planning your Saturday afternoon

There are five great matches today this afternoon in the Scottish Premier League.

Inverness CT at Falkirk (preview)
It’s been a dreary start to the campaign for Falkirk, yet they won’t be getting any breaks from Caley Thistle manager Craig Brewster who will tighten the noose.

Hearts visit the Hamilton Accies at New Douglas Park
Both clubs are locked one point behind table top Celtic and Rangers. The upstart Accies will deputize Stephen Ettien, Michael Videira and Northern Ireland U21 international Chris Casement into the lineup.

Kilmarnock visits Dundee Utd
After scoring three times against Cowdenbeath mid-week Jon Daly will feature heavily in the Dundee United attack. Kilmarnock has David Fernandez back from the sin-bin but Simon Ford will have a pre-match fitness test to see if he can go.

Motherwell at Hibernian
Motherwell will look to reverse their miserable start and will have Stephen Hughes back. Hibernian is hobbled up and has four questionable players, all facing match fitness tests; Rob Jones, Chris Hogg, Andrew McNeill and Alan O’Brien,

Aberdeen at St Mirren
St Mirren will be without midfielder Tonet, under suspension. Aberdeen will have sharpshooter Lee Miller back but Scott Severin is unlikely and Zander Diamond is out for the match.

and oh-yes on Sunday, the Old Firm as Rangers visit Celtic in another heated battle

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week 3 summary

It was a great weekend in the Scottish Premier League and I hope you were able to catch some of the exciting action. Of the many great matches, certainly one of the highlights is Greek International Georgios Samaras brace for Celtic and the return of Shaun Maloney on a celebratory day for the legendary Billy McNeill.

In other action:

Kilmarnock 1 Hamilton 0: Kilmarnock spoiled the Accies incredible start as Manuel Pascali’s header just before the half gave the them the 1-0 lead, where the score stood. Hamilton through everything they could in the attack and threatened to bring the match level to the very last minute in a highly entertaining heart-pounding match.

Motherwell 1 Dundee Utd 1: Motherwell’s new-man, John Sutton took only thirty-four minutes before netting the first goal of career at for The ‘Well. Dundee native Lee Wilkie drew the match level only six minutes later. Motherwell looked to be on the verge of adding the go-ahead goal on numerous but lacked the finishing touch to earn three points.

Hearts 2 St Mirren 1: Hearts overcame an inspired performance by St Mirren who played much of the match one man down from the twenty-sixth minute when Tonet received his second yellow card within minutes. They however put a formidable challenge as Hearts clung to the victory.

Please make sure you check out the following match reviews:
Inverness Caley Thistle 1 Hibernian 1
Celtic 3 Falkirk 0
Rangers 1 Aberdeen 1

	P	W	D	L	GS	GA	Pts
Celtic	3	2	1	0	5	1	7
Rangers	3	2	1	0	4	1	7
Kilmarnock	3	2	1	0	2	0	7
Hamilton	3	2	0	1	4	2	6
Hearts	3	2	0	1	5	5	6
Inverness Caley Thistle	3	1	1	1	3	2	4
Hibernian	3	1	1	1	4	4	4
Aberdeen	3	1	1	1	2	3	4
Dundee Utd	3	0	2	1	3	5	2
Motherwell	3	0	1	2	3	5	1
St Mirren	3	0	1	2	1	3	1
Falkirk	3	0	0	3	2	7	0

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break-up the Accies!

The SPL is packed with six great matches this weekend, none more interesting than Hamilton Accies visit to Kilmarnock. Billy Reid’s Accies have got off to an incredible start this season and face Kilmarnock, who have played with a stubborn resolve in the first two matches of the campaign. The Accies have shown a remarkable work-rate, tough-tackling and have surprised everyone with steady heads-up play. This will be an exciting, energetic match that won’t disappoint with action. On the emerging Footballer front, watch Accies James McArthur to continue to develop into a one of top midfielders in the SPL and a talent for Scotland.

St Mirren @ Hearts: The big news in this one is that the long awaited debut of Hearts new-man David Obua is expected for this match. Beyond that, Hearts will be a fatigued group as a massive eight members of the squad were in international duty this week. This will make for a very tired squad and potentially open opportunities for the visitors if they go on the attack. St Mirren while displaying tremendous organization and structure have one tiny little problem so-far; they haven’t scored. Yes, in my three decades of experience within the game, I can attest not scoring can cause problems! Look for St Mirren to launch on the counter-attack and set Vladimir Romanov off for another series of map-cap ramblings in the media.

Dundee Utd @ Motherwell: This will be a alley-way fight as both clubs have got off to a difficult start. Motherwell has lost both its matches in lackluster fashion and need to jump-start the campaign fast. Dundee Utd is feeling slightly better after stumbling out of the gate against Hamilton and salvaged a solid draw last week against Celtic but far from out of the woods. Motherwell’s Mark McGhee should have new signing John Sutton in the lineup and he’ll definitely create the offensive scoring threat that they need. Scotland’s superb U21 defender Mark Reynolds is expected back for Motherwell which is critical given Dundee’s attacking threats Craig Conway and Danny Swanson. This match will have a lot of fireworks, real Football and tough tackling by players.

Be sure to check-out the blogs of our Scottish Premier League for a match previews:

Hibernian at Inverness Caley Thistle
Falkirk visits Celtic
Rangers take on Aberdeen at Pittodrie Stadium

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not for your prawn sandwich set

While the lil’ darlings get ready for tomorrow’s opening day matches and get all in a tizzy of what to wear and wonder if the hospitality suite will be serving those cute prawn sandwiches again, the real Football action tomorrow is in, you guessed-it, beautiful Scotland. Of course the big-news is that our SPL family has grown with the new CaleyThistle blog.

Tomorrows action features five great matches:

Hamilton Academical v Inverness Caledonian Thistle (Caledonian Stadium)
The Accies, who were so impressive in their opener defeating Dundee United 3-1, voyage to the stunning Highlands to face the cagey Caley Thistle. Led by the illustrious Craig Brewster, you can count on his squad fighting for the last blade of grass on the pitch. Caley Thistle came out strong and ruined Aberdeen’s home opener with 2-0 thrashing. Without bias, seeing striker Andrew Barrowman nailing down the first goal of the campaign was a thing of beauty. While only twenty-three years of age, Andrew has had quite a journey in his playing career already but with the experience and guidance of Craig Brewster I am sure we’ll be talking quite a bit of the young Striker in the future. For more on Caley Thistle, make sure you visit Ian’s new dedicated blog.

Aberdeen v Motherwell (Fir Park Stadium)
After both clubs started the campaign with a loss, they’ll be pressing to come out with points and not drift too far off the the early pace. Motherwell will come out with up-tempo play and try to dictate play but will need to be more diligent in defending. Look for an aggressive, very close match.

Kilmarnock v St Mirren (St Mirren Park)
St Mirren nearly pulled off the shocker last week with a noble performance against Celtic. They will need to build on that performance but Jim Jefferies’s Kilmarnock is keen to rebound from last campaigns disappointment. Much of their hope lays in the capable work of twenty-one year-old midfielder Craig Bryson, another up and comer in Scottish Football.

Falkirk v Hibernian (Easter Road Stadium)
This is an interesting match because both squads started completely opposite last week. Falkirk played quite well against the Rangers and were unfortunate to not to get a point while Hibernian put out a dreary performance, unlike last campaign. Mixu Paatelainen’s squad though will get a good wake-up call at home and as always Easter Road is a fortress where many teams fortunes fall. Hib’s striker Steven Fletcher, possesses brilliant predatory skills and is a threat to score at any angle.

Hearts v Rangers (Ibrox): match preview

And don’t forget on Sunday, Gordon Strachan’s Celtic visit Dundee United.

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only 20 years ago

Twenty years seems like whisper away now. As I think back to 1988 so many moments resonate in my life and its difficult to think of them so long ago.

Within the Scottish Football community it also marked the debut of a nineteen year-old midfielder by the name of Billy McKinlay. A splendid player for Dundee United, who along with good field management and vision, I remember best for his tenacity, grit and that he possessed the heart of the Lion. After nearly twenty years on the pitch, his playing career concluded a few years go but every time I take a look at Fulham, where he know coaches their academy, I wonder how many of those young men will capture that same level of competitiveness that was a cornerstone to his career.

Oddly enough Billy was awarded the Scotland’s top young player of the year in 1988, the same year that marked the relegation of Hamilton Academical from the upper tier of Football. Ironically now twenty years later, The Accies opened the campaign against the club Billy debuted, Dundee United.

Cutting straight to the chase, Hamilton was brilliant today. They flew all over the pitch in their own brand of beautiful Football on the way to a commanding 3-1 victory over Dundee. Certainly it could be said that Dundee looked rather unsettled tonight but truth-be-told, it was the Hamilton squad that displayed a extraordinary work-rate, challenged every ball, were creative on the pitch but far more importantly wanted to win the match. Hamilton manager Billy Reid could probably talk a great deal of crisp passing and point-out the tremendous play of David Graham and the young James McArthur but the real story was the attitude of the squad and sheer tenacity to refuse anything but three points.

After twenty years somethings never change and the never-say-die attitude of the Scottish Premier League resonates loud and clear.

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