Midlands League

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[Ray Patterson]

Why were the Lochee and North End games off today?

It's looking increasingly tricky for Lochee United to get the season finished in time for a potential Play-off.

[HibeeJibee]

30 minutes ago, Ray Patterson said:

Why were the Lochee and North End games off today? It's looking increasingly tricky for Lochee United to get the season finished in time for a potential Play-off.

They have April 13th + 20th free, but 4 league games without dates...

H v East Craigie
A v Downfield / Dundee NE / Forfar Utd

... East Craigie could be midweek by floodlight (does either Dundee club have lights?), or it'll be light enough regardless from early April.

Edited February 25 by HibeeJibee

[Junior_Arab]

28 minutes ago, Ray Patterson said:

Why were the Lochee and North End games off today?

It's looking increasingly tricky for Lochee United to get the season finished in time for a potential Play-off.

Presumably frozen. I know astro in Dundee was getting pretty frosty on Friday night. Forfar generally gets it worse being further inland. 

[Ray Patterson]

29 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said:

They have April 13th + 20th free, but 4 league games without dates...

H v East Craigie
A v Downfield / Dundee NE / Forfar Utd

... East Craigie could be midweek by floodlight (does either Dundee club have lights?), or it'll be light enough regardless from early April.

By mid April it's you can play until 8:30pm without lights so they could fit a couple of games in as 6:30 or possibly even 6:45pm kickoffs at a push.

Might need to play Monday/Wednesday though as all four clubs play on the 13th. 

Looking at the weeks left currently they only have the following free:

Wed 12 Mar - potential East Craigie (H) 
Wed 19 Mar
Wed 2 Apr
Wed 9 Apr - potential away game 6:30pm ko
Sat 13 Apr - all four clubs unavailable
Wed 16 Apr - potential away game 6:30pm ko
Sat 20 Apr - potential away game

Not knowing the playoff dates makes it tricky, but given they were 23 & 30 April in 2022, I'd assume they could be as late as 27 Apr and 4 May this season - although I see the HL is set to finish on 13 Apr - which might take the 20th off the table.

Still better than last season when Panmure won the League title on the 27th May!

Edited February 25 by Ray Patterson

[welshbairn]

There's zero chance of the HL finishing on April 13th and no need, the final League 2 fixtures aren't scheduled till May 4th. I do think the Midland and Highland Leagues should consider scheduling some of their cup games after the leagues have finished, the play offs mean a ridiculously early finish to the season. The LL now hold their League Cup after their League is done.

Edited February 25 by welshbairn

[Marten]

3 hours ago, welshbairn said:

There's zero chance of the HL finishing on April 13th and no need, the final League 2 fixtures aren't scheduled till May 4th. I do think the Midland and Highland Leagues should consider scheduling some of their cup games after the leagues have finished, the play offs mean a ridiculously early finish to the season. The LL now hold their League Cup after their League is done.

That's already happening in the ML. We don't have a date yet for our League Cup 1st round game at North End or the 2nd round for the winners at Broughty (yeah, the draw means that only 1 of the 3 challengers for the title will make the QF). Most likely, these games will only be played once the league is over. That's nothing new for that cup as clubs that are catching up with fixtures don't tend to play in the League Cup until May. The other cup we're still in, the Tayside/North inter-regional cup, we'll play our QF game away to Letham a week on Wednesday. Should we win that, we're scheduled to play the SF on Saturday 27/4 (potentially to be moved for a PO), the final takes place on 18/5.

If we do make the play-offs, I wonder if we'll bother with the League Cup at all as promotion play-offs will be the obvious priority.

Edited February 25 by Marten

[welshbairn]

6 minutes ago, Marten said:

That's already happening in the ML. We don't have a date yet for our League Cup 1st round game at North End or the 2nd round for the winners at Broughty (yeah, the draw means that only 1 of the 3 challengers for the title will make the QF). Most likely, these games will only be played once the league is over. That's nothing new for that cup as clubs that are catching up with fixtures don't tend to play in the League Cup until May. The other cup we're still in, the Tayside/North inter-regional cup, we'll play our QF game away to Letham a week on Wednesday. Should we win that, we're scheduled to play the SF on Saturday 27/4 (potentially to be moved for a PO), the final takes place on 18/5.

If we do make the play-offs, I wonder if we'll bother with the League Cup at all as promotion play-offs will be the obvious priority.

Spartans opted out of the Lowland League Cup last year. 

[Marten]

Just now, welshbairn said:

Spartans opted out of the Lowland League Cup last year. 

Yep, I know. I could see us doing the same.

In the most extreme case, with us reaching the PO and the finals of both cups we're still in, it could get a very busy end to the season. Something like this:

Sat 27/4: PO leg 1
Wed 1/5: North End v Lochee United (R1 League Cup)
Sat 4/5: PO leg 2
Wed 8/5: Broughty Athletic v Lochee United (R2 League Cup)
Sat 11/5: SF inter-regional cup
Wed 15/5: QF League Cup
Sat 18/5: final inter-regional cup
Wed 22/5: SF League Cup
Sat 25/5: final League Cup

I'm by no means expecting that we get that far in both cups AND reach the PO. Also, if we're in the PO and would play North End in between, we'll likely rest some players against NE. Against opposition as strong as them, that could easily see us knocked out. This is just what in theory could happen. Obviously, I'd quite happily take promotion AND 2 cup wins, but I'd definitely choose promotion over cup success.

[welshbairn]

I'm quite jealous, our season could over by April 13th, just as it's beginning to warm up. 

[Marten]

11 hours ago, Ray Patterson said:

By mid April it's you can play until 8:30pm without lights so they could fit a couple of games in as 6:30 or possibly even 6:45pm kickoffs at a push.

Might need to play Monday/Wednesday though as all four clubs play on the 13th. 

Looking at the weeks left currently they only have the following free:

Wed 12 Mar - potential East Craigie (H) 
Wed 19 Mar
Wed 2 Apr
Wed 9 Apr - potential away game 6:30pm ko
Sat 13 Apr - all four clubs unavailable
Wed 16 Apr - potential away game 6:30pm ko
Sat 20 Apr - potential away game

Not knowing the playoff dates makes it tricky, but given they were 23 & 30 April in 2022, I'd assume they could be as late as 27 Apr and 4 May this season - although I see the HL is set to finish on 13 Apr - which might take the 20th off the table.

Still better than last season when Panmure won the League title on the 27th May!

I believe the original end date of the 13th was due to the PO against other tier 6 winners. As it's nearly impossible already for either Golspie or Fort William to win the NCL, and there are no licensed North Region clubs, we wouldn't need to worry about that one so it's only the possible ML/HL play-off we'll need to keep in mind when scheduling.

[Ginaro]

4 hours ago, welshbairn said:

There's zero chance of the HL finishing on April 13th and no need, the final League 2 fixtures aren't scheduled till May 4th. I do think the Midland and Highland Leagues should consider scheduling some of their cup games after the leagues have finished, the play offs mean a ridiculously early finish to the season. The LL now hold their League Cup after their League is done.

Funnily enough the Lowland League Cup is now being played during the season, started this month, QFs were in midweek.

40 minutes ago, Marten said:

I believe the original end date of the 13th was due to the PO against other tier 6 winners. As it's nearly impossible already for either Golspie or Fort William to win the NCL, and there are no licensed North Region clubs, we wouldn't need to worry about that one so it's only the possible ML/HL play-off we'll need to keep in mind when scheduling.

As of yesterday a licensed club in the NCL can no longer win the title.

[welshbairn]

15 minutes ago, Ginaro said:

Funnily enough the Lowland League Cup is now being played during the season, started this month, QFs were in midweek.

Didn't realise that, they seem to be having no problem getting through their fixtures though, probably helped by all the plastic pitches and a milder climate.

The Midland League seem to have an inordinate number of cups to get through, along with a large league with few floodlights.

[mcruic]

1 hour ago, welshbairn said:

The Midland League seem to have an inordinate number of cups to get through, along with a large league with few floodlights.

The large league I think is the main issue - I don't remember there being a 20-team league at this level previously - in fact in Scotland at any level, it's not common.  Scottish Division 2 had 20 teams for one season (1966-67).  

The Midlands League itself only has 1 cup - the League Cup - but there is also the Inter-Regional Cup (with the North Region League) and the Scottish Junior Cup.

 

[welshbairn]

2 minutes ago, mcruic said:

The large league I think is the main issue - I don't remember there being a 20-team league at this level previously - in fact in Scotland at any level, it's not common.  Scottish Division 2 had 20 teams for one season (1966-67).  

The Midlands League itself only has 1 cup - the League Cup - but there is also the Inter-Regional Cup (with the North Region League) and the Scottish Junior Cup.

 

I thought there were more than that, a different name of a cup seems to come up every week, but it could be just because the names are unfamiliar. Clach don't have cup issues, only our League Cup and North Cup when we get drawn against Brora every 1st round and get knocked out. The big Scottish Cup doesn't usually trouble us much either.

[Marten]

On 24/02/2024 at 23:47, Ray Patterson said:

Why were the Lochee and North End games off today?

It's looking increasingly tricky for Lochee United to get the season finished in time for a potential Play-off.

 

On 25/02/2024 at 00:17, Junior_Arab said:

Presumably frozen. I know astro in Dundee was getting pretty frosty on Friday night. Forfar generally gets it worse being further inland. 

Late response but yes, frozen pitches. Forfar did get it worse indeed. It also doesn't help that with both clubs part of their pitch is in the shade all morning due to trees, meaning those areas didn't thaw out on time.

[Pollok mad]

12 hours ago, mcruic said:

The large league I think is the main issue - I don't remember there being a 20-team league at this level previously - in fact in Scotland at any level, it's not common.  Scottish Division 2 had 20 teams for one season (1966-67).  

The Midlands League itself only has 1 cup - the League Cup - but there is also the Inter-Regional Cup (with the North Region League) and the Scottish Junior Cup.

 

First season of the WOSL was a 20 team league as well but that was just a temp thing

[Marten]

Well, that's the league over with. Absolutely horrendous performance today from our side. Just very poor. Gutted. 

[Spyro]

40 minutes ago, Marten said:

Well, that's the league over with. Absolutely horrendous performance today from our side. Just very poor. Gutted. 

*muted cheers from Grantown*

I'm torn, I want to see Lochee up, but only when it's funny... Like if it was Lossie or Deveronvale at the bottom of the HL.

As a neutral, it fallout would be spectacular entertainment 

[welshbairn]

19 minutes ago, Spyro said:

*muted cheers from Grantown*

I'm torn, I want to see Lochee up, but only when it's funny... Like if it was Lossie or Deveronvale at the bottom of the HL.

As a neutral, it fallout would be spectacular entertainment 

I'm much the same, looking forward to a trip to Lochee but just feel that with a few breaks Strathspey would have been a few places up the table, I like visiting them too. Their manager's just said he's leaving at the end of the season, looked full of energy when he arrived, brought in some decent players, don't know why it didn't click for them. They started off with a horrendous series of fixtures against the top teams, maybe that sapped their confidence. Shame we can't just swap Lochee for Banks o Dee!