Big possibility of Scottish league losing its only English side

SM™

SM™

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Staff member
Berwick Rangers now 5 points adrift at the bottom of the 2nd Division with just two games to go. They've conceded 14 goals in their last 3 games. The league side usually wins the play-off but Berwick are especially bad so there's a chance that we might see a new club in the in the SPFL leagues.

The bottom club in Division 3 will face either East Kilbride or Cove Rangers in a play-off. East Kilbride have run away with the Lowland League since Kelty Hearts collapsed after the appointment of Barry and Boab. Play-off games between EK and Cove are on the next two Saturdays.

Previously Highland League sides haven't been too keen on going up with rumours going round that they'd rather stay in that league for financial reasons. I think Brora were the club.

Does anyone know if Cove want to go up? Does anyone watch Cove or East Kilbride or Berwick occasionally? What are the chances of Berwick ending up in the Lowland League?
 
Rt. Hon. Bearman said:
What an indictment of Scottish football if it’s actually more worthwhile staying in the Highland League than going up to League 2.
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Isn't it purely down to the travelling involved?

I know plenty of guys who choose to play junior because of the travelling that's involved in the lower leagues. Some junior teams pay more than professional clubs as well.
 
dt17 said:
Isn't it purely down to the travelling involved?

I know plenty of guys who choose to play junior because of the travelling that's involved in the lower leagues. Some junior teams pay more than professional clubs as well.
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It may be but surely the SPFL could help out with this?

Fundamentally there are too many league clubs in Scotland for a country our size.

You could probably just have two tiers of 16 clubs with regionalised non-league football beneath that.
 
SM™ said:
Does anyone know if Cove want to go up?
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Yes they have been aiming to get promoted for over 10 years. They applied to join the league a few times prior to the playoffs being introduced. They seem to have a bit of ambition about them, just built a new ground.
 
Cove definitely want to go up.

Built a new stadium etc.

Brora genuinely chucked it at Montrose. The travel was the reason, rather than the money from memory.
 
Cove have been excellent this season, unlucky in the Scottish Cup too, new stadium, good investment. Reckon they’ll do it after last seasons play off meltdown
 
adamski said:
EK still playing on a plastic pitch?
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Ek are getting a new stadium coming and are backed by wealthy folk. The league has been their aim for some time

Missed out on a play off against cowdenbeath before, I don't think they will miss this time around
 
adamski said:
Where's the stadium being built?
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Up at Langlands near Whitehills, the community trust are raising funds for a community stadium to be built there. Has been said ekfc would move there, as I don't think the k-park in calderglen is suitable to handle matches in professional divisions
 
millar2318 said:
Up at Langlands near Whitehills, the community trust are raising funds for a community stadium to be built there. Has been said ekfc would move there, as I don't think the k-park in calderglen is suitable to handle matches in professional divisions
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It struggles to host first team games just now. Car are put onto an overflow car park which is literally a field as it's basically a single track road off the main road into Calderglen park.
 
superallythe2nd said:
It struggles to host first team games just now. Car are put onto an overflow car park which is literally a field as it's basically a single track road off the main road into Calderglen park.
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Exactly, and the council would wipe out any large scale games should they come up as they own calderglen, so a new stadium is a must for the professional leagues.
 
Full pyramid structure, with semi-pro, regional leagues starting in the 3rd tier.

Premier
Championship
North Premier / South Premier
Highland Championship / Central Championship / SE Championship / SW Championship
 
Some good ideas floating about in this thread about the Scottish football structure as a whole. England seem to have a good structure, where a club good technically go from like tier 10 to the premiership in as many years. I agree we have too many pro clubs for the size of country but sadly can’t see this ever changing.
 
It is eye-wateringly, catastrophically dense that Scotland's 4th football tier is a national league. We hum and haw about the top flight being 10, 12, 16, whatever teams and muck about with governing bodies merging and yet this issue (whose fixing would obviously not alleviate all ills, but still) persists. The notion that clubs from places as distant as Stranraer, Berwick and Inverness should play each other down in such a lowly division amazes me. Germany only has 2 national leagues FFS!
 
Won't shed any tears for the berwick manager that's for sure.and the ironic thing is the team he left (Penicuik) could get promoted to the lowland league Where's he's heading
 
We wouldn't "lose" them from the Scottish leagues as the Lowland League is part of the hierarchical structure There aretoo many teams and we should look at amalgamations and regionalising at lower levels.
 
I had wondered if Berwick might have taken the chance to try to enter the English pyramid system. Given that Gretna back in the day were part of it I thought that it might be an option for Berwick if they fall out of the SPFL. For the record, I hope they keep their place in League 3.
 
jimbear said:
I had wondered if Berwick might have taken the chance to try to enter the English pyramid system. Given that Gretna back in the day were part of it I thought that it might be an option for Berwick if they fall out of the SPFL. For the record, I hope they keep their place in League 3.
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They ll be part of the lowland league next season
 
They play Albion Rovers this weekend at home so big game for them and a must win if they want to have a chance of missing the play off round.
 
sonofbunk said:
Cove want to go up. There was real bad blood when Cowdenbeath beat them last year in the play off.
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It was a stitch up mate certainly looked that way. As an aside the Cove manager had a heart attack he’s expected to make a full recovery but that may impact their play off games.
 
I see Berwick have Matthew Knox on loan. I remember all the hype about him a few years ago. I know he is still only 19, but, definitely not yet fulfilling potential.

Despite the attrocious refereeing in the 2nd leg, Cove should have had Cowdenbeath buried by 4 or 5 at the end of the first leg.

EK will be a tough game this year, but, think Cove can come up. Either would probably be favourites to beat Berwick.
 
oldgregg said:
It is eye-wateringly, catastrophically dense that Scotland's 4th football tier is a national league. We hum and haw about the top flight being 10, 12, 16, whatever teams and muck about with governing bodies merging and yet this issue (whose fixing would obviously not alleviate all ills, but still) persists. The notion that clubs from places as distant as Stranraer, Berwick and Inverness should play each other down in such a lowly division amazes me. Germany only has 2 national leagues FFS!
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This is it in a nutshell. Contrary to popular opinion, Scotland doesn't have 'too many clubs'. Scotland actually has the best per capita attendance in Europe. The problem is too many (senior) leagues, which forces very small clubs like Berwick to travel the length and breadth of the country every other week. No wonder many of the Highland league teams don't want in.
 
Cove will hopefully beat EK and would see off Berwick also I’m pretty sure.

Really good side who have had ambitions to play League football for years. They have put a lot of money into their new ground and youth facilities etc.
 
uddingstonbluenose said:
I see Berwick have Matthew Knox on loan. I remember all the hype about him a few years ago. I know he is still only 19, but, definitely not yet fulfilling potential.

Despite the attrocious refereeing in the 2nd leg, Cove should have had Cowdenbeath buried by 4 or 5 at the end of the first leg.

EK will be a tough game this year, but, think Cove can come up. Either would probably be favourites to beat Berwick.
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I had forgotten all about Knox.I would assume his career hasnt taken off the way many expected
 
Tito said:
This is it in a nutshell. Contrary to popular opinion, Scotland doesn't have 'too many clubs'. Scotland actually has the best per capita attendance in Europe. The problem is too many (senior) leagues, which forces very small clubs like Berwick to travel the length and breadth of the country every other week. No wonder many of the Highland league teams don't want in.
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It's funny, Buckie, as an example, appear to have much better financial backing than Elgin City, but, don't think they'd want to come up.
 
Reckon ek will have too much for cove, also have some really good players for their level in Humphrey, longworth, Malcom etc much improved from the last couple of years
 
BTW Berwick must be absolutely rotten this year because Albion Rovers are dreadful.
 
It would be better if the lower league in Scotland were regional feeding into a 1st then Premier division.

The fact that clubs don't want to go up due to travel should be a tell tale sign (amongst other things) for a reconstruction as such. It must cause some of the wee teams a relative fortune in travel plus players getting time off work etc.
 
Cove manager had a heart attack on Sunday, recovering well from it by the sounds of it but almost certainly won’t be in the dugout for the play offs.
 
Spoke about THIS a bit on the Rovers thread. Whoever finishes bottom is doomed. Cove, unlike Brora are desperate to come up. They and EK are far superior to either of the League 2 sides.
 
FFS, what does it say about the state of Scottish football that clubs dont want to join the (no laughing at the back) senior ranks ?

It was bad enough insisting on financially crippling 10000 all seater stadium as criterion for entry to the (I told you...stop feckin laughing at the back !) Premier League !
 
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