
Football for healthy lungs.
It's the final weekend of the 2012-13 Scottish Football League season. Morton are undergoing their annual late-season slump, the difference being that they will finish in second place this year instead of in the usual sixth-to-eighth-place range. 2012-13 has turned out to be Greenock Morton's best season since 1995-96. If you exclude the beheading of Cappie the Cat.
Ninth place will be decided today. Either Cowdenbeath or penalized Dunfermline will have to enter the promotion/relegation playoff against three Second Division clubs. Dunfermline are in the better position, one point up and playing Airdrie today. Cowdenbeath face Hamilton.
If it matters. The (Scottish Football part of the) internet has been aflame since yesterday with the story that the Division One clubs plan to resign en masse from the SFL to form a Championship within the SPL. It will require the approval of 11 out of 12 SPL clubs, of course. But it's an interesting move because it shows what I've come to believe in three years of covering Morton, that the First Division is an entity in its own right, with its own group identity and issues, and not just a stepping stone.
Before this brewed up the SPL clubs were reportedly meeting to discuss a new promotion playoff game between the eleventh-place SPL club and the second-place First Division club. If this playoff were in place now the game this year would be between St Mirren against Morton. Read about the various available playoff formats in the Scotsman.
Morton visit Falkirk today. [Falkirk win 4 - 1. Morton goal by M. McLaughlin. Morton finish the season with 67 points, the same as 1995-96. Cowdenbeath snatch eighth place, and Dunfermline fall to ninth and will have to play in the relegation playoff against Forfar. Dumbarton conclude their remarkable turnaround by finishing seventh.]
How did Morton fare against the other nine First Division clubs this year?
Airdrie: Morton won all four meetings, scored 14 and allowed 4, for twelve points.
Cowdenbeath: Morton won three and drew one, scored 10, allowed 6, for ten points.
Dumbarton: Morton won three and lost one, scored 11, allowed 4, for nine points.
Livingston: Morton won two and drew two, scored 8, allowed 4, for eight points.
Dunfermline: Morton won two, drew one and lost one, scored 11, allowed 7, for seven points.
Partick: Morton won two, drew one and lost one, scored 7, allowed 5, for seven points.
Raith: Morton won two, drew one and lost one, scored 6, allowed 4, for seven points.
Falkirk: Morton won two and lost two, scored 5, allowed 6, for six points.
Hamilton: Morton drew one and lost three, scored 2, allowed 6, for one point.
Morton are runners-up, but Greenock Juniors have earned promotion to
the Super League Premier Division where they'll compete against Largs
Thistle next year.
The Icelandic football league begins tomorrow. In Iceland they really do play summer football, starting in May and finishing in September. I'm going to follow ÍBV (Íþróttabandalag Vestmannaeyja) through the short Icelandic season, and maybe even learn the club names by the end of the summer. Tomorrow ÍBV host ÍA (Íþróttabandalag Akraness). [Vestmannaeyjar win 1 - 0.]
Kyoto came to Sapporo Thursday and beat Consadole 0 - 1. Sapporo visit Giravanz Kitakyushu Monday. [And Sapporo win 1 - 2.]
[Sunday: Dundee are relegated from the SPL to Division 1.]