News
JUST ANOTHER SATURDAY – BOILING UP NICELY
By David Potter
The race for the First Division title continued on Saturday with both challengers – Hamilton and Dundee - winning 1-0 away from home. Hamilton thus remain six points ahead of Dundee, although Dundee have a game in hand, and as the two of them clash on the last day at Dens Park, you might say that things are boiling up nicely.
Hamilton have played better games, however, than they did against bottom club Stirling Albion at Forthbank on Saturday. Accies scored within the first five minutes through McCarthy, and then subjected their fans to 85 minutes of agony by failing to add to their tally.
Dundee faced a potential banana skin against Dunfermline before 3,972 fans at East End Park, but emerged triumphant through Frenchman Freddie Daquin's solitary strike. More renderings of the “Marsaillaise” by the pro-Gallic Dee fans in their buses on the way home?
Well done the Doonhamers! Semi Final of the Scottish Cup (jealousy! envy!) and Queen of the South thoroughly pasting Bomber and Hammer's Clyde, 4-1! I now am an adopted Doonhamer for the duration of the Scottish Cup campaign, and it shows the steps you can make whenever you sack Ian McCall.
Come to think of it, Dundee United have never looked back either, have they?
Partick Thistle (who have not yet learned this lesson) and St. Johnstone (who also have our best wishes for the Scottish Cup, by the way!) were so exhausted by their midweek Cup endeavours that they could only manage a 0-0 draw at Firhill.
And Livi might have beaten Morton but for red mist and red cards in the latter stages, the match finishing 1-1. Two red cards is a bit careless, Livi!
So Stirling Albion, eight points adrift, now look even more like relegation, but the grizzly horrors of Clyde may well have to join the play-offs. Great!
Ross County were all set to celebrate winning the championship of Division Two at Dingwall yesterday, but managed to throw away a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 to Raith Rovers. A good result for the Kirkcaldy men who look as if they may earn a play-off.
Airdrie United also had a good day winning 4-1 at Peterhead, and the third play-off team at the moment would seem to be Alloa Athletic who had a good 1-1 draw against Queen's Park at Hampden.
But don't write off Brechin City who had a fine 5-0 victory over relegated Berwick Rangers, while Ayr United just kept themselves in the frame when Willie Easton levelled against Cowdenbeath with the final whistle literally in the referee's lips at Central Park, Cowdenbeath, the game ending 1-1.
So, in Division Two, it looks all over at the top (in spite of Ross County's fall from grace on Saturday) and the bottom, but the play-off spots look interesting.
Personally, I don't care who beats Clyde in the play-offs.
All draws in Division Three apart from Stranraer who got the better, 2-1, of the luckless East Stirlingshire who now look as if they are to occupy their normal place at the bottom. This is partly due to the revival of Forfar who drew 1-1 at Arbroath in the Angus derby in front of 723 partisan fans.
East Fife, now champions and “looking like a team that knew they didn't need to win” as the Sunday Post unkindly puts it, bored their triumphant 773 fans with a goal-less home draw against Montrose, while Albion Rovers v Elgin City and Stenhousemuir v Dumbarton both ended 1-1.
Stranraer, Arbroath and Montrose look like the play-off teams here to fight it out with Cowdenbeath.
David Potter
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