AlanCamelonfan Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 10 hours ago, GordonS said: Final is always at the end of the season, it's the biggest cup final for the grade (and obviously considerably bigger now too). 2019-20 semis haven't been played yet. 18-19 was between East Kilbride and Bonnyrigg, played at Meggetland in Edinburgh. This is Tynecastle's ground and a pretty good place to watch football. It has a capacity over 4,000, with 500 seats, but the attendance was a pretty disappointing 600 or so, IIRC. 17-18 was the last before the East Exodus, it was between BSC Glasgow and Civil Service Strollers and was played at Musselburgh. 16-17 was Cumbernauld Colts v East Kilbride at Falkirk 15-16 was Edinburgh City v Whitehill Welfare at Edinburgh Uni. 14-15 was BSC Glasgow v Civil Service Strollers at Whitehill Welfare's ground. I wouldn't expect a big crowd for the 19-20 final (if it ever gets played), because the better supported teams are already out - Bo'ness lost to BSC, Linlithgow lost to Camelon (who lost to Hill of Beath), Bonnyrigg lost to Dunipace, etc. But we really need to get behind this competition, talk it up, get it established in the minds of supporters, because it's the by far the best non-league cup in the country now. We lost to east kilbride not hill of beath. We were due to play hill of beath in quarter final of football nation cup but never happened 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanCamelonfan Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 2 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said: Given how jam-packed the league seasons would be for a 17 club Lowland League and a 20 club WoS premier this season with an Oct 9 start it is frankly astonishing that the LL/EoS fixture secretary would think that allocating six Saturdays before the end of April to the SCC would have been a sensible move. A blazer politics related agenda coming to the fore by the looks of things. The devils lanterns are available at this level. This is not the grade 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 4 hours ago, FairWeatherFan said: When it began it didn't really have a fixed spot in the calendar. It was created as a replacement for the Qualifying Cup (South) which had been an early season tournament. Most of those dates were then taken up by the early rounds of the Scottish Cup proper. You can find finals contested from March-May as the EoSFL & SoSFL had their own end of season competitions. It is when the Lowland League is established in 2013-14 that the SCC becomes the end of season showpiece. The size of the competition now dictates its place in the calendar as you need that much space to ensure it gets completed. Quite a thought that the last Qualifying Cup (South) had 20 entrants. The successor this season has 142 (should be 144). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 The clubs most likely to be in the latter stages are the LL promotion challengers who need to get their season finished in time for the playoffs against the HL champion. They already have 32 league games to squeeze in as well. May should have been used for this not Feb to Apr. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 2 minutes ago, AlanCamelonfan said: We lost to east kilbride not hill of beath. We were due to play hill of beath in quarter final of football nation cup but never happened Sorry, got them mixed up. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairWeatherFan Posted September 28, 2020 Author Share Posted September 28, 2020 2 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said: The clubs most likely to be in the latter stages are the LL promotion challengers who need to get their season finished in time for the playoffs against the HL champion. They already have 32 league games to squeeze in as well. May should have been used for this not Feb to Apr. The Lowland League now has all floodlights and probably the greatest concentration of artificial pitches than any one league. They signed up for both knowing full well what it meant. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairWeatherFan Posted September 28, 2020 Author Share Posted September 28, 2020 10 minutes ago, GordonS said: Quite a thought that the last Qualifying Cup (South) had 20 entrants. The successor this season has 142 (should be 144). Its come quite a way over the years. First edition of the SCC had 38 teams in it. Then it would shift to a SW /NE regional draw for the first few rounds to minimise the travel costs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 8 minutes ago, FairWeatherFan said: The Lowland League now has all floodlights and probably the greatest concentration of artificial pitches than any one league. They signed up for both knowing full well what it meant. Always struck me as curious that the LL has so many artificial pitches while the HL has none. If there's one club in Europe than needs an artificial pitch, it's Fort William. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GNU_Linux Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 Always struck me as curious that the LL has so many artificial pitches while the HL has none. If there's one club in Europe than needs an artificial pitch, it's Fort William. Zero chance of The Fort getting one as there's already an artificial turf in the town. Think it's at Lochaber High School. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairWeatherFan Posted September 28, 2020 Author Share Posted September 28, 2020 11 minutes ago, GordonS said: Always struck me as curious that the LL has so many artificial pitches while the HL has none. If there's one club in Europe than needs an artificial pitch, it's Fort William. I guess it makes sense. For years the HL had kept up to the standards required to meet SFA membership back then. Floodlights and cover for 500 being the big ticket items that would get mentioned. When licencing rolls around in the early 2010s they ticked most of the boxes. Whereas the existing SFA members in what we now know as the Lowland area were miles behind. When the Lowland League comes along it sees newer clubs that would bring new build facilities, a mixture of groundshares, and there's been the change in the last 10+ years of the "community club" model that has seen established clubs invest in a 3/4G pitch as a means of extra income and different age teams. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 1 hour ago, GordonS said: Always struck me as curious that the LL has so many artificial pitches while the HL has none. If there's one club in Europe than needs an artificial pitch, it's Fort William. In an LL context having artifical pitches in Dalbeattie, Gretna and Innerleithen that could be relied on not to get waterlogged would make a midweek heavy fixture list through the winter months easier to accomplish on a very tight time-limited schedule. It probably only takes one of those to build a backlog of postponed games for three games a week to rear its head in the run in to the promotion playoffs, if there are also lots of SCC games happening for a pack of clubs that are also chasing the title. On the bright side at least they don't have Camelon (the way it was a few years back), Whitehill Welfare or LTHV to worry about from that angle. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanCamelonfan Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 1 hour ago, LongTimeLurker said: In an LL context having artifical pitches in Dalbeattie, Gretna and Innerleithen that could be relied on not to get waterlogged would make a midweek heavy fixture list through the winter months easier to accomplish on a very tight time-limited schedule. It probably only takes one of those to build a backlog of postponed games for three games a week to rear its head in the run in to the promotion playoffs, if there are also lots of SCC games happening for a pack of clubs that are also chasing the title. On the bright side at least they don't have Camelon (the way it was a few years back), Whitehill Welfare or LTHV to worry about from that angle. A bad pitch and weather can derail your season. You are correct about that. Especially the year we got to the semi final of Scottish Junior Cup and finished 5th in the league under Danny Smith before he left for the Rose. But we can't just have thte league and thats it 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 5 hours ago, GNU_Linux said: Zero chance of The Fort getting one as there's already an artificial turf in the town. Think it's at Lochaber High School. Yeah, the school has one. It's not a tiny place though, I wonder if they could share it with the shinty clubs (at least for training). 5 hours ago, FairWeatherFan said: I guess it makes sense. For years the HL had kept up to the standards required to meet SFA membership back then. Floodlights and cover for 500 being the big ticket items that would get mentioned. When licencing rolls around in the early 2010s they ticked most of the boxes. Whereas the existing SFA members in what we now know as the Lowland area were miles behind. When the Lowland League comes along it sees newer clubs that would bring new build facilities, a mixture of groundshares, and there's been the change in the last 10+ years of the "community club" model that has seen established clubs invest in a 3/4G pitch as a means of extra income and different age teams. I understand the history, and Aberdeenshire is much drier than most of the Central Belt, it's just a wee bit not what you might expect at first. HL clubs are mostly very old and have had their grounds for a long, long time. It is interesting though that not one of them have switched to plastic to bring in more revenue, host other clubs etc. For example, Buckie has an HL club, a Junior club and a women's club, all at different venues, while the high school also has a plastic pitch. Nairn is another with 3 clubs all at different pitches. I'm not being critical in any way, just noting that it's uniform, and a different approach from further south. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy groundhopper Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 Apart from the initial cost outlay, the 3g pitches makes complete sense for the biggest reason - the SPFL allow them ! unlike the FA clowns down south. Considering how close the Scottish non league pyramid is to the SPFL it makes sense for the HL clubs to invest and to have extra income streams. Would expect the SFA to get their wallets out and help clubs to progress. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairWeatherFan Posted September 28, 2020 Author Share Posted September 28, 2020 15 minutes ago, GordonS said: HL clubs are mostly very old and have had their grounds for a long, long time. It is interesting though that not one of them have switched to plastic to bring in more revenue, host other clubs etc. For example, Buckie has an HL club, a Junior club and a women's club, all at different venues, while the high school also has a plastic pitch. Nairn is another with 3 clubs all at different pitches. I'm not being critical in any way, just noting that it's uniform, and a different approach from further south. I'm sure much of the problem comes from a position of funding. I'm guessing since most of the clubs have been around for a while, they own their own grounds. In which case councils have given funding to facilities that they own like the in Fort WIlliam & Buckie where the schools got the pitch. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 44 minutes ago, FairWeatherFan said: I'm sure much of the problem comes from a position of funding. I'm guessing since most of the clubs have been around for a while, they own their own grounds. In which case councils have given funding to facilities that they own like the in Fort WIlliam & Buckie where the schools got the pitch. Clubs in the south like Blackburn Utd have been able to access grants by opening the ground up to community use, though the neighbouring secondary school has a plastic pitch, so I'd have thought that model would be available to HL clubs too. I might be wrong but I don't think West Lothian like letting their school pitches out, maybe others councils are the same. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanCamelonfan Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 28 minutes ago, GordonS said: Clubs in the south like Blackburn Utd have been able to access grants by opening the ground up to community use, though the neighbouring secondary school has a plastic pitch, so I'd have thought that model would be available to HL clubs too. I might be wrong but I don't think West Lothian like letting their school pitches out, maybe others councils are the same. When I played for a linlithgow team 2003-2004 we trained on astro at the academy 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairWeatherFan Posted September 28, 2020 Author Share Posted September 28, 2020 40 minutes ago, GordonS said: Clubs in the south like Blackburn Utd have been able to access grants by opening the ground up to community use, though the neighbouring secondary school has a plastic pitch, so I'd have thought that model would be available to HL clubs too. I might be wrong but I don't think West Lothian like letting their school pitches out, maybe others councils are the same. Moray Council have a handy page for it. No idea about Highland & Aberdeenshire. http://www.moray.gov.uk/moray_standard/page_87942.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 57 minutes ago, AlanCamelonfan said: When I played for a linlithgow team 2003-2004 we trained on astro at the academy It's been a long time since I've seen any football on the astro outside school hours, you only see hockey on a Saturday. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 47 minutes ago, FairWeatherFan said: Moray Council have a handy page for it. No idea about Highland & Aberdeenshire. http://www.moray.gov.uk/moray_standard/page_87942.html Grass is half the price of astro. I wouldn't have expected that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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