Leaderboard

Hi all Leaving this on here for a week to see if I can entice anyone new to take part in this seasons NAPs competition (Mods, I'll remove next week) Get yourself over to the betting forum (Link below) and have a look: it's free; it's easy to take part; all you do is choose a weekly result and I work out rest including the points and most of all get annoyed like the rest of us when your prediction doesn't come up. It's free betting but with points instead of your own pounds and no one loses anything, well, except face lol. Betting Forum - CaleyThistleOnline

Another start to the season which means @Gringo is running his Prediction League again but it needs participants. It's really simple to play, all you do is predict the score from the weeks League One games and Gringo very handily has a system where it works out your score(s) after he enters in the results. Link is below: SPFL Prediction League - CaleyThistleOnline You might have to register, I can't remember as I joined so long ago, but with the work that goes into it, it deserves to have more people playing it. Once registered/logged in, you need to go to your profile setting and tick the box for the correct season then submit. Then the fixtures will be visible. Go on, give it a go. (Mods, same as the other, I'll remove after a week or so)

Step 1 - click on the more tab to the right, shown below, then click on Features followed by Prediction League Step 2 - if you have registered log in using username and password, if not then click on new user and follow the instructions Step 3 - click on My Profile to bring up the below then ticked the box beside this seasons league on the joined Leagues tab, followed by Join After that, to predict, you click on My Predictions to bring uo the fixtures for that week and the drop down changes from week to week. Excuse my predictions 😄

Payment for Matthew Strachan sponsorship has now been made. We will continue to collect names for a while to see what else we can sponsor and all names will go into the hat at the end of the season to be drawn for any goodies we receive from the club in return.

+2 from me. Cheers

Lessons I've learned from the League Two previews I've done in the past (many of which have been extremely, spectacularly wrong): - Do not pay much attention to the League Cup group results. They tend not to be a good indicator of what's coming. - If there is a team that is pretty well bankrolled, put them near the top as they will either romp it or, if they don't, they will sack their manager and/or bring in loads of players in January and then romp it. - The weakest team right now is not actually all that likely to come bottom, as they will also sack their manager and/or bring in loads of players in January and then turn it around. The team that finishes bottom will probably be the seventh or eighth best right now, but will be overtaken by a few sides that panic sufficiently early to get out of danger. There is a little extra spanner in the works this year: DUMBARTON start with a five point penalty following their administration in League One last season. That doesn't sound like much, but a six point deduction was the difference between Bonnyrigg Rose staying up and going down last time out. It's a new beginning for the Sons, on the pitch as well as off; pretty much none of their best performers from last year remain and manager Stevie Farrell has had to mostly build a new team. While centre-backs Mark Durnan and Morgyn Neill give them a solid backbone, they will be heavily dependent on veterans Leighton McIntosh and Ally Roy for goals and probably need some of their many loan players to shine if they are going to avoid a fight at the bottom. I also fear for the other side relegated from League One, ANNAN ATHLETIC. Star striker Tommy Goss is set to leave after an alleged fallout with player-boss Wullie Gibson, while potential replacement Joel Mumbongo picked up a serious knee injury on his debut. Aidan Smith is probably good for double-figures and that will be crucial, while Paul McGowan and Paul Smith add a bit of midfield nous. I can see them starting badly, punting Gibson and then hauling themselves out of trouble but I'm not sure they have the budget to make wholesale changes if they are in danger. Having only avoided the relegation playoff via goal difference, FORFAR ATHLETIC need to improve, and while Lewis Martin and Jake Dolzanski should strengthen the defence their problem in recent years has very much been at the other end of the park. New boys Martin Rennie and Scott Shepherd will be relied on heavily for goals, and their ability to deliver will be the difference between them climbing the table and not. STRANRAER were always near the bottom last season and it could well be the same again for them. Manager Chris Aitken has turned over the squad (thirteen signings so far) but he's relying on a lot of lower league players to make the step up. He's done well to get winger James Dolan back after a year away studying in Spain, and signing defender Lewis Reid permanently from Queen's Park is actually a bit of a coup. Moving to the business end of the table, EAST KILBRIDE are the newly promoted side but are also the ones who could be described as 'bankrolled' so I'd make them favourites. They've considerably reinforced the team that won the Lowland League with Rhys Breen and Magnus MacKenzie added to the backline and Ouzy See joining the attack. John Robertson is a solid bet to be League Two's top scorer this season. Curiously EK signed two players and then punted them in a matter of days; one is striker Josh O'Connor (son of Scotland international Garry) who looks like quite the star signing for ELGIN CITY. Elgin made the promotion playoffs last season and have added keeper Tom Ritchie, defender Connall Ewan and midfielder Miko Virtanen as well which is not too shabby. They have lost the flair of Dujon Golding though. City's target will be to remain in that top four. EK also let Mouhamed Niang go and he should add a bit of steel to the CLYDE midfield. After a couple of seasons that go into the "bad start, sack manager, sign lots of players, turn it around" category they will look to continue their steady improvement under Darren Young. Guys like full-back Tommy Robson and striker Scott Williamson are probably better than this level and the Niang-Andy Murdoch pairing in the centre of the park is very strong. However captain Lee Hamilton left and they are banking on Sam Campbell, signed from East Stirling, making the step up to replace him in central defence. EDINBURGH CITY were probably 2024-25's surprise package with Michael McIndoe impressing as manager. Their weakness still seems to be their small squad and the resultant lack of depth. If they can avoid injuries they will be dangerous. Aside from keeping Malik Zaid permanently after a successful loan, McIndoe has had to dip into the lower leagues again to augment the squad (though that worked pretty well for them last year). They did struggle to replace Connor Young's goals after his January exit and have lost Ouzy See too, so they'll need Innes Lawson and James Stokes to continue to contribute heavily from midfield. As ever, THE SPARTANS resisted making wholesale changes as they go into their fourteenth season under Dougie Samuel. They've convinced Sean Welsh to drop down to League Two and kept defender Bailey Dall on a permanent deal. Crucially Blair Henderson and Cammy Russell are as reliable as any front pairing at this level and so they will have aspirations of finishing higher than last year's fifth spot. And finally STIRLING ALBION seemed to spend the entirety of last season in mid-table. They'll be hoping new attackers Ross Cunningham and Russell McLean can move them up, while they did well to attract defender Lee Hamilton from Clyde. However the bulk of the squad have been around for the last few seasons and it's possible that they have reached their ceiling under Alan Maybury. So my (inevitably wrong) predicted table: 1. EAST KILBRIDE 2. THE SPARTANS3. ELGIN CITY4. EDINBURGH CITY 5. CLYDE6. STIRLING ALBION7. FORFAR ATHLETIC8. STRANRAER9. DUMBARTON 10. ANNAN ATHLETIC Lawrie Spence has whinged about Scottish football on Narey's Toepoker since September 2007. He has a life outside this blog. Honestly.View the full article

Also rejoined after a reminder. Also a reminder here from us, that you can join the Supporters Trust "Club" on here for free .... This is not the Trust itself, but a dedicated sub-section of this site that they manage and moderate themselves. We put it into a club format so that they could not only have their own forum(s) but also have access dedicated download areas, blogs and anything else they might need. The unread topics from the club area still appear listed alongside the normal forums provided you join that area (for free), and it only costs you money if and when you join the actual Supporters Trust organisation through their own website, which, for a fiver a year is pretty good value IMHO.

I had a look at odds, which had us a favourites to win the league and Alloa way down at 9/1 which I think is very generous!