patriot1 Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 4 minutes ago, Robert James said: Probably a correct assumption, as there aren't any geographical integrity 'clashes' between the North Juniors and the North Caledonian League. Neither Associations have any intention of extending their catchment area into the other Associations' territory, because of the distances involved, the travel costs, and length of journey times There are no junior clubs whose ground is in Inverness, or the North & West Highlands, and Islands. Likewise, no NCL clubs are situated in the North Junior Region. With one minor exception....... HLF club Nairn County are members of the North Caledonian Association, and its Development XI play in some of the North Caley cup competitions. Whereas Nairn St Ninian Juniors are members of the NRJFA . But has there been any indication that the North Juniors want to be part of the pyramid alongside the NCL? There were rumours that those two organisations had met with the HL but now it appears it was only the NCL. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyramidic Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, LongTimeLurker said: Does this sound sensible? 46 or 47 out of 52 expressions of interest from the juniors by the initial deadline to get an invite to the EK meeting = 46 WRSJFA + Fauldhouse Drumchapel United are a known applicant = 48 Remaining four probably = Glasgow Uni, Bonnyton + 2 more from SoS? My gut feeling is there were around 5 SoS clubs that were interested in joining the WoSFL but have been caught up in the “geographical integrity” issue. I think that in normal circumstances we would have seen at least one of these clubs publicise their application. At the moment it appears that only Bonnyton will be certain of being accepted in the WoSFL. If more clubs were to leave the SoSFL this may begin to impact on the future viability of the SoSFL. A compromise could be that any club leaving the SoSFL for the WoSFL puts their Reserves or Community side in the SoSFL in order to maintain numbers. I think we all accept that the SoSFL will need to eventually find its level in the Pyramid feeding in to the appropriate tier of the WoSFL. The SoSFL’s current position at Tier 6 will soon become untenable. Edited March 31, 2020 by Pyramidic 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 2 minutes ago, patriot1 said: But has there been any indication that the North Juniors want to be part of the pyramid alongside the NCL? There were rumours that those two organisations had met with the HL but now it appears it was only the NCL. A Montrose Roselea poster on here mentioned a meeting between the SFA,HL and north region in January that is supposed to have gone well. As described above by Fairweatherfan the HL could just keep expanding its numbers to accomodate licensed champions so nothing much really has to change any time soon. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dev Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 2 minutes ago, patriot1 said: But has there been any indication that the North Juniors want to be part of the pyramid alongside the NCL? There were rumours that those two organisations had met with the HL but now it appears it was only the NCL. Guessing that if the Lowland League is willing to accept applications from current Juniors which will retain Junior status for Junior Cup reasons then there is no obvious reason for the Highland League not to do the same with the North Region Juniors i.e. they would transfer their League to the pyramid in some way whilst retaining their member clubs. Member clubs could choose whether or not to retain Junior status as in the WoS. Seems an easy solution on the face of things. NCL coming into the senior pyramid officially to fill the gap in the Highlands. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 2 minutes ago, Pyramidic said: My gut feeling is there were around 5 SoS clubs that were interested in joining the WoSFL but have been caught up in the “geographical integrity” issue... Nithsdale Wanderers would have by far the best case given they are very close to Kello. The rest including the Edusport reserve team I suspect have no chance. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archieb Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 7 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said: Nithsdale Wanderers would have by far the best case given they are very close to Kello. The rest including the Edusport reserve team I suspect have no chance. Nithsdale are one club that would struggle to meet the ground criteria - particularly the one that refers to the pitch not being viewable from outside the ground, as it's fully visible from the A76! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmontheloknow Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 9 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said: Nithsdale Wanderers would have by far the best case given they are very close to Kello. The rest including the Edusport reserve team I suspect have no chance. Caledonian Braves / Edusport Academy U23s play in Motherwell so have every chance surely? They play within the pyramid at tier 6 as it stands. And Bonnyton Thistle another one within the West Junior area. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmontheloknow Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 1 minute ago, archieb said: Nithsdale are one club that would struggle to meet the ground criteria - particularly the one that refers to the pitch not being viewable from outside the ground, as it's fully visible from the A76! There's bound to be a bit of leeway when it comes to grounds. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert James Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 8 minutes ago, Dev said: Guessing that if the Lowland League is willing to accept applications from current Juniors which will retain Junior status for Junior Cup reasons then there is no obvious reason for the Highland League not to do the same with the North Region Juniors i.e. they would transfer their League to the pyramid in some way whilst retaining their member clubs. Member clubs could choose whether or not to retain Junior status as in the WoS. Seems an easy solution on the face of things. NCL coming into the senior pyramid officially to fill the gap in the Highlands. The NCL has accepted in principle, that there would be an NRJFA/NCL "champions" promotion play-off with the North Juniors, IF the latter also joined the pyramid. Only 2 northern clubs currently have an SFA Licence : Golspie Sutherland (NCL) and Banks O'Dee (NRJFA), 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowland team Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 I think you'll find there might be a rule change put forward to the pyramid league 's that any reserve teams must be 1 full league below their 1st team as this could hamper relegation and promotion.it should have been put in place at the start.the eos has Stirling uni and at one time had Spartans sitting just below the lowland league.this needs to be tightened up. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 3 minutes ago, cmontheloknow said: Caledonian Braves / Edusport Academy U23s play in Motherwell so have every chance surely? They play within the pyramid at tier 6 as it stands. And Bonnyton Thistle another one within the West Junior area. Already mentioned Bonnyton as a probable applicant in an earlier post. The discussion moved on from there to the other SoS teams. Has it not been clarified that reserve teams would not be getting in? I remember that being posted on here possibly by parkcircus. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillonearth Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 4 minutes ago, Dev said: Guessing that if the Lowland League is willing to accept applications from current Juniors which will retain Junior status for Junior Cup reasons then there is no obvious reason for the Highland League not to do the same with the North Region Juniors i.e. they would transfer their League to the pyramid in some way whilst retaining their member clubs. Member clubs could choose whether or not to retain Junior status as in the WoS. Seems an easy solution on the face of things. NCL coming into the senior pyramid officially to fill the gap in the Highlands. My guess in the longer term would be that the NCL and North Juniors could form two separate entities below the HL with a playoff for promotion. I don't see them integrating fully with each other for the main reason that by and large they cover two geographical areas...the former being more or less the Black Isle and up, and the latter effectively east of Nairn and down as far as Montrose. The issue might be down the line...there would seem to be a few North Junior teams who would be able to step up to the HL in terms of onfield performance and ground criteria...BoD, Bridge of Don Thistle and Aberdeen Uni all spring to mind...less so in the NCL. This would obviously shift the HL's epicentre south and east, and historically the HlLs been protective of the balance between Highland proper and Aberdeenshire sides. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillonearth Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 Just now, LongTimeLurker said: Already mentioned Bonnyton as a probable applicant in an earlier post. The discussion moved on from there to the other SoS teams. Has it not been clarified that reserve teams would not be getting in? I remember that being posted on here possibly by parkcircus. It was explicitly confirmed at the WoSFL meeting that no reserve sides of current LL or SPFL sides would be admitted to the new league, which I think was a concern for some teams moving forward. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parkcircus Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 1 hour ago, Hillonearth said: It was explicitly confirmed at the WoSFL meeting that no reserve sides of current LL or SPFL sides would be admitted to the new league, which I think was a concern for some teams moving forward. Wasn’t mentioned by me, I suggested the West Region (Junior’s) form a league for reserve teams that might sit below league 2, but the u20s setup will now provide this function. hopefully in years to come the amateur leagues are bolted on to the pyramid, clubs could form a 2nd team in those leagues, as they can at the moment, but those are run as separate teams. Separate club id and player registrations 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMan Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 Last I heard, no SoS club had formally applied, that may have changed of course and there is still time to apply. I doubt the LL/WoS will want or need to take clubs from other areas. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 3 hours ago, honestly united said: It's quicker to go from Gretna to the centre of Glasgow than it is to Newton Stewart. Dumfries to Glasgow is also quicker than Dumfries to Stranraer due to the roads Dumfries to Stranraer is only 4 miles less than Dumfries to Glasgow and the route to Glasgow coincides with the main road between Scotland and the rest of the world, so I never understand why this comes as a shock to people. Obviously Glasgow would be quicker. The A75 gets a lot of stick but I've never found it that bad. It's no motorway, nor should it be, and you can get caught behind tractors anywhere. 1 hour ago, Hillonearth said: Absolutely, and I reckon the main reason there was no interest a few years back from current West teams in joining the SoS when we were being told that "the South covers the West"... The hinterland of D&G is a spectacularly badly-connected part of the country even in 2020...even what look like shortish journeys can vary wildly thanks to the not-great A-road nature of the place. I was down at Lochmaben's new park at the start of this season...took me 80 minutes from Hamilton to Dumfries via the X74 bus, and a further 30-35 minutes to travel the eight miles from Dumfries to Lochmaben thanks to the local bus being caught behind a tractor for a couple of those miles! If you get caught behind a tractor for two miles, you'd normally be doing 50 there but instead you do 20, it adds on three and a half minutes. People overestimate how much time they "lose" behind tractors and bikes, and in most of rural Scotland it's just something you need to accept. I totally agree with you about the buses in D&G, they're very slow and infrequent. I had a trip to Castle Douglas once that felt like we were going to Ulaanbaatar. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyramidic Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 8 minutes ago, BMan said: Last I heard, no SoS club had formally applied, that may have changed of course and there is still time to apply. I doubt the LL/WoS will want or need to take clubs from other areas. Thanks for the update. Any more Amateurs expected to apply? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bestsinceslicebread Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 2 hours ago, BMan said: Final day for applications for the EoS, will any of the West Lothian clubs break ranks I wonder. I would have liked the EOS to put the final application date to the same as the WOS, 7th April as some decisions could be made by the existing junior teams in the East at last minuite due to many West Region junior teams leaving junior football to join the Pyramid system 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyramidic Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 Daily Record: Thorniewood United boss Jamie Nesbitt says new league set-up will leave clubs unhappy Quote Thorniewood United boss Jamie Nesbitt says a number of clubs will be left unhappy if the new West of Scotland League set-up is based on current junior league positions. Nesbitt says he would like the current junior season to be played to some kind of finish to avoid that, and says several clubs would be likely to finish in a different position than how the leagues ended before the coronavirus shutdown. Quote Nesbitt added: “I genuinely mean this – as a club we’ve not really spoken about the West of Scotland League, at all. "At the last game we played I mentioned it to the committee and they had said they were looking to stay in the junior set-up, and obviously that has changed, everybody seems to have applied for West of Scotland League status. “I’m ambitious, but I’ve always operated at Second or First Division level, so for us to get to that senior stage, or that grade, then I’m not really sure. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/thorniewood-united-boss-jamie-nesbitt-21785530 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMan Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 Thanks for the update. Any more Amateurs expected to apply?Just Drumchapel as far as I'm aware, along with Glasgow Uni. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.