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Junior football, what is the future?


Burnie_man

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17 hours ago, Tutankhamen said:

Old established league clubs, for instance Clyde, are quite rightly terrified of the future. A couple of bad seasons and they face playing Rutherglen Glencairn in a New Years game. What a come down that would be for Clyde. There's a good chance many of these old Senior clubs wouldn't recover from dropping into the LL. I have doubts Berwick Rangers or East StirlingSHIRE will ever regain the heady heights of SFL2 ever again. Certainly not with a whole group of organised ex Junior clubs coming towards them.

FTFY

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10 hours ago, Lowland team said:

Yeah your right forgot about the highland league clubs Apologies for that.but just had to get that my chest.

No problem.   Fraserburgh are another strong highland team., who are well supported, and like Brora Rangers (like Cove) would more than hold their own in SPFL 2. 

The current issue 'up north' is whether the SFA will support the North Caledonian League's request to join the pyramid below  the Highland League next season. According to recent highland newspaper reports, the HFL has confirmed its support for the NCL. 

However, the North Region Juniors still appear to be disinterested in the pyramid (?) despite what has happened in the West Region.

Edited by Robert James
post sent in error before completed
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3 minutes ago, gogsy said:

None  of those teams have "propped up the league for years", all have been outside bottom league for a considerable time in the last decade or so. I cant remember but its nearly twenty years since Brechin City were previously in the bottom SPFL league?

I think for a number of years it was basically just East Stirlingshire, Elgin City, Annan Athletic, Albion Rovers, and Montrose that hadn't been promoted out of SFL Division 3/SPFL2. Rovers and Montrose getting promoted within the playoff era.

Most of the clubs have bounced around from Tier 2-4 since the Third Division was introduced. At this point Annan and Elgin are the only two clubs that seem to stuck in the bottom division of the SPFL.

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5 hours ago, FairWeatherFan said:

I think for a number of years it was basically just East Stirlingshire, Elgin City, Annan Athletic, Albion Rovers, and Montrose that hadn't been promoted out of SFL Division 3/SPFL2. Rovers and Montrose getting promoted within the playoff era.

Most of the clubs have bounced around from Tier 2-4 since the Third Division was introduced. At this point Annan and Elgin are the only two clubs that seem to stuck in the bottom division of the SPFL.

You're always going to have teams who are perrenial bottom feeders because of their financial situation, fan base, and to a certain extent geopgraphical location which makes player recruitment that much harder. Will the eventual influx of the bigger ex Junior teams into the Lowland League and play offs/promotion spots improve that or will they simply replace the existing SPFL teams as the new "yo yo's" , who knows?

Think the big issue is whether the existing SPFL clubs react to this new threat and try to brick up the glass ceiling we all keep hearing about.

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5 hours ago, gogsy said:

None  of those teams have "propped up the league for years", all have been outside bottom league for a considerable time in the last decade or so. I cant remember but its nearly twenty years since Brechin City were previously in the bottom SPFL league?

Yeah, not a good example in those posts.  This is the first season in the bottom tier for Brechin since 2002.  Cowdenbeath have been back in the bottom tier since 2015 but had a good few years above that (even being in the Championship) before then.  Stirling were also in the Championship (or old first division) only 9 years ago .  Albion Rovers are the only ones that have really struggled although they did get into League One for a few seasons which was a considerable achievement since they'd been stuck in the bottom tier for a long time.

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19 hours ago, Cyclizine said:

No  junior or recently junior clubs have followings in four figures. I don't disagree with your sentiments, but this crowdwanking is bollocks.

Couldn't the likes of Talbot,Pollock,Clydebank etc pull in decent crowds if they got into the spfl ? Just basing it on recent big games that's all  - rather than bollocks.

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4 minutes ago, Andy groundhopper said:

Couldn't the likes of Talbot,Pollock,Clydebank etc pull in decent crowds if they got into the spfl ? Just basing it on recent big games that's all  - rather than bollocks.

No matter who makes it to the SPFL from the non-league will have a sizeable crowd increase but, no, Talbot are not going to be taking 1,000+ fans to games against Cowdenbeath and Forfar.

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17 minutes ago, Andy groundhopper said:

Couldn't the likes of Talbot,Pollock,Clydebank etc pull in decent crowds if they got into the spfl ? Just basing it on recent big games that's all  - rather than bollocks.

You really think the Talbot and Bankies hordes will be rushing to the likes of Brechin, Larbert and Elgin in SPFL2? You can't compare a one off cup match to a run of the mill league game.

And Pollock is a fish.

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29 minutes ago, Andy groundhopper said:

Couldn't the likes of Talbot,Pollock,Clydebank etc pull in decent crowds if they got into the spfl ? Just basing it on recent big games that's all  - rather than bollocks.

 

6 minutes ago, Cyclizine said:

You really think the Talbot and Bankies hordes will be rushing to the likes of Brechin, Larbert and Elgin in SPFL2? You can't compare a one off cup match to a run of the mill league game.

And Pollock is a fish.

Mebbe Andy's imagining Pollock 🦈 vs Turbot 🐠 in the Wet of Scotland League? 

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1 hour ago, Tutankhamen said:

Is that Luncarty from "North of the Tay" i see joining the East of Scotland League?

Technically west of the Tay in their case before anyone gets pedantic but their registered ground being slightly north of the club 42 playoff rulr boundary provides a glimmer of hope for Dundee clubs.

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4 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said:

Technically west of the Tay in their case before anyone gets pedantic but their registered ground being slightly north of the club 42 playoff rulr boundary provides a glimmer of hope for Dundee clubs.

I wouldn't believe a word you say.

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