Jump to content

South of Scotland League general chat


Recommended Posts

7 minutes ago, rockson said:

Harder to win.

Certainly, but that's not everything in football.

The South is at 13 clubs. Two of which are reserve sides. It's quickly getting left behind compared to the WoSFL and EoSFL. Plus the prize of winning the league is likely to get battered in the Lowland Playoff.

In the past Threave Rovers are a club that challenged themselves by joining the pre-pyramid EoSFL and then the Lowland League.

They withdrew to the SoSFL largely due to travel concerns. I don't think any club can argue about travel in the WoSFL when Campbeltown Pupils are there.

There are different pros and cons for either option.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If they're not able to progress from a play-off as South champion - which they aren't even going to be involved in this season - then how are they 'testing' themselves by jumping to the bottom of a different league setup? The prize of winning a league is that championship: if the opportunity for promotion was critical, then there wouldn't have been any of these leagues at all prior to the pyramid. 

There's no inherent reason why a capable team and well-run club in the South cannot progress further by winning an end of season play-off - as opposed to having their opportunity blocked well in advance by Darvel and all the other Walter Mitty outfits that reliably emerge from Ayrshire juniordom. 

It's currently Threave's decision, but it would be based on flawed logic and should be taken out of any club's hands in the future by establishing semi-permanent catchments for each league. Campbeltown and Castle Douglas patently should not belong to the same one, when there is already a perfectly viable alternative regional league. 

Edited by vikingTON
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is there even a case for the Ayrshire clubs leaving the WoS joining the SoS en-masse?

Then you'd have Campbeltown Pupils in a Central based Senior League and more or less a guarantee of two current West Of Scotland League sides playing in the LL play-offs. The difference being that one would be the SoS Champions. This would guarantee that a central club reaches the play-offs each season.

Three up - three down between the LL and the W/S/E of Scotland leagues! 

Won't happen, of course, but it would make the play-offs more interesting!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The West still needs to expand north and west of the Clyde too. An incorporation of Threave would be a hugely retrograde step towards this, not least in a time is spiralling fuel and bus costs.  

If anything the South should put some feelers out to the inland Borders clubs to join a more realistic and competitive setup - and they will be supplemented by the likes of Gretna and Dalbeattie in the near future as well. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, calmac25 said:

What division in the West of Scotland would they go into?

Could there be an argument that they are moving across from a parallel Tier 6 league and should therefore be placed in the WoSL Premier, similar to how Bonnyton were treated?

The WoSL Premier could run with 17 clubs for 1 season, relegating an extra club at the end of 2022-23.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, gwd440 said:

Could there be an argument that they are moving across from a parallel Tier 6 league and should therefore be placed in the WoSL Premier, similar to how Bonnyton were treated?

The WoSL Premier could run with 17 clubs for 1 season, relegating an extra club at the end of 2022-23.

Doubt it. Bonnyton Thistle only got there starting from a relatively clean slate.

If Threave Rovers are applying, they'd have to start at the bottom.

Edited by FairWeatherFan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

47 minutes ago, gwd440 said:

...The WoSL Premier could run with 17 clubs for 1 season, relegating an extra club at the end of 2022-23.

Good luck trying to get a majority of WoS clubs to ratify that at an AGM so very much doubt it. It's easy to see how Threave could benefit from this switch of leagues, but not so easy to see how the WoS does.

Maybe it helps get rid of the SoS at tier 6 down the road but are clubs going to focus on that angle or on whether they fancy a trip down to Castle Douglas on the proverbial rainy Tuesday night in January?

Campbeltown Pupils getting voted into full membership at the next AGM will be an interesting one to watch for similar reasons. Should happen in pyramid terms but the member clubs ultimately get to decide.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 08/03/2022 at 22:04, GNU_Linux said:

image.thumb.png.9bfec26b2374216978e6abaf38c6b6d6.png

The team will a
lso be leaving the North West Community Campus for Wilson Park within Locharbriggs itself which has been brought up to SOSL standard.


image.thumb.png.f8773ea94e487871f5af6299fa88d6b1.png

It's not in Locharbriggs. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 25/03/2022 at 12:17, LongTimeLurker said:

Good luck trying to get a majority of WoS clubs to ratify that at an AGM so very much doubt it. It's easy to see how Threave could benefit from this switch of leagues, but not so easy to see how the WoS does.

Maybe it helps get rid of the SoS at tier 6 down the road but are clubs going to focus on that angle or on whether they fancy a trip down to Castle Douglas on the proverbial rainy Tuesday night in January?

Campbeltown Pupils getting voted into full membership at the next AGM will be an interesting one to watch for similar reasons. Should happen in pyramid terms but the member clubs ultimately get to decide.

Well if they can get into the new 3rd Division, it will be full of the smaller ex junior Ayrshire teams, only a few teams outwith that, not that big a deal.  It'll be a 16 team league with an away day to Glasgow, one to Alexandria the the rest Ayrshire or South Lanarkshire. 

Guess that would provide Threave with good competitive football and mid table they would be doing well to achieve, then no doubt a Bonnyton Thistle to join them for the 2023/24 season. 

If the WoSL Division 4 starts to balloon with membership from ambitious amateur league clubs, I can see Division 3 & 4 then being regionalised North/South.

How the South of Scotland league fit into tier 6, well on standard of football they don't.  If they remain at tier 6 or not no odds, sure if and when Threave leave to go to the WoS only one or 2 licensed clubs left to exercise the playoff robin anyway.

For example look at Glasgow Uni this year, they might just qualify for the 2nd Division WoS.  Before that they were a fair, mid team Amateur Caly league team.  So going by that, there are dozens of amateur teams that could be compete at a decent standard against all these ex junior teams.

Drumchapel aswell, looks like they'll just miss out on playing WoS premier next year. 

I guess over the next 10 years any decent amateur team that can access the required facilities will apply of the WoS or the EoS as that is the natural progression.  Fewer amateur leagues around as a result.  More teams than now in the pyramid.  Suppose that is what the WoS Division 4 is for like the EoS Division X.     

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

"Strongly rumoured that both St Cuthbert Wanderers and Threave Rovers have applied to join the West of Scotland League for next season." from Prorege on https://www.nonleaguematters.co.uk/forums/index.php?threads/south-of-scotland-league-2021-2.4863/post-149653

If so it would reduce the SOS to 11, the lowest number of clubs since 2013-14.

Makes sense if they want more of a challenge but don't want to go to the LL. They'd probably do well in the WOS Third Division, which would then have 20+ clubs and have to split in some way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...