SPFL 2 playoffs - (Brechin,) Spartans and (another) Albion Rovers

[1993]

42 minutes ago, Dav nan Gael said:

Linlithgow Rose blow Albion Rovers out the water,in every way .

4 junior cups,trophies left right an centre plus a support and financial backing that is far beyond Albion Rovers........

Get yourself to Prestonfield next season and you'll know what I mean,particularly if they're playing against local rivals Bo'ness United. 

 

Same goes for Talbot,Bankies, Darvel etc etc ,the clock is now ticking on the likes of Elgin and more.

Your knowledge of football in the North is?

[Zanetti]

51 minutes ago, Dav nan Gael said:

Linlithgow Rose blow Albion Rovers out the water,in every way .

4 junior cups,trophies left right an centre plus a support and financial backing that is far beyond Albion Rovers........

Get yourself to Prestonfield next season and you'll know what I mean,particularly if they're playing against local rivals Bo'ness United. 

 

Same goes for Talbot,Bankies, Darvel etc etc ,the clock is now ticking on the likes of Elgin and more.

Load of pish. Those clubs do well because they're big fish in a small pond. I'd love to see their attendances after floundering for 20 years in 4th tier with it costing twice as much to get in.

[bluearmyfaction]

2 hours ago, EdinburghBlue said:

And I hope they learn from Bonnyrigg’s mistake in sticking to the same squad for the SPFL. I think there’s maybe only two or at a push three of the Spartans squad that are good enough for the SPFL.

To be fair they've judged it perfectly - one season with lower expenses but SFL money.

 

Not sure anyone else would be able to do that though unless they assemble a L2 squad in the feeder.

[Jordi1977]

Congratulations Spartans!

I managed to get along to this sell out match! For all the chat about Albion Rovers finishing bottom with a record points tally and being much better than previous bottom sides... today they were poor. Really poor. Spartans never really looked under much threat and were far superior in the middle of the park without actually playing all that well themselves. 

Spartans REALLY need a striker if they are to do anything in league 2 next season. In two matches against Rovers, Henderson has offered nothing (well, except a well struck penalty this afternoon).

Other than that, they are a solid side and when the game opened up a bit with Rovers going for it, they opened them up 2 or 3 times and really got at them, especially down the left wing.... but all chances created were wasted. Armstrong, Wright and Tapping are all quality and easily League 2 standard from today's showing. 

For Rovers, Bevan was the stand out. Arguably best player on the park today and he certainly understood how big the game was. At 1-0 he was the only one driving at the Spartans defence and forced a tremendous save from Spartans keeper with a great effort from distance... the only real chance Rovers had.

In the end, Spartans were better and deserved the win. But I think even all the Spartans fans felt for the one Rovers official who was going round the pitch all game and was in tears at the end. He'll be there next season and I hope someone got him a drink after the game.

[Dav nan Gael]

12 minutes ago, Zanetti said:

Load of pish. Those clubs do well because they're big fish in a small pond. I'd love to see their attendances after floundering for 20 years in 4th tier with it costing twice as much to get in.

You hurting aye......that's 5 away now,half of league 2.

Time for this playoff pish for club 42 to stop,you finish bottom you should go down.

[Dav nan Gael]

24 minutes ago, 1993 said:

Your knowledge of football in the North is?

Support Deveronvale and a fan of HL football,this season travelling north to take in 3 games...... in Wick/Banff and Inverurie.

[Zanetti]

2 minutes ago, Dav nan Gael said:

You hurting aye......that's 5 away now,half of league 2.

Time for this playoff pish for club 42 to stop,you finish bottom you should go down.

Why would I be hurting? My club is in the Championship.

Agree that the pyramid should be a bit more open, but not until the divisions below League 2 open things up below themselves too.

[Dav nan Gael]

57 minutes ago, Gordon EF said:

Darvel? They're a village team being proped up with outside cash. They won't be displacing any current SPFL clubs in the long term. They'll sink when the money runs out.

True my bad,what about Talbot and Clydebank......??

[Marooneye]

Just now, Zanetti said:

Why would I be hurting? My club is in the Championship.

Agree that the pyramid should be a bit more open, but not until the divisions below League 2 open things up below themselves too.

I've said for long enough the Lowland league cannot complain about lack of access when it only relegates one club.  Even more ridiculous when 19 in the league.

At least Linlithgow will add to the increase promotion no to B teams vote.  Unlike the Spartans.

[vikingTON]

Just now, Dav nan Gael said:

True my bad,what about Talbot and Clydebank......??

Erm yes, the national league setup is nothing without such radical game-changing outfits like Clydebank.

Step away from your keyboard now please. 

[craigkillie]

1 hour ago, Blue Oktober said:

A very sweeping statement to suggest "Linlithgow Rose blow Albion Rovers out the water,in every way " and then by way of validatiom to cite their Junior achiements and thisn disregaring Rovers Senior achievements including league titlesand Scottich  Cup runners up.

Fair to say also in the absence of corrobarating evidenve your comments regards finacial health of the two is at best speculative and non informed guess work.

Those senior achievements outlined for Rovers were nearly 100 years ago, so I don't think they really have a great deal of relevance here. I would guess that in the here and now, Linlithgow are far more likely than Rovers to be an SPFL club within the next decade.

[Ginaro]

Linlithgow beat Spartans 4-0 in October in the Scottish Cup, so...

[Sweet Pete]

50 minutes ago, Dav nan Gael said:

True my bad,what about Talbot and Clydebank......??

There's a decent support at Clydebank (for their level) and they're going about things the right way with having supporters trust ownership, successful youth teams (2 Scottish Cup wins the past week at age group level), a pathway to the 1st team and having solidified the stadium lease and upgrades, but they're not pulling up trees on the park. Yet. I was there on Saturday and they're definitely well placed to continue building, but they're still a top half of the West of Scotland League club, not yet in a position to challenge Club 42.

The true successor to League Two should be a split tier of the West of Scotland Premier League amalgamating the bigger clubs of the Lowland League and EOSL and the Highland Football League, binning the Lowland League, which, frankly is a joke. Move the West and East leagues up a tier, take in the bigger clubs of the Lowland and discard the Lowland League experiment. It's a ridiculous league filled with newly formed clubs without proper stadia or fan bases and giving an unjustified platform for B teams and other nonsense like cumbernauld colts, open goal Broomhill and Caledonian braves.

[Blue Oktober]

30 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

Those senior achievements outlined for Rovers were nearly 100 years ago, so I don't think they really have a great deal of relevance here. I would guess that in the here and now, Linlithgow are far more likely than Rovers to be an SPFL club within the next decade.

Not the League titles probably more recnet than some ogf the LR cup successes 

[craigkillie]

1 minute ago, Blue Oktober said:

Not the League titles probably more recnet than some ogf the LR cup successes 

The original discussion was about their 2nd tier title, which was in the early 1930s.

[Gordon EF]

1 hour ago, Dav nan Gael said:

True my bad,what about Talbot and Clydebank......??

I don't see any reason why they couldn't become established SPFL clubs. The reality is that in terms of 'size' and potential, there's not much seperating the biggest 30-40 part time clubs in the country. Within the past 10 years, Brechin and Cowden were in the Championship and now they're in tier 5. A decade ago, Arbroath were scuttling about between Leagues 1 and 2 and now they've established themselves in the championship. Even Albion Rovers have won League 2 and acquited themselves well in League 1 in the past 10 years.

Every part time SPFL club will have had highs and lows over the past 20 years so I think most are well aware that a bad low period can see them drop out of the SPFL and it could be very hard to get back in because there's plenty clubs of equivalent size and potential in the pyramid now.

That's been the consensus on here for years. Most folk are only condescending to clubs outside the SPFL when posters get really chippy about things e.g. Bonnyrigg and their "junior pitch".

[Gordon EF]

33 minutes ago, Sweet Pete said:

There's a decent support at Clydebank (for their level) and they're going about things the right way with having supporters trust ownership, successful youth teams (2 Scottish Cup wins the past week at age group level), a pathway to the 1st team and having solidified the stadium lease and upgrades, but they're not pulling up trees on the park. Yet. I was there on Saturday and they're definitely well placed to continue building, but they're still a top half of the West of Scotland League club, not yet in a position to challenge Club 42.

The true successor to League Two should be a split tier of the West of Scotland Premier League amalgamating the bigger clubs of the Lowland League and EOSL and the Highland Football League, binning the Lowland League, which, frankly is a joke. Move the West and East leagues up a tier, take in the bigger clubs of the Lowland and discard the Lowland League experiment. It's a ridiculous league filled with newly formed clubs without proper stadia or fan bases and giving an unjustified platform for B teams and other nonsense like cumbernauld colts, open goal Broomhill and Caledonian braves.

It's a real shame the juniors didn't move earlier when there was the possibility of mirroring their old East/West/North set up at tier 5. An expanded bottom tier of the SPFL with 3 automatic relegation spots and the champions of the HL/WoSFL/EoSFL coming up would be fantastic. Now we're stuck with the turd in the punch bowl that is the Lowland League.

[Sweet Pete]

3 minutes ago, Gordon EF said:

It's a real shame the juniors didn't move earlier when there was the possibility of mirroring their old East/West/North set up at tier 5. An expanded bottom tier of the SPFL with 3 automatic relegation spots and the champions of the HL/WoSFL/EoSFL coming up would be fantastic. Now we're stuck with the turd in the punch bowl that is the Lowland League.

Too many old men in ties drinking from the boardroom optics and happy in their wee pond. The West juniors had the best potential of the lot, but were slowest on the uptake. Hence the current situation, which will hopefully be temporary.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

1 hour ago, virginton said:

Erm yes, the national league setup is nothing without such radical game-changing outfits like Clydebank.

Step away from your keyboard now please. 

We’d certainly be less boring to watch than Dumbarton. But yes, aye ok, we are a fan owned club, no big money backers and our future will be built upon the youth academy thats less than 10 years old and already has 3 Scottish Cup wins. We can’t compete with clubs at our level with questionable finances paying people £800 a week or whatever but we’ll get there. But despite having that against us, we’ve still pulled in over 500 home fans a game and im sure in the next 10/15 years we’ll be back in the spfl. Aye we arent going to revolutionise Scottish Football but we’ll be the first ever fan led club to rebuild entirely and work our way up from nothing. 

[Sweet Pete]

1 minute ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

We’d certainly be less boring to watch than Dumbarton. But yes, aye ok, we are a fan owned club, no big money backers and our future will be built upon the youth academy thats less than 10 years old and already has 3 Scottish Cup wins. We can’t compete with clubs at our level with questionable finances paying people £800 a week or whatever but we’ll get there. But despite having that against us, we’ve still pulled in over 500 home fans a game and im sure in the next 10/15 years we’ll be back in the spfl. Aye we arent going to revolutionise Scottish Football but we’ll be the first ever fan led club to rebuild entirely and work our way up from nothing. 

To be fair, Dumbarton are only boring to watch currently. We finished 5th in the Championship recently as a free scoring and free conceding side. Just because we're close by and currently drab doesn't make us the yardstick for comparison. I've watched, and had season tickets*, for both the past few years and there's a definite difference in quality between Dumbarton and Clydebank, despite Farrell's boring tactics.

 

*during covid I bought a Clydebank season ticket and sponsored a player the Vale of Leven to help out the county teams.