At The Game

Back to Ainslie Park for the next stage in Spartans quest for promotion to the SPFL. Of course in any football pyramid worthy of the name winning your league would guarantee you promotion to the next level. The winners of the Highland and Lowland Leagues should both go up to League Two and the bottom two teams come down. Maybe the runners-up in the Highland and Lowland Leagues could play each other for a chance to play-off against the third bottom in League Two. And getting into the Highland and Lowland Leagues should be easier too. There can only be so much sympathy for Lowland teams like Spartans when the route into the Lowland League is also restrictive - the three feeder league champions have to play each other for a single promotion spot. There is a similarly restrictive route into the Highland League. Strangely the geographical boundary between Lowland and Highland Leagues is fixed, creating a situation where the number of teams to be relegated isn't known until the end of the season. A unlucky series of circumstances could see the team in second bottom place relegated to accommodate an 'extra' team dropping into the league replaced by a team from the Highland League. Surely a better method is to determine where the line is drawn based on the teams involved. As for the game itself, Spartans recovered from going a goal down to take a 1-1 draw to Coatbridge for the second leg next week. Hopefully they will keep the ball on the deck a bit more and play the passing game they are capable of. Too many high balls played into the hands of a strong Albion Rovers defence. as before adjourned to the Malt n Hops for a couple of beers with T and his mates before heading back to Porty.