| Arachnophilia |
| This year's ups and downs |
| Well, I'm back. Sorry it's been so long, but Sixth year at school isn't the doddle that everyone tries to make it out to be. There is now only about a third of the season left to go and I am starting to think about who will be going up and who will be joining us in the 3rd Division next season from the Second. Right now, it looks pretty clear cut for the Third Division - Stirling and Stranraer have a good eight point lead over Gretna, although Stranraer have played a game more than the others. This, however, will not be the case after March 2nd, when Stirling and Gretna will catch up on their postponed match - against each other. A win for Gretna would open the Championship race up to all three of them, while a Stirling win would perhaps kill off Gretna's chances of promotion and give Stirling a four point lead at the top. I think now though that Peterhead must be out of the promotion race. They have got it together a bit in recent weeks, but their draw against Cowdenbeath this weekend will probably prove to be two points too many dropped. The fixture list for the second last day of the season makes interesting reading - Stirling Albion vs Stranraer - possibly the championship decider Gretna vs Peterhead - probably a 3rd vs 4th clash, although possibly meaningless by then Elgin City vs Queen's Park - I'm not just including this becuse we are playing in it - seeing as Elgin are currently the team below us, albeit by 8 points, it's a really important fixture. Sadly, I feel that our last game of the season against Gretna at Hampden will prove nothing more than a chance to sing "You're not going up!" for ninety minutes, not that that wouldn't be fun though! As for the Second Division, it is begining to look pretty certain that Stenhousemuir will be joining us next season. Having still never been there, I'm quite pleased at this prospect. The Second Division, though, is pretty unpredictable. For example, round about Christmas, Alloa were bottom of the league and looking certs for relegation, but they put together a run of 4 or 5 straight wins and are now 4 points clear of the relegation zone, and, owing to the crazy nature of the Second Division, they are only 7 points off Berwick in second. Arbroath are now in 9th spot, 4 points behind Alloa and East Fife, and I wouldn't be too surprised if they were to make it two-in-a-row and go down again. Having said that, the team I would most like to come down is East Fife, just so as we can laugh at them next season! I get the feeling however that at least one of the relegation places will come down to the last day. I was just going to talk about matters affecting the Third Division, but I feel I have to mention the question of Partick Thistle's SPL status. There is at the moment no doubt in my mind that Thistle will finish bottom of the SPL, but whether they will go down or not is another matter. Clyde, I know, are making plans to build a new stand, thus making Broadwood acceptable to the SPL, but they might not win the league. It looks to be a two-horse race now between them and Inverness, but should Inverness win the league I don't know if they will be allowed up. Certianly, the Caldonian Stadium does NOT have 10,000 seats, so Inverness will have to get their act together. My money now however is on Clyde for the First Division title - they are currently three points clear of Inverness, after their slip-up in Dumfries on Saturday, and also have a game in hand. Anyway, back to our own Division: I feel we still have a part we can play in the promotion race. We still have visits to Stirling and Peterhead to come, as well as Gretna's visit to Hampden on the last day and of course our home game against Peterhead next week. Any points we can take off these teams will make the promotion race all the more interesting. Well, here's hoping! Basil and yes, I am STILL an optimist |