Thursday 26 August 2010

SFL Round 4 Fixtures

Scottish League 1st Division

Cowdenbeath vs Partick Thistle
Dundee vs Falkirk
Queen of the South vs Ross County
Raith Rovers vs Morton
Stirling vs Dunfermline.

Big game of the day is at Dens where Dundee take on Falkirk , both teams will be there or there about at the climax of the season. League leaders Raith will be Expected to see of Morton and Ross County make the long journey south to take on Queen of the South.

Scottish League 2nd Division

Ayr Utd vs Peterhead
Brechin vs Alloa
East Fife vs Dumbarton
Livingston vs Forfar
Stenhousemuir vs Airdrie

Livingston again feature in the match of the division as they take on league leaders Forfar. East Fife must also be hot favorites to see off lowly Dumberton.

Scottish League 3rd Division

Arbroath vs East Stirling
Clyde vs Albion Rovers
Elgin vs Stranraer
Montrose vs Annan Athletic
Queens Park vs Berwick Rangers

Annan Athletic will be expecting to win away to Montrose as will high flying Berwick at Queens Park. Match of the day is between the 2 promotion hopefuls Arbroath and East Stirling.

UEFA Champions League Draw for Rangers

In Monaco today Scotland's only Representative in the Champions League , Rangers were drawn in Group C. Rangers will face old foes Manchester United and Valencia. The champions will also take on Turkish champions Bursaspor.

Rangers fixtures are....

Tues, Sep 14 - Manchester United (a)
Wed, Sep 29 - Bursaspor (h)
Wed, Oct 20 - Valencia (h)
Tues, Nov 2 - Valencia (a)
Wed, Nov 24 - Manchester United (h)
Tues, Dec 7 - Bursaspor (a)

Tough draw for Rangers , hopefully they can challenge for 2nd place but it looks like its a straight shoot-out between Rangers and Bursaspor for the Europa league spot.

Our Clubs in the Europa League Play-offs

This is it , who will make it through to the Europa League Group stages and who wont ??. If you are looking at the 1st leg results then it looks like Celtic will make it , Dundee Utd are already out and Motherwell have a real chance of going through.

We start with the biggest match , Motherwell go into their game with Odense BK high on confidence after a 1-0 win away to Killie at the weekend. Manager Craig Brown made changes with this game in mind and still carved out a victory thanks to a Nick Blackman goal. Motherwell need to beware though , Odense BK went away to Brondby on Sunday and came away with a 2-2 draw , to put this result into perspective , Brondby went away to Sporting in the Europa League and won 2-0. Motherwell just need to win 1-0 in this tie to progress , it would be a massive achievement for the team , manager and fans if the "well" do it. Craig Brown will be boosted by the return of John Sutton who missed the Killie game with a virus , he will start up front with Top scorer Jamie Murphy. Stevie Jennings misses out due to his red card in Denmark.

Prediction - Motherwell to win the game 2-1 and hopefully go through in extra time or on penalty's.

Dundee Utd travel to Greece with the match nearly being postponed due to floods at AEK stadium and rivals Panionios fans ripping up their own pitch as they don't want AEK playing there. The match will now take place at Olympiakos Karaiskakis Stadium. There wont be any AEK fans there which is a bonus for Utd , the Greek Authorities deem it to be a safety hazard if the AEK fans are allowed into the stadium. There will be about 600 Utd fans allowed into the game. Utd will be chasing a 1-0 deficit as AEK outclassed the Scottish side at Tannadice last Thursday. Peter Houston's men will need to do a hell of a lot better than they did on Sunday as they were beaten 4-0 at home by 1st Division champions Inverness. John Daly and David Goodwillie will lead the attack as if Utd have any chance they need to score 1st and put a bit of pressure on the Greeks.

Prediction - AEK beat Utd in front of their own fans , so beating them in front of no AEK fans wont be a problem. I think Utd will score but will again get beat 2-1 , maybe 3-1 , AEK are just the Better team.

Finally Celtic travel to Holland to take on Dutch side FC Utrecht. Celtic were well the better team in Glasgow last Thursday as they ran out 2-0 winners after a slow start. Neil Lennon knows that it Celtic get 1 goal then the tie is all but over. Celtic's strikers had enough practice at the weekend as they beat relegation struggles St Mirren 4-0. Utrecht though should not be discounted as they produced an excellent performance at the weekend beating Willem ll 3-0 , a result that would send the Dutch team through tonight. Both teams have defensive frailties but recently Celtic seemed to have shored up their defence as they have not conceded a goal for 3 games. Celtic will be boosted by the return of Cha Du-Ri and Glen Loovens , Joe Ledley might need to play at left back again as Charlie Mulgrew is still injured.

Prediction - I see this being an entertaining game with a few goals , Utrecht might sneak a victory but their defence isn't good enough to keep Celtic out. I go for a 2-2 draw and Celtic progressing to the group stages.

CIS League Cup 2nd Round Round up

The CIS cup got underway for most of the SPL sides on Tuesday and Wednesday with a few minor shocks and lots of goals. Tuesday nights action saw Aberdeen stroll to a 3-0 win over Alloa after the Alloa keeper was sent of in 15 minutes. Paul Hartley converted the penalty before McArdle and MCguire add Aberdeen's 2nd and 3rd. Hearts had an easy game as expected as they hammered Elgin 4-0 at Tynecastle , Kevin Kyle scoring 1 of the goals (his 2nd in 2 games). Raith Rovers continued their fine for by knocking out SPL side Hamilton 1-0 , Mark Ferry scoring from close range in 68 minutes. Up in Perth St Johnstone got back to winning ways by beating 1st Division side Morton 2-0 , Scott Dobie headed St Johnstone ahead in 22 mins then 10 minutes before time Murray Davidson finished the tie. Dunfermline and Clyde played out a 5 goals thrill with The Pars finally coming out on top 3-2 , Andy Kirk got 2 goals whilst the impressive Marc McKusker scored again for Clyde. Falkirk showed their class by travelling to Firhill and defeating Partick Thistle 1-0 , Ryan Flynn getting the only goal of the game in 58 minutes. Finally on Tuesday Brechin caused a shock when they beat 1st division title favorites on penalty's after a 2-2 draw. Rory McCallister put Brechin 2-0 up in the 2nd half before 2 quick goals from Dundee in-form striker Leigh Griffiths sent the tie to extra time and penalty's.

Wednesday night saw only 4 games but an abundance of goals , Inverness won a Northern derby by beating Peterhead 3-0 , the impressive Adam Rooney scoring twice. Kilmarnock scored 6 as they hammered Airdrie 6-2 at Rugby Park , Connor Sammon was the hero as he got a hat trick. Queen of the South put in an impressive showing beating 2nd Division high flyers Forfar 4-1 and in another minor shock Ross County saw off SPL side St mirren on penalty's after drawing 3-3 , it was 2-2 after 90 minutes but goals from Paul McGowan (St Mirren) 91mins and Steven Craig (Ross County) 95 mins sent the game to the lucky draw of spot kicks.

its 6 out of 6 for myself as both Hearts and Inverness won midweek , hopefully some of you are following this and have won some money. My nest bet will be at the weekend's games in the SPL and SFL.

the full results are as follows......

Alloa 0 v 3 Aberdeen
Brechin 2 v 2 Dundee (Bechin win on penalty's)
Dunfermline 3 v 2 Clyde
Hearts 4 v 0 Elgin
Partick Thistle 0 v 1 Falkirk
Raith Rovers 1 v 0 Hamilton
St Johnstone 2 v 0 Morton
Inverness 3 v 0 Peterhead
Kilmarnock 6 v 2 Airdrie
Queen of the South 4 v 1 Forfar
Ross County 3 v 3 St Mirren (Ross County win on penalty's)