SAFA clubs cannot.

 

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1 hour ago, CityDave said:

Oban Saints at the summer tournament each year nearly always give a good account of themselves against Scottish League clubs like Dundee Utd or Alloa. I've never been sure whether our four North Juniors Scottish Cup qualifiers over the years are semi pro or amateur, Culter, Banks O' Dee, Hermes and Sunnybank, the line between semi pro and amateur is blurry in the North Juniors as many teams do not pay their players, but I'm not sure how far up this goes. Inverness City are a good example of a strong amateur club playing at Junior level.

Halkirk up in Caithness have been a very good amateur side for a few years playing in the North Caledonian League and there are some decent teams from the Islands. Also we have a very good side playing in the Inverness Amateurs from Avoch. They joined the Inverness amateur league about 3 years ago and destroyed everyone in their path up the leagues often winning games in double figures. It would be nice to see a football club from the Black Isle move up into the North Juniors or into the NCL.

I've often wondered how many amateur teams play in the West and East Regions or are they all semi pro?

 

 

 

Avoch Rovers were in the equivalent of the NCL in the late 60s when it was a mixture of reserve teams from the Inverness HL teams along with those of Ross County and Brora and teams such as Golspie Sutherland

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5 minutes ago, PRS said:

Avoch Rovers were in the equivalent of the NCL in the late 60s when it was a mixture of reserve teams from the Inverness HL teams along with those of Ross County and Brora and teams such as Golspie Sutherland

Was this when the NCL was in its heyday?. It was a league that stretched from Fort William to Wick and would have had many more players available for the teams to chose from so would have been a much higher standard than what we have now.

Sadly most of the non reserve teams that have played in this league over the last 50 years are either gone or moved into the local amateur leagues.

 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, CityDave said:

Was this when the NCL was in its heyday?. It was a league that stretched from Fort William to Wick and would have had many more players available for the teams to chose from so would have been a much higher standard than what we have now.

Sadly most of the non reserve teams that have played in this league over the last 50 years are either gone or moved into the local amateur leagues.

 

 

 

Fort William and Wick joined later on, after the 60s but not sure exactly when. IIRC, Muir of Ord were in the league in the late 60s as were Inverness Youth club; Alness had a successful run after they joined in the early 70s.  Only saw Avoch Rovers once c 968 and I guess there were a couple of hundred there.

 

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4 minutes ago, PRS said:

Fort William and Wick joined later on, after the 60s but not sure exactly when. IIRC, Muir of Ord were in the league in the late 60s as were Inverness Youth club; Alness had a successful run after they joined in the early 70s.  Only saw Avoch Rovers once c 968 and I guess there were a couple of hundred there.

 

 NCL LeagueTables - scroll to 72-73.  Easter Ross played at Alness and Black Rock Rock Rovers were from Evanton

http://www.scottish-football-historical-archive.co.uk/northcaledonianleague.html

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