Cheers, although the truth is it would be a real surprise if we manage to get promoted through the play-offs (assuming we manage to get into them). Our record against Airdrie is, as I outlined above, dreadful. Our record against Raith is slightly better with two wins each this season, but the all time record is 23 wins for us and 43 for Raith.

We will meet one of those two in the final if we get through to that, so first we will have to beat the team that finishes 9th in the first division, either Morton or Clyde. Against Morton our record is even more pitiful than against Raith with 14 wins against 47 and last season when Morton ran away with the second division we won 1 and lost 3 against them. Thankfully Clyde are giving us a glimmer of hope with a record of 17 wins against 22 and until a few seasons ago we filled the role of their bogey team.

Of course being Scottish football nothing is ever simple, it could be that both of the play-off finalists get promoted depending on Gretna's fate. Also if Clyde lose Saturday's game 1-0 and Morton lose 2-1 then both teams will have identical ponts totals, goal difference and goals scored meaning thay they would have to play-off to see which team is in the play-offs.

Whatever happens this has still been a very good season for us as many people were tipping us for relegation at the beginning of the season. Instead Allan Maitland has put together a good, if unspectacular, team that is managing to compete well against teams with greater resources.

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Did anyone see this bizarre apology in the Sunday Herald?

Yeah, I saw it Chippy. It's even more bizarre that the guy had written that phrase or that it managed to get through the editorial process. Did they really think that no-one would notice or take offence?

Latest rumours regarding our players exodus:

Kevin MacDonald to West Brom.
Scott Robertson to United.
Gavin Swankie to St Jings (or maybe Killie).

Swankie's a hot and cold player. The other two will be sorely missed.

is it any wonder we're paranoid?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_prem/7360790.stm

They're all out to get St. Mirren. Bloody Paisleyphobes!

It just wouldn't be the SPL without a court case to round off the season.

Be honest Vordi, you're delighted with yet another excuse for mopery*.

I probably wouldn't have rearranged. Rangers and Celtic have large enough squads to cope with playing more games than everyone else. Other clubs will lose players to holidays etc. in late May.

On the other hand, fitting in cup replays and the resultant SPL postponements are an unfair disavantage to their league opponents.

And of course, earlier this season they postponed a whole day's fixtures before the international date.

Let's hope the teddy bears lose to Fiorentina and make the whole thing unnecessary.


* Most oppressed people ever (really, yes)

Yeah, bloody masonic referees they'll use every sneaky trick in the book.

Yeah, Vorderman, it's all one big fucking conspiracy. For fuck's sake.

As for that apology that Chippy linked to, that I've only just seen, I'm astonished by it. Not by the content of it - although it's certainly noteworthy - but because I used to work alongside the writer of the piece, Kenny Hodgart, in the Herald offices when I was living in Glasgow.

And knowing him, I'm sure he'll be utterly mortified at being the centre of this story. The guy's a big Aberdeen fan and, if anything, I'm pretty sure would favour Celtic over Rangers. He certainly has no sectarian agenda whatsoever, and is actually a very decent and generally right-thinking guy who'll be hugely regretting his (decidedly ill-advised) choice of words.

That's hilarious as well as bizarre. Sub-editors eh?

Details of Gretna's debts have emerged from their administrators. Basically it looks as though, as suspected, they're fucked. The thinking at the moment seems to be that the SPL and the administrators will do everything they can to get Gretna through to the end of the season and then land the whole mess in the lap of the SFL. That way the SPL don't get made to look any worse than usual by having to figure out whether all of Gretna's results should be invalidated and the administrators get to keep on accumulating their fees.

£250,000 for 5 weeks work for the administrators is a tidy sum. How do administrators fees work? Do they get first call on the assets or will they be included in a possible x pence in a pound creditors deal?

I'm fairly sure that the administrators get first dibs on any money that is lieing around, judging by what has been said in the Gretna thread on Pie and Bovril.

Of course they do or they wouldn't do the work!

£200 per hour isn't particularly outrageous.

Quite an eventful last day to the regular season in the SFL... Clyde thump Stirling but still end up in 9th place because Morton win at Firhill (cue paranoid rantings about Thistle lying down so our old rivals end up in the shit), and Alloa hold off Peterheid for the last div.2 playoff place, despite the latter's surprise 5-2 away gubbing of Raith.

All of which leaves us with this play off semi-final line up:

Alloa vs Clyde (forza Waspies)
Raith vs Airdrie (forza Gli Azzurri Kirkcaldesi)

Arbroath vs Cowdenbeath
Montrose vs Stranraer

Alloa 2 - 1 Berwick

We got the win we needed courtesy of a performance that flirted with being disasterous but thankfully settled for just being really, really dreadful. Still, we managed to fluke the win that guaranteed we will be in the play-offs for the first division and, cliche that it is, that's really all that matters.

Scott Agnew gave us an early lead after he curled in a shot from the corner of the box after Derek Fleming had played the ball to him from a corner. We then missed two easy chances to score and that had a real effect on the players as for the remainder of the game they failed to string two passes together and Berwick went on to dominate the game. Despite us being really, really poor Berwick continued to squander the chances they created and when they did eventually score we managed to go back in front almost immediately from an Andy Ferguson header. The remainder of the game was a case of our players throwing themselves in front of the ball and thanking our lucky stars the referee missed what looked like a stonewall Berwick penalty.

4th place is a very good finish for us and marks a successful season in itself, so we can look forward to the two games against Clyde with any real pressure on the players.

Oh, and well done to the Shire - 41 out of 42. Let's hope that this is the beginning of better things and Spencer Fearne can continue to reverse the effects of Alan Mackin's attempts to run down the club.

Dink wrote:

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Oh, and well done to the Shire

Fuck them. Vile filth.