Highland League Hot Potato 23/24 🔥🥔

[Hedgecutter]

An idea unashamedly robbed from the Premiership forum.  Let's do this:

 

23/24 Winners: Rothes

The details:

 

 

29/07/23:  Wick Academy claim the hot potato after a 4-0 defeat at Spain Park.  Rothes & Locos grab valuable goals in 4-1 defeats to Huntly & Turra in their respective games, avoiding bottom spot.

05/08/23: Wick Academy retain the tattie thanks to a 2-2 draw with Deveronvale.  Being 2-0 down at HT is too high a mountain for the Caithness side to climb up Ben Harmsworth.

16/08/23: A flurry of late goals sees Wick offload the tattie in style with a 3-0 home win over Clach.

19/08/23: Clach travel to the Haughs but succumb to a 1-4 defeat against a resurgent Turra.

(26/08/23: Highland League Cup 1st Round.  Clach are hammered 7-0 off Brora anyway)

02/09/23: Clach 2-6 Fraserburgh.  The tattie shows little sign of movement.

16/09/23: Clach 0-5 Formartine. Somebody claims they heard the tattie developing a rubber bumpers accent.  Many are sceptical.

30/09/23:  Clach are well and truly pumped at Christie Park, with the 8-0 result suggesting that the hot potato may remain at GSP for a while yet.

04/10/23: Not quite the 7-0 scudding off Brora in the cup, but a 2-0 loss at the hands of the Cattachs keeps the tattie with Clach.

07/10/23: Clach manage a respectable 2-2 draw in Aberdeen where Wick collected the tattie.  However, BoD's late equaliser means that the it travels both ways along the entirety of the A96.

11/10/23: Clach are ahead for much of the game at Mosset Park, but a 65' equaliser in a 1-1 draw is enough for the tattie-dodging Can Cans.

04/11/23: A first-half stoppage time goal from Rothes at Clach is more than enough for the Speysiders to dodge the hot potato. 

11/11/23: Clach make the long journey to Glebe Park to be rewarded with a 6-0 pumping.   Not all doom and gloom though as attention now switches from the current HL champions to the basement boys of Strathspey...

18/11/23: This is it. The day for change, surely?  Clach wrap the tattie nice and warm for Strathspey Thistle as the bottom side come to town. However, in the words of Tommy from Trainspotting: "it all goes wrong, big time" as the Strathy Jags find themselves 3-0 up at HT.  Clach equalisers in the 81st & 92 mins aren't enough to offload the tattie down the A9 as the game finishes 4-4.

22/11/23: Clach's 1-0 defeat to Nairn sees it stay in Inverness for at least a few more days.

25/11/23: Clach pack the tattie in a bucket along with a spade for their trip to the seaside.  Early suggestions of it spending yet another few nights at GSP circulate as Lossie go 4-0 up in the 16th minute.  Realising that keeping up this rate would see them lose 22-0, Clach eventually get their act together, but it's not enough as the Coasters run out 5-3 winners.

02/12/23: Clach might have fancied their chances against an under-firing Locos at home, but the game is frozen off as the Inverurie side jammily avoid the tattie challenge.

09/12/23: Buckie dodge the tattie by postponement, hence it rests with Clach.

16/12/23:  It finally happened.  There's a new custodian of the spud as Keith carry it back along the A96 following a 3-1 loss at Grant Street Park where Clach pick up their first win of the season courtesy of two late strikes.  Incredible scenes as welshbairn manages to crack a smile.

23/12/23:  Turra become the latest team to dodge it through postponement as their game at Keith is snowed off.  

30/12/23:  Game on at Bellslea, resulting in a comfortable 3-0 win for Fraserburgh against Keith.  The latter think they can offload the tattie to a Forres side recovering from a 1-8  battering off Buckie, but their fixture is eventually postponed.

13/01/23: Keith eventually manage to play a game, but high-flying Formartine brush them aside with a 6-2 win at NLP.

20/01/24: Huntly get a tattie bye [see what I did there?] as Keith remains covered in a dump of sna'.

24/01/24: A straight forward win 3-1 for BoD at Keith leaves the tattie at Kynoch part for a few more days at least.

27/01/24: Yet another tricky game for Keith as Brora run out 4-1 winners in... erm, Golspie.

03/02/24: A tough ask for Keith as they succumb to a 2-0 defeat at BoD, seeing the tattie develop a maroon hue.

10/02/24: Keith avoid defeat courtesy of a waterlogged pitch.  Keith P-P Nairn

14/02/24: No scoring for the visitors on the evening of Valentine's as the long suffering Maroons hand the tattie over to Turriff (Utd, not to be confused with purveyor of vegetables Les Turriff) after a 1-0 win.

17/02/24: A 2-2 draw against recently hammered Brora isn't enough for Turriff to offload the tattie.

24/02/24: Turriff P-P Deveronvale

01/03/24: Turriff throw away a two goal lead at Banks o' Dee who keep their title hopes alive with an 87th min winner (3-2).

06/03/24: A surprise at the Haughs as Deveronvale's short trip ends with a 3-1 win over Turriff.  

09/03/24: Turriff's second 3-1 home defeat in the space of a few days as Nairn leave the Haughs victorious.

16/03/24:  Turriff come from behind at Mackessack Park to finally offload the tattie after keeping it warm for a month.

23/03/23: Rothes retain the tattie courtesy of a 5-0 drubbing at Bellslea.

08/04/23: A rest period for Rothes fails to help them beat Forres as they come from behind to scrape a 1-1 draw in their final home game of the season.

13/04/23: It's all over! The tattie is orange as Rothes claim the 2023/24 SHFL hot potato courtesy of a 6-1 scudding at the hands of Formartine.

 

Edited April 13 by Hedgecutter

[welshbairn]

Fuckoff.

[Spyro]

It'll be due an interview on MFR soon... 

[Hedgecutter]

For anybody interested, the retrospective results of the Highland League Hot Potato 22/23 are in the spoiler below. 

Commiserations to the losing team who grabbed the hot potato on the final day of the season despite offloading it 14 matches earlier, and only held it for 5 games over the course of the league season...

[drum roll]

 

 

 

Honourable mention to the Strathy Jags who dodged it for the final 22 games despite keeping it warm for the first 14.

Total weeks held:  Strathspey Thistle (14);  Forres Mechanics (8); Clachnacuddin (5); Wick Academy (3); Huntly, Keith, Turriff Utd (2)

 

 

_{*Keith also lost by a 4-0 margin in the opening games, but finished higher than Strathspey in the final HL 21/22 table (and come before them alphabetically).}

 

[welshbairn]

You have to wonder how many Hot Potato Awards Brechin collected on their spectacular plunge from the Championship to the Highland League. Interesting that this thread was started on the day after a defeat that likely means yet another season in denial of their natural place in the hierarchy.

Edited November 27, 2023 by welshbairn

[Hedgecutter]

21 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

You have to wonder how many Hot Potato Awards Brechin collected on their spectacular plunge from the Championship to the Highland League. Interesting that this thread was started on the day after a defeat that likely means yet another season in denial of their natural home in the pyramid.

Or maybe, just maybe*, it was merely created on the same weekend that a similar thread appeared in the Premiership forum, and the driving force is for a bit of fun rather than some ulterior motive.  Can nobody have fun??!

*it was, so lighten up.

 

Eta: you're aware that this is an 'award' that any team can feasibly end up with, including Buckie and Brechin, right?  

Edited November 27, 2023 by Hedgecutter

[welshbairn]

[Jacksgranda]

2 hours ago, welshbairn said:

You have to wonder how many Hot Potato Awards Brechin collected on their spectacular plunge from the Championship to the Highland League. Interesting that this thread was started on the day after a defeat that likely means yet another season in denial of their natural place in the hierarchy.

Ooooh!

[theoriginalhedge]

3 hours ago, welshbairn said:

You have to wonder how many Hot Potato Awards Brechin collected on their spectacular plunge from the Championship to the Highland League. Interesting that this thread was started on the day after a defeat that likely means yet another season in denial of their natural place in the hierarchy.

 Aw Diddums. Poor Clachnacudden

[Hedgecutter]

16/12/23:  It finally happened.  There's a new custodian of the spud as Keith carry it back along the A96 following a 3-1 loss at Grant Street Park where Clach pick up their first win of the season.

[Hedgecutter]

14/02/24: No scoring for the visitors on the evening of Valentine's as the long suffering Maroons hand the tattie over to Turriff (Utd, not to be confused with purveyor of vegetables Les Turriff) following a 1-0 win.

[Hedgecutter]

16/03/24:  Turriff come from behind at Mackessack Park to finally offload the tattie after keeping it warm for a month. 

New holders Rothes will need a performance should they wish to quickly offload it at Fraserburgh this coming weekend...

ETA: which they fail to do courtesy of a 5-0 drubbing.

Edited April 10 by Hedgecutter

[Hedgecutter]

08/03/23: A rest period for Rothes fails to help them beat Forres as they come from behind to scrape a 1-1 draw in their final home game of the season

Rothes require a win at North Lodge Park this coming Saturday to avoid being crowned 23/24 Hot Potato champions.

[Spyro]

Can't read this thread without thinking of my old rugby coach ranting something about a "hot tottie" 

[Hedgecutter]

It's all over!

The tattie is orange as Rothes claim the 2023/24 SHFL hot potato courtesy of a 6-1 scudding at the hands of Formartine.