Groundsharetastic - Scottish football 2019/20

[blameless]

So, the Scottish League Cup gets underway again in a few weeks time, and already there's mass confusion.

- Clyde's pitch is being relaid, so they're playing their home League Cup games at Hamilton's New Douglas Park instead.
- Similarly, there's work going on at Hampden so Queen's Park are having to play their "home" games for the first few weeks of the new season at Airdrie.

And wouldn't you just know it, Clyde, Airdrie, Hamilton and Queen's Park (plus Partick Thistle) were drawn in the same League Cup group. Which leads to such gems as Clyde hosting Airdrie at Hamilton, but having to travel to Airdrie to play Queen's Park.

Full League Cup draw: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48430789

As for the season itself, I'm struggling to work up any enthusiasm. My own club is managed by a complete spoofer who spent a fortune to take us into the relegation places for most of last season, being saved only by Falkirk and QoS's spectacular collapses at season's end. And that's without mentioning his bizarre ideas like having the team kidnapped by special forces, or running two club legends off the premises so he can try and sign up his over-the-hill former Scotland teammates instead.

[CY_Boaby]

Good to get this thread started. After our play-off win, reality has now hit home with the club immediately anouncing that the majority of our team which worked so hard to stay in the Premiership, have now departed and the various loanees heading back to their parent clubs with little chance of getting any of them back. Lee Hodson has just signed for Gillingham and the team that starts game 1 of the new season will be significantly different to the team that's just finished.

With such a high turnover of players it's impossible to know what to expect this season. I just hope we don't end up having to replace them all again come January.

[shackleford]

A bit of a shift to the north in the league this season - County, Arbroath and Peterhead all go up a tier and Cove Rangers take Berwick Rangers' place in the league after thrashing them in a play-off. It'll be interesting to see how Cove get on, with no real big fanbase but decent corporate backing. With my club's insistence on moving to a field in the middle of nowhere, it looks like the Balmoral Stadium - although stuck in the middle of an industrial estate - will be the only league ground in Aberdeen in a few years.

[CY_Boaby]

Once again St Mirren are doing their best to completely screw up their season before it’s even begun. Even before the play-off win over Dundee Utd, speculation was rife Oran Kearney would be returning to Coleraine. But that was apparently quashed and looked like we could look forward to a period of stability and maybe even kick on this season. But his weekly commute to Northern Ireland was beginning to grate with the Chairman, and when he asked to commute on a daily basis that appeared to be the last straw.

Whilst the Club is yet to officially announce his departure, our scheduled away friendly with Coleraine this Saturday has now been cancelled. Ex-manager Jack Ross brought his Sunderland team to Paisley last season, but playing Coleraine with them having Kearney in charge would be too weird, even by our crazy standards.

So here we are. No manager and no players signed having let 12 go at the end of the season. Jim Goodwin is the favourite to take over, but I believe he also works as a rep for Cadbury’s, so why would he want to give up on relative stability for this chaos?

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Sounds like he could provide a much needed boost.

[blameless]

Goodwin is doing an astonishing job with Alloa, so the Buds might do well to nick in and get him before somebody else does.

[Dink]

Goodwin is doing an astonishing job with Alloa, so the Buds might do well to nick in and get him before somebody else does.

Less of that sort of thing! Although I'm largely resigned to him leaving at some point in this close season.

[KingsburySaint]

Sounds like he could provide a much needed boost.

Firstly this deserves more recognition ( desperately tries to think of more Cadbury puns)

Secondly, my dislike of playing legends as manager is overcome by the fact we haven't gone wrong stealing Alloa's manager. Anyway who would turn down an offer from Jim Goodwin to buy a box of Curly-Wurlys?

[Southport Zeb]

The draw was made today for the opening rounds of the Tunnock's Caramel Wafer Challenge Cup (previously known as the Irn-Bru Cup).

In the first round draw colts sides of Premier League teams were drawn against non-league teams and the four lowest ranked League sides:
North
Fraserburgh v Ross County Colts
Hibernian Colts v Elgin City
Brora Rangers v Aberdeen Colts
Livingston Colts v Formartine United
Albion Rovers v Heart of Midlothian Colts
St Johnstone Colts v Cove Rangers
South
Kelty Hearts v Kilmarnock Colts
Hamilton Academical Colts v BSC Glasgow
Berwick Rangers v Rangers Colts
St Mirren Colts v East Kilbride
Queen's Park v Celtic Colts
Motherwell Colts v Spartans

Winners advance to round two, to join League One teams and the remaining League Two sides:
North
Albion/ Hearts Colts v Cowdenbeath
Fraserburgh/ Ross Co Colts v Raith Rovers
Brora/ Aberdeen Colts v St Johnstone Colts/ Cove
Peterhead v Lingston Colts/ Formartine
East Fife v Stirling Albion
Brechin City v Hibs Colts/ Elgin
Montrose v Forfar Athletic
South
Clyde v Motherwell Colts/ Spartans
Annan Athletic v Kelty/ Kilmarnock Colts
Hamilton Colts/ BSC Glasgow v Airdrieonians
Dumbarton v St Mirren Colts/ East Kilbride
Stenhousemuir v Edinburgh City
Falkirk v Queen's Park/ Celtic Colts
Stranraer v Berwick/ Rangers Colts

Second round winners will join Championship sides and the international entrants in the last 32.

[The Red Max]

The draw was made today for the opening rounds of the Tunnock's Caramel Wafer Challenge Cup

Screw you UEFA with your Heineken, Mastercard, Sony & Gazprom - that's a PROPER sponsor
Never change Scottish football, please never change.

[Duncan Gardner]

Hopefully a team from the Big Island will enter .

Have Man, have biscuit

[blameless]

As the SPFL seem determined to take the Diddy Cup as far from its roots as possible, I think we should run a book on who will be admitted next.

My money's on RWD Molenbeek, the Minnesota Vikings, and Ferrari.

[George C.]

NZ (and Canada) clubs would surely be the logical choices, given their historical connections to Scotland.

[oscar mike]

Danefield Utd, Earth Wind & Fire and the cast of Chernobyl. None of which are as ridiculous as the presence of the colt teams.

[Snake Plissken]

[Lang Spoon]

There are no words.

[The Red Max]

The ribbons on the cup are my personal highlight of that photo, although the whole thing is magnificent.
I cant' help feeling that it could only have been bettered by having the numbers concealed within a Tunnocks Tea Cake, which Doddsy & Sir Boyd Tunnock would have to munch into in order to reveal.

I'm off to put the kettle on, suddenly I'm very hungry.

[Lang Spoon]

I remember Billy Dodds being a vaguely handsome man. For 90s Scotland. Fuckin hell. Assuming that's him.

[CY_Boaby]

Aye, he's certainly aged since his days as a fresh-faced striker at Dundee. Still, he's a hell of a lot more attractive than his namesake Davie, but then again, aren't we all?

[BallochSonsFan]

I'm struggling to whip up any enthusiasm for the upcoming season.

We're skint. Some fans have this bizarre notion that we can lose £175,000 through relegation and still have money to deal with a lot of historical problems at the club and build a decent team. The reality is that our squad this year will be guys who have huge amounts to prove. Layne wasn't a signing I'd have made. He's had something like 13 clubs in his career at the age of 24. He's also been on the register. Not somebody I'd have made the effort to sign because I don't think he's good enough and I don't think he's the kind of guy we should have at the club. I know Clyde had Goodwillie and Livingston have Lithgow but I'm not sure I'd want that kind of baggage. Keeping Carswell was a big deal for us but he's not surrounded by similar quality yet - we still have about 10 players to sign. Looking at the guys dropping down to the Lowland League and I can understand why fans think we should be able to build a better squad. Unfortunately some of the lowland clubs have some decent financial backing right now that we just don't have. Dealing with legacy issues from previous boards has cost the club. Being in an area that has little regard for it's local team is another problem and retaining fans is a massive concern. Fans don't want to pay for another season of flirting with relegation but we can't build a better squad if fans won't pay for season tickets. It's also potentially easier for players to drop down and maintain commitments outside of football than play part time in League One. I was reasonably pleased that we brought McCluskey in from Pollok. He's a decent player who can be dangerous going forward. Its the kind of signing thats going to either highlight how good a manager Duffy is in getting the most from his players or it's going to highlight a significant flaw in Duffy's squad building. It has to work because the alternatives are thin on the ground.

I know I'll change my mind when the season gets underway and I'll be up for it, but right now I'm not looking forward to the Betfred Cup. The fact that we can't play trialists in those games has always really annoyed me. You have players looking for contracts and the chance to give them 4 matches to earn a deal somewhere and yet we can't play any of them. You end up with teams running with threadbare benches and for the majority of sides who won't get out of their group it's really little more than an inconvenience having to fulfil 4 fixtures that do nothing for us,

[Felicity, I guess so]

Chin up, BallochSonsFan, you beat us in last week’s friendly. Tho I was told not to plan to go as you hadn’t enough players...

We got the semi-real season underway last night at Tynecastle with a 1-1 draw. Lost the extra point penalties but at least scored 3/4 this time, inc 17-year old Banks confidently tucking his away.

Good signings in summer, especially Shankland whose scored in both of his starts despite lack of fitness.

Not that you’d know it on ‘Arabs Anonymous’ which is getting very annoying- I’m expecting a real battle for promotion like last year but some people really think there’s a magic wand that can be wafted and there was some ludicrous grumbling about last night, as if it wasn’t a semi-friendly with an experimental team.

[CY_Boaby]

I can't see anything but a Dundee Utd stroll to the Championship title this season, especailly now with Shankland up front banging in the goals. God knows what Utd are paying him, but it should pay off otherwise they really will be screwed. However there's no other team that can match Utd's spending power and I can see the majority of the teams battling relegation rather than promotion.

Anyone heading along to any of the League Cup fixtures today?

[jdsx]

Yeah just leaving to see the Jags play Airdrie.... Not expecting great entertainment tbh!

[Felicity, I guess so]

I’m off to Stenhousemuir on Tuesday. If nothing else our new kit is lush (as young folks round here would put it)

[jdsx]

Yeah just leaving to see the Jags play Airdrie.... Not expecting great entertainment tbh!

Well, at least I wasn't disappointed. Jags won 1-0. According to the BBC, we had 25 shots on goal, 11 on target. I think that's something of an overestimation.... At least I was back home, sitting in the garden, enjoying a Pimms* by 5.15.....!
*Not my usual choice....;-)