Having beaten East Kilbride in the play off semi final Cove Rangers now play the SPFL's bottom club Berwick Rangers for a place in League 2 next season.

A question born out of my ignorance. In the event that Berwick lose, where do they go ? Surely even the Scottish football authorities wouldn't have them in the Highland League with journeys from England to the likes of Wick and Brora undertaken by part time players seventeen times in the course of a season.

Would surely go into the Lowland League, restoring it to 16 teams after Selkirk resigned in August.  Leaving the Highland League - not for the first time - with an odd number of teams.

Edited May 5, 20197 yr by snorbens_caleyman

39 minutes ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

Would surely go into the Lowland League, restoring it to 16 teams after Selkirk resigned in August.  Leaving the Highland League - not for the first time - with an odd number of teams.

That would strike me as the common sense solution but that is a quality that the Scottish football authorities are not necessarily known for.

A lopsided Highland League might suit us. Perhaps our youths/reserves could play the idle team on an informal basis as we did before in similar circumstances.

From season 2014–15, the bottom League Two team enters into a two-legged play-off against the winner of a play-off between the winners of the Highland and Lowland Leagues.^[4] If the Highland or Lowland team wins the final, they are promoted to League Two, with the team finishing 10th being relegated to either the Highland or Lowland league. If the League Two side prevails, they retain their place in the following season's competition.^[4]

Got the above from the Scottish League Two Wiki page.

3 minutes ago, WYNESS101 said:

If the Highland or Lowland team wins the final, they are promoted to League Two, with the team finishing 10th being relegated to either the Highland or Lowland league.

Aye, but how do you interpret that?  It's ambiguous.  Common sense says that a relegated team goes into the geographically-closer league, but as Kingsmills says, the problem with common sense is that it's all too often uncommon!

At the moment the dividing line is the middle of the Tay Bridge. In theory the likes of Montrose would be relegated to the HL which is causing loads of discussion in non-League circles. In fact Brora came very close to replacing them 4 years ago.

If Cove beat Berwick the LL will simply adjust to accommodate Berwick and stay at 16 clubs, as it has the EOSL below it. In any case it looks as if Whitehill Welfare will be relegated and replaced by EOSL Champions Bonnyrigg Rose, subject to them gaining a license.

The SHFL can easily run with 17 - they've had 15 recently. Their stated objective is to run with up to 19 after which they would split into 2 divisions of 10. While the pyramid is developing apace in the south, nobody really knows what is happening in the north, as apparently the HL is open to applications from new clubs but this is hardly ever tested. The preferred SFA position is a HL of 16, i.e. 30 games. While there are probably not enough clubs in the north of Scotland to sustain a proper pyramid structure, it means that the lower regions of the HL are effectively just an old boys' club for the likes of Fort and Lossie to survive.

Edited May 6, 20197 yr by TheMantis

Congratulations to Cove for winning the battle of the Rangers 7-0 in aggregate to become the first Highland League club promoted to the Scottish League on sporting merit. Should have been a possibility over a century ago.

It would be good if the vacancy now arising in the HL was filled by a team from traditional Highland League territory rather than Aberdeenshire or a suburb of Aberdeen.

Many congratulations to Cove -  whom I have never seen, having left Scotland several years before they were admitted into the HL.  But, in my view, the more Highland teams in the SPFL, the better.

Would be good if Peterhead, Elgin and now Cove could make some more progress upwards.  Congratulations to the Blue Toon as well, of course - this time, stay up there!

So who are the likely candidates for admission to the HL, apart from the hypothetical ICT colts?  What is Golspie Sutherland's situation nowadays?

On 5/18/2019 at 7:09 PM, snorbens_caleyman said:

Many congratulations to Cove -  whom I have never seen, having left Scotland several years before they were admitted into the HL.  But, in my view, the more Highland teams in the SPFL, the better.

Would be good if Peterhead, Elgin and now Cove could make some more progress upwards.  Congratulations to the Blue Toon as well, of course - this time, stay up there!

So who are the likely candidates for admission to the HL, apart from the hypothetical ICT colts?  What is Golspie Sutherland's situation nowadays?

 

On 5/6/2019 at 1:50 PM, TheMantis said:

The SHFL can easily run with 17 - they've had 15 recently. Their stated objective is to run with up to 19 after which they would split into 2 divisions of 10. While the pyramid is developing apace in the south, nobody really knows what is happening in the north, as apparently the HL is open to applications from new clubs but this is hardly ever tested. The preferred SFA position is a HL of 16, i.e. 30 games. While there are probably not enough clubs in the north of Scotland to sustain a proper pyramid structure, it means that the lower regions of the HL are effectively just an old boys' club for the likes of Fort and Lossie to survive.

Golspie don't have lights, so would not be able to join the HL at present. They are SFA members and historically qualify for the Scottish Cup preliminary rounds because of this.

Took a dander down to Berwick yesterday as it's only about an hour's drive. Men against boys, although Berwick were reduced to 10 men on the stroke of half time.

Edited May 19, 20197 yr by TheMantis

4 hours ago, TheMantis said:

 

 

Took a dander down to Berwick yesterday as it's only about an hour's drive. Men against boys, although Berwick were reduced to 10 men on the stroke of half time.

Yes, I've seen Cove play a couple of times in recent years on trips up north when ICT have not been at home, and have been well impressed with them. I suspect they will do very well and climb through the lower leagues quite rapidly.

Aye well, money talks as they say.

I guess once Aberdeen complete their new stadium at Kingsford then the Wee Rangers will be close to the city than the Dons.

15 hours ago, Satan said:

Aye well, money talks as they say.

I guess once Aberdeen complete their new stadium at Kingsford then the Wee Rangers will be close to the city than the Dons.

The new stadium at Kingsford will still be closer to the city centre than Cove's ground and a good deal more accessible.

Still, Cove are well organised and have a bit of money behind them. I wouldn't be surprised to see them become a fixture in the SPFL.

I think the Kingsford stadium will be twice as far as Cove Rangers ground from the city centre, if you use the railway station as the centre. 

As for access Kingsford is easier to get to than pittodrie, for sure , but coming from the south either a90 and a92 will be just as easy for kingsford and cove.

It will be handy for Ross county next year I admit.

If you look at the stadium project website it's worth noticing the backing from 'Inverness Reds' supporters club.

Makes you boak. 

I think opening up SPFL to promotion from the lower leagues has been a really positive move.  It has allowed lower league teams to have some ambition whilst at the same time forcing some of the lower level SPFL teams to pick up their ideas if they want to remain in the system.  This arrangement has been a huge success in England.  The concern for me is where there is only one promotion place available, particularly in a situation like in the SPFL where that place is not automatic but subject to a play-off.  This can result in a log jam where there may be several teams at the lower level who are actually better than several in the tier above.  This is a bigger problem in England where the leagues mostly have 20 or more teams, but it might be more appropriate to have the team coming bottom of the SPFL being automatically relegated and the team next to bottom going to a play-off.

Good luck  to Cove, though.  I think they will do well next season.