Scottish Cup, Third Round, The Rock, 29/11/25.

Is this definitively the worst result in our history?

I know Talbot are only two divisions below us and Bonnyrigg were (nominally) four when they beat us in the same round nine years ago.

I said at the time that was the worst result we’ve ever had. But that was only 1-0.

This, by contrast, is an utter humiliation.

Surely manage Stevie Farrell has to go? (In his post-match interview he said he doesn’t run away from problems. However, if he had any care for the club’s future welfare he would resign. Now.)

If he stays we’ll certainly be renewing acquaintance with Talbot again next season as we’ll both be in the Lowland League West. (They are a stick on for that, being licensed, plus unbeaten in the West of Scotland League Premier from which ten clubs are likely to be promoted to the LLW in the reconstruction of Tier 5, while we’ll finish last in Tier 4 and lose the Pyramid Play-off.)

The fans have had more than enough of him but unfortunately I don’t have confidence that the powers that be at the club have the will to sack him.

It is in the nature of things that I have made many fewer journeys to Highland League football grounds than to those in the Lowlands. The Lowland Football League does of course contain several teams which used to be in the SPFL or its predecessor,* whereas the Highland League has only the one (Brechin City.)

I have however visited I think nearly all of the towns/cities which have hosted past or present Lowland League teams and even seen games at some of them though not of clubs in the Lowland League at the time.

The first of these cities/towns would have been Glasgow (Broomhill FC, as BSC Glasgow before they became nomadic, playing in Alloa, Cumbernauld, and now Dumbarton) then Edinburgh (Edinburgh City, The Spartans, Civil Service Strollers, Edinburgh University.)  I have been to games at Edinburgh City’s ground, Meadowbank Stadium, but only when it housed Meadowbank Thistle (since morphed into Livingston FC) and at Spartans ground, Ainslie Park, where Edinburgh City played home games when I watched them play the Sons of the Rock.

It may surprise some readers that I have been familiar with Innerleithen** (Vale of Leithen) for many years. My grandparents (one of them the original Jack Deighton) lived there for a time. I may have been to Galashiels (Gala Fairydean Rovers) in those days. I have certainly driven through it, plus Selkirk (Selkirk) and Hawick (Hawick Royal Albert United.)

In their relevant clubs’ SFL or SPFL  days I have been to Cowdenbeath (Cowdenbeath*,) Coatbridge (Albion Rovers*,) Berwick upon Tweed (Berwick Rangers*) and Falkirk (East Stirlingshire*,) the last of which also landed up playing in Stenhousemuir for a while. Bonnyrigg (Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic) is another town I have only visited to see the Sons play. I have also passed through or stopped in Stirling (University of Stirling) many times.

In my teaching days I sometimes passed through Kelty (Kelty Hearts) on my way to work.

Then we have Cumbernauld** (Cumbernauld Colts – and Broomhill, as above)

I see Motherwell is listed on the Lowland League Wiki page (see link above) as the domicile of Caledonian Braves (formerly Edusport Academy) but their history is complicated, being based in Hamilton and even Annan for a while.

On trips south I have taken in Castle Douglas (Threave Rovers,) Dalbeattie (Dalbeattie Star) and east and south of Edinburgh, Prestonpans (Preston Athletic,) Rosewell (Whitehill Welfare,) and Tranent (Tranent, or is it Tranent Juniors?) where my mother was born.

Bo’ness (Bo’ness United) and Linlithgow (Linlithgow Rose) have featured on this blog more than once. I have had a look at Gretna (Gretna 2008) and East Kilbride (East Kilbride) but I don’t recall ever being to Broxburn (the newly promoted to the Lowland League Broxburn Athletic.)

** The game I saw in Innerleithen was a pre-1966 World Cup warm up game. Vale of Leithen played against France. It was of course a mis-match.  Cumbernauld was to see Dumbarton play Clyde.

Sons’ opponents in this year’s League Cup, now called the Premier Sports Cup, will be Aberdeen, Airdrieonians, Queen of the South and East Kilbride.

We have played Aberdeen a few times recently in the Scottish Cup, Airdrie most recently when in SPFL Tier 3 but they are now a level higher, and we will be renewing acquaintance with Queen of the South in next season’s Tier 3. Unless it was in a friendly I can’t remember, Sons have never faced East Kilbride before. They won this season’s Lowland League but lost out to Stranraer in the play-off for SPFL membership. Depending on how the ties turn out this might be a new ground for me to see Sons play at.

Sons’ opponents in Round 2 of the Challenge Cup (aka the SPFL Trust Trophy) will once again be Rangers B.

Well actually it might be Spartans if they manage to win the first round tie. That could mean another visit to Ainslie Park of fateful memory.

Failing that it will be the second year in a row we’ve played Rangers young team (yes I meant that) in this competition – and the third in total. This would be the first time outside Dumbarton though. (Or not, since they actually use our ground for home games in the Lowland League. Not that they should be in either competition.)

SPFL Tier 3, Falkirk Stadium, 8/1/22.

This just gets worse and worse. They hadn’t won for about as long as – or even longer than – us. Yet we were one down in 8 minutes, two in 13 and three by half-time.

It was four just after the restart and then – mirabilis – we actually scored. And then got a penalty to reduce the deficit by one more.

Normal service resumed by full time with those other two goals against.

Falkirk have been gash all season. We are obviously gasher.

There’s a feeling of dreadful inevitability about all this.

It looks like we are on for the Lowland League in two seasons’ time.

Something needs to change. And soon. Or the club may not even make it to its 150^th anniversary in December. We’re not going to attract fans with runs and results like this.

Today the Scottish Football League voted itself into history. (I originally typed “committee suicide.”) It is ane end of ane auld sang. For 123 years the SFL has been the mainstay of professional football in Scotland – albeit recently of mainly semi-professional teams.

Quite why this has been allowed to happen escapes me. The 30 SFL clubs have now shackled themselves to – effectively been taken over by – an organisation, the Scottish Premier League, which has been nothing short of a disaster. During its short existence many of its clubs have found themselves in deep financial difficulties. The demise of the largest of these, Rangers, gave the SFL an opportunity to lever much more advantage from that situation than it has been able to achieve. Not the least of the undesirable aspects of the new body – to be called the Scottish Professional Football League – is that the top division clubs (the old SPL) have a stranglehold on any further developments in that the voting structure of the new body means any two of them can veto a proposal as an 11-1 majority among the top division clubs will be required for a change.

The SPL was originally set up on the apparent belief that the clubs at that time in the highest positions in Scottish Football’s structure were somehow or other better than the rest and could more or less cast them adrift. (The Rangers debacle showed how misguided that idea was. Without an SFL as a safety net there may not have been a continuity Rangers.) But what gave those particular clubs the right to decide that? To lift up the drawbridge after themselves, which is what they did by having only one promotion/relegation position.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary the 11-1 voting arrangements suggest the present top 12 still are of the belief that they are the best; or at any rate the most competent. The provision of an additional possible promotion place from tier 2 via a play-off is welcome but for how long will it last? Moreover the new body’s overall voting structure is heavily weighted in favour of clubs who happen temporarily to be in the first or second tier. I fully expect a few years down the line that access to the top two divisions of the SPFL will become restricted in the way it once was to the SPL – or even for the top two tiers to vote the lower two away.

The SPL was (is) far too money grubbing and venal. I have not been in the slightest interested in watching its “product” either live or on television. I don’t expect my interest in those “top” 12 clubs to change now that the others have been drawn into their web. The true soul of Scottish football, its beating heart, lies in those other clubs; the ones who provide a focus for their community, cut their coats according to their cloth and do not seek to overreach themselves. I welcome the inception of a Lowland League by the way, a much needed intermediate for the establishment of a route to the (now) SPFL for clubs traditionally outwith the main leagues and for those who may find themselves falling out of them. I only hope my beloved Dumbarton FC won’t end up there one day.