gwd440

What if Talbot treat both legs as 'one off games' ?

Incident packed game at Gretna. Home side had plenty of effort but CSS were easily the better and more dangerous side. On 17 minutes, a Gretna player moved unchallenged through midfield, shot and scored from about 20 yards. There was a short delay after the goal, which turned out to be due to the Strollers keeper having dislocated a finger. He went off to A&E and was replaced by (I assume) an outfield player. CSS equalised about 15 minutes later, slack defending allowing their no.9 to go through 1 on 1. Only one winner after this, but despite a number of goal mouth scrambles and shots missing by inches, CSS couldn't find the net. Meanwhile Gretna failed to test the replacement keeper who only had one weak shot to save. Five minutes from the end there was a clash of heads. CSS player went off to get his head bandaged and reappeared quite quickly. The Gretna player was the player manager. While his physio tried (and failed) to bandage his head, he tried to substitute himself. Gretna had already used 3 substitutes, so this was refused and a Gretna player was yellow carded for delaying the free kick (while waiting for the substitution to happen!). While I was watching the manager argue with the Lino and his bench, Gretna attacked down the left, crossed and scored with a header at the far post. Strollers will wonder how they didn't win this comfortably, but full marks to Gretna for their effort and commitment.

Does this mean the WoSFL is now effectively a 'closed shop' at 80 members. So any potential future pyramid applicants need to wait for a vacancy or apply to the East or South?

Oops. Rookie mistake, now corrected. The point I'm making is that Strollers weren't there originally, but are now. I agree they joined to make up the numbers, but that was also the year that Threave decided to drop down. So, although they weren't a direct replacement, they did strengthen the league that year (unlike Hawick who only lasted a couple of years.).

Come on Jim, more due diligence needed. From the bottom of the Lowland League we have lost: Threave (now WoS3) Preston (now EoS1) Hawick (now EoS3) Selkirk (defunct) Whitehill Welfare (now Eos1) Vale of Leithen (EoS1) In their place we now have: Tranent Boness Cowdenbeath Berwick R Caledonian Braves Civil Service Strollers Are you seriously suggesting the former 6 are equal to their replacements. If not, then logically (Mr Spock mode) the league must be stronger.

Now this new precedent has been set I expect next season the extra place will be offered to the team who finishes 15th in the Highland League. Keith must be gutted. So close...

Still only 1 promoted. Edinburgh Uni would be reprieved.

ok

I think the argument is that Abbey Vale will be blocking Creetown from entering the promotion play-off, in the same way that Beith will probably block Darvel/Talbot. Not suggesting either club has done anything wrong, but would there be a case in future for the best placed licensed team to be put forward?

Whitletts are West First Division.

Well they've both been going for nearly 10 years and seem to be doing ok. Selkirk were around for about 130 years. Maybe longevity is overrated?

If you want certainty, make sure you finish in 11th or higher. Finishing 12th - 14th, means you could be affected by events outside your control. As FWF says, all will become clearer as the season progresses. The rules have been set, so nobody should be surprised at the end of the season.

Especially if you're not finishing anywhere near the relegation zone. I'm no fan of OG Broomhill, but until last season their worst season in the LL was their first - 9th of 14. Since then they've finished above such 'giants' as Kelty, Boness, East Stirlingshire, Spartans etc. They may have got there via form-filling, but they've stayed there on merit so far. Fingers crossed though...

This season, all Conference A & B teams are at Division 1 level. The bottom 7/8/9 of each Conference will be relegated into Division 2 next season. Conference X is becoming Division 3. Placing any current Conference A or B teams into Division 3 would mean a drop of 2 divisions, which would be inconsistent. It's a little bit tough on the Conference X teams. but as LLL says, things will rectify themselves over the next 2-3 seasons. I think the league got their restructure about right.

There is no current rule saying what would happen if 2 teams are relegated into the WoSFL and the champions aren't promoted, so it is not correct to say that 5 teams would be automatically relegated. There probably needs to be such a rule in place. It's probably unlikely to apply for a few years yet, but if the unthinkable happened and Darvel came back down with Cumbernauld Colts and the WoSFL champions didn't go up, they would need to relegate 5 teams to keep the Premier at 16. The same would then apply to the divisions below. To potentially relegate 5 from 16 seems a bit too much. May be better to promote 2 in and relegate 2-4 depending on what happens above.

I agree there probably isn't the depth in the Highland and Lowland League to merit full play offs similar to the SPFL ones yet. But if they did, the scenario could look something like: Club 42 - Automatic relegation HL1 Fraserburgh v LL1 Bonnyrigg Rose - winner promoted to SPFL2 HL2 Buckie Thistle v LL2 East Kilbride HL3 Brechin City v LL3 Spartans Semi Finals A Loser of HL1/LL1 v Winner HL2/LL2 B Winner HL3/LL3 v Club 41 Final Winner A v Winner B

Maybe they could all apply to the Highland League and set up a Highland League (South) division.

I can't believe the ref still hasn't awarded a goal after having all weekend to look at the photographic evidence.....

Vale of Leithen relegated from Lowland League EoS champions fail to win promotion play-off.

Brilliant!

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.

WoS v EoS 1-1 WoS win on pens EoS v SoS 0-0 EoS win on pens SoS v WoS 0-0 SoS win on pens Pld F A Pts EoS 2 1 1 3 WoS 2 1 1 3 SoS 2 0 0 3 All teams gained two points from two draws, plus an extra point for winning a penalty shootout. All teams have goal difference of 0 WoS and EoS both have goals scored = 1 EoS scored 1 away from home, WoS scored 0 away from home EoS win. It’s an unlikely scenario, but they are trying to cover all eventualities.

Instead of trying to shoehorn 6-8 games into those two weeks, which would be quite brutal, how about the following? Use PPG to create a list of the top 9 ranked teams and split these into 3 groups of three. Each group plays each other once = week 1 The group winners play each other in a final group = week 2 So a maximum of 4 games in two weeks. Doing the maths quickly we could have something like : Group A Jeanfield Swifts, Linlithgow Rose, Dundonald Bluebell Group B Tranent Juniors, Camelon Juniors, Hill Of Beath Group C Lothian Thistle HV, Penicuik Athletic, Musselburgh Athletic I guess something similar could be used to determine relegation - the 3 bottom sides in each equivalent group go down plus two of the second placed teams. Personally, I would skip relegation again this season, but it would be nice to be able to provide a club that could call themselves champions.

On the Lowland League forum there's a claim that they are using PPG to decide their Champion. Looking at the EOS Premier, the same process would provide Jeanfield Swifts. However, Jeanfield, Penicuik and Dundonald have only managed to complete just over a quarter of the season, and as someone has pointed out, Jeanfield are the only side to have played against all 3 bottom sides which probably gives them a slightly unfair advantage. So, then I thought why not use PPG as a guide to produce a Top 4 and then have a knockout tournament to provide a champion - Covid allowing. I've used PPG and Goal Difference / Game which would give: Jeanfield Swifts v Camelon Juniors Tranent Juniors v Lothian Thistle HV Then, as I'm having a quiet afternoon (please don't judge me), I thought why not use PPG to identify the Top 8 teams, then produce a second league table, still with PPG, for those 8 teams using only matches played against each other. Unfortunately, the way the fixtures have fallen, I've only been able to find 10 matches between these sides. Jeanfield and Dundonald have only 1 match each, LTHV have 4. The rankings in this table would be: 1. Lothian Thistle 2. Tranent Juniors 3. Camelon Juniors 4. Penicuik Athletic 5. Jeanfield Swifts 6. Musselburgh Athletic 7 .Linlithgow Rose 8. Dundonald Bluebell But at the end of the day, there probably haven't been enough matches to justify using PPG. Null & void? Oh well, that's the weekend here...

Thats kind of my point. My understanding is that Pollok may have trouble getting a licence. (If I'm wrong, just substitute another unlicensed West club). In that case, no play off is necessary.