Craig fae the Vale Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 13 hours ago, Brad Bobley said: Hats off to you, mate. That’s incredibly informative. Saturday morning in West Central Scotland thriving too. 70 odd teams in the old Strathclyde league, albeit a good portion of them came from the Glasgow District league. Why does Saturday morning seem to be doing OK and Saturday afternoon is in turmoil? It's probably not the only factor, but playing Saturday morning allows the boys to go and watch their big team or do basically anything else in the afternoon. It's less of a commitment than pretty much giving up their entire Saturday to play in the afternoon. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Feet Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 14 hours ago, Brad Bobley said: Hats off to you, mate. That’s incredibly informative. Saturday morning in West Central Scotland thriving too. 70 odd teams in the old Strathclyde league, albeit a good portion of them came from the Glasgow District league. Why does Saturday morning seem to be doing OK and Saturday afternoon is in turmoil? The convenience of getting your game out the way in the morning plays a massive part in it. It still allows people the chance to play football in the morning, then go and do as they please in the afternoon whether that's family stuff, Ibrox/Parkhead or a game of golf etc. Saturday afternoon, you are away from lunchtime and not back until the evening depending on where you are playing, it's a big commitment. Social attitudes have changed from 20 years ago when the afternoon leagues were thriving and the morning leagues were seen as a joke. You also need to factor in the WOSFL and the fact a lot of amateur teams are stepping up into this and teams in the bottom divisions are raiding the amateur ranks for players. The amateur afternoon leagues are on their last legs. I suspect we will start to see a lot of the decent amateur teams, especially the ones with their own park etc look to take the plunge into the WOSFL soon. The Saturday afternoon ship is sinking. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dev Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 Lots of really good points being made. I guess, but, maybe there's more of a future for playing in the afternoons in the amateurs where playing is also for the local community or based on a local youth set-up. If it's just a social game then, if it frees up the afternoons, maybe Saturday mornings is the way to go? This would be especially so in Glasgow. How are the Sunday leagues getting on? Have they also been affected? As Crazy Feet says: "I suspect we will start to see a lot of the decent amateur teams, especially the ones with their own park etc look to take the plunge into the WOSFL soon. " This could really radically change the face of amateur football. Imagine the WoS with some sort of "Intermediate" Divisions at the head of the main current Amateur Leagues in the west e.g. Ayrshire, Caledonian, etc etc. A bit like the current Division Four but without the commitment to get a WoS standard ground straight away. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginaro Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 (edited) On 03/08/2022 at 10:04, Crazy Feet said: The Saturday afternoon amateur game is finished without serious reform - leagues joining together, maybe regionalising them etc and possibly things like being more flexible with kick off days and times. The West of Scotland League has been the final nail in the coffin. The morning leagues are thriving if the Caley/Central/SAFL don't adapt or do something quickly they will be gubbed. Having four amateur leagues covering the west central belt (with a bit of overlap to Stirling & District) is surely what needs to be fixed - this is basically the only part of Scottish football that hasn't been sorted into a proper system. See the image below for the current situation of the top division in the Caledonian, Central, GGP, Scottish, S&D. Or use this link to view all the divisions (106 clubs): https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1iFkb730VaR2bD4iMVh5Od6MTcLoimS4 The rest of the country is split into sensible regional leagues (Aberdeenshire, Ayrshire, Borders, Fife, Lothians, Midlands, Perthshire) which gives a more local option and a pathway for clubs/players at amateur level, below the senior pyramid. It can't be healthy to have multiple teams from the same local area playing in different leagues across a large area in the west. There should be a "top" (super)league covering the greater Glasgow area, then either a second tier or a split into a east/west leagues below. Edited August 5, 2022 by Ginaro 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Feet Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 2 hours ago, Dev said: Lots of really good points being made. I guess, but, maybe there's more of a future for playing in the afternoons in the amateurs where playing is also for the local community or based on a local youth set-up. If it's just a social game then, if it frees up the afternoons, maybe Saturday mornings is the way to go? This would be especially so in Glasgow. How are the Sunday leagues getting on? Have they also been affected? As Crazy Feet says: "I suspect we will start to see a lot of the decent amateur teams, especially the ones with their own park etc look to take the plunge into the WOSFL soon. " This could really radically change the face of amateur football. Imagine the WoS with some sort of "Intermediate" Divisions at the head of the main current Amateur Leagues in the west e.g. Ayrshire, Caledonian, etc etc. A bit like the current Division Four but without the commitment to get a WoS standard ground straight away. Years ago, you could only get into The Caledonian League if you had your own ground. They wouldn't let you in if you had a council pitch. Teams like Glasgow Harp, Giffnock North, Milngavie Wanderers, Doune Castle and EKYM all have a lot of the infastructure already in place to move into the WOSFL. St Mungo have a lease at Loretto as well, which could meet the requirements with a little bit of development. Drumchapel Ams in the Central have the right set up as well. You would have to think teams like this will be considering taking the plunge. I actually heard Drum Ams are joining next season (they already have an U20s in the WOSFL set up for this season) and EKYM thought about moving this season but backed out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clubchairman Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 Can I just say Drumchapel amateurs have NO interest in joining any WOSL or any other league for that matter and I don’t know who gave you that info Crazy Feet but no truth in it at all 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginaro Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 3 hours ago, Crazy Feet said: I actually heard Drum Ams are joining next season (they already have an U20s in the WOSFL set up for this season) Is that not Drumchapel United who are in both the WOSFL and U20s? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clubchairman Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 Seriously Genaro !!!! Do a we bit of investigation b4 coming on !!!! TWO different clubs ', 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcruic Posted August 18, 2022 Author Share Posted August 18, 2022 (edited) On 05/08/2022 at 18:44, Clubchairman said: Seriously Genaro !!!! Do a we bit of investigation b4 coming on !!!! TWO different clubs ', That's what Genaro said - it's Crazy Feet who suggested Drumchapel Ams were joining (and had an U20 team in the WOSFL). Genaro is aware of the difference, and pointed out that it was Drumchapel United who were in the WOSFL, not Drumchapel Ams. Odd that Crazy Feet should then like your post blaming Genaro for not knowing the difference! I feel this explanation will be wasted. Edited August 18, 2022 by mcruic 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcruic Posted August 19, 2022 Author Share Posted August 19, 2022 Note: It's now possible to click on team names in the amateur tables on my site, which will take you to a list of their matches back to the start of the 2021-22 season. Also, the "amateur results database" contains monthly results from all leagues back to July 2021. Clicking on August 2022 brings up all the latest scores from all the leagues. http://scotscores.theroonba.com/clubrank/clubam0822.html Don't think it's possible to get all the amateur results in one place anywhere else. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy groundhopper Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 Seems like Scotland faces a similar demise to Saturday p.m football like we had in Bristol. Youngsters not committed, the costs, lack of help, people having to work etc. Guessing it's the chance to get to a game after playing in the morning, that's a big factor. Hopefully the Leagues pull through, seen some great amateur games on my travels. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcruic Posted August 25, 2022 Author Share Posted August 25, 2022 (edited) Whitfield Tavern (Dundee Saturday Morning, Premier) have folded, so they've now been removed from the tables. Forfar West End Amateurs (Forfar Athletic Community last season) have also pulled out of the Midlands League. Middlefield Wasps (Aberdeenshire Div. 2 North) haven't played yet - I don't know if they have folded or not. Central Scottish: Fallin (Premier) and Cambusnethan Talbot and Garrowhill Thistle (Championship) have yet to play a match. Does anybody have any news about whether any or all of these teams have folded/are taking a year out? They are all still appearing in the CSAFL league tables. Edited August 25, 2022 by mcruic 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleslie99 Posted August 25, 2022 Share Posted August 25, 2022 7 hours ago, mcruic said: Whitfield Tavern (Dundee Saturday Morning, Premier) have folded, so they've now been removed from the tables. Forfar West End Amateurs (Forfar Athletic Community last season) have also pulled out of the Midlands League. Middlefield Wasps (Aberdeenshire Div. 2 North) haven't played yet - I don't know if they have folded or not. Central Scottish: Fallin (Premier) and Cambusnethan Talbot and Garrowhill Thistle (Championship) have yet to play a match. Does anybody have any news about whether any or all of these teams have folded/are taking a year out? They are all still appearing in the CSAFL league tables. Fallin I heard had folded. They had a statement on their twitter saying the manager had left etc and if they didn't have anything in place by time the 1st game of the season came they were folding. That's came and gone and played no games so assume they have folded. Csafl kept Bearsden, Clydebank and stedfast last year In their league tables on the website even though they had all folded/taken year out so I wouldn't read too much into that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derry Pele Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 Strangely the Borders league seems to be as healthy as ever with three divisions, even declining new member clubs from Gretna and Berwick although I believe this was due in part to the additional travel that would be needed for teams and particularly their perilously small pool of refs 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Bobley Posted September 12, 2022 Share Posted September 12, 2022 What happened to Tower Hearts? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Feet Posted September 12, 2022 Share Posted September 12, 2022 They folded. Lost about 8-9 players from the team who won the Scottish and couldn't replace them. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iveajimmyboneon Posted September 12, 2022 Share Posted September 12, 2022 On 04/09/2022 at 21:42, Derry Pele said: Strangely the Borders league seems to be as healthy as ever with three divisions, even declining new member clubs from Gretna and Berwick although I believe this was due in part to the additional travel that would be needed for teams and particularly their perilously small pool of refs Already three or four clubs in that league from Berwick already. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Bobley Posted September 12, 2022 Share Posted September 12, 2022 They folded. Lost about 8-9 players from the team who won the Scottish and couldn't replace them.Presumably to WoS teams? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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