Sialia sialis, by Audobon. Source.
Cardiff City FC visit Cappielow for a pre-season friendly. Cancelled.
Cardiff City are the top club in Wales but they play in the English Premiership, not the Welsh Premier League. They're one of six Welsh clubs that play in the English system. The others are Swansea (English Championship), Newport County (League Two -- tier IV), Wrexham (National League -- tier V), Merthyr Town (Southern Football League, Premier South Division -- part of tier VII), and Colwyn Bay (Northern Premier League, Division One West -- part of tier VIII). How the Welsh Premier League compares is hard to know because there is at present no competition in which all Welsh clubs participate. The Welsh Cup used to admit everybody from Wales (and some English teams too) but no longer includes the six Welsh clubs of the English leagues.
A consequence of the exclusion of the six from the Welsh Cup is that they no longer have a competition in which to play one other. The Welsh Cup final often used to come down to two of Cardiff, Wrexham, Swansea and Newport.
Were the Bluebirds in the Welsh Premier League today they would undoubtedly win it and then they would be invited into the Scottish Challenge Cup. As it is Wrexham are the ones who could turn up next year, if they wind up as one of the top two National League sides that miss promotion this year. (They finished 10th in 2017-18.)
Cardiff City wear blue, and somewhere along the way they aquired the nickname The Bluebirds. Their badge contains an image of a bluebird, or some kind of blue swallow anyway. Bluebirds are not native to the British Isles. They're North American, and they aren't swallows or martins, they're thrushes. The songs "Bluebird of Happiness" and "There'll Be Bluebirds Over the White Cliffs of Dover" were written in America. Cardiff City's bluebird is just as much a mythic beast as the Welsh dragon.
Championship League Cup stats-o-palooza:
The League Cup group stage is done. Group E included three 2018-19 Championship sides. Let's make a table out of the results between Ayr United, Morton and Partick:
G W D L F A GD Pts
Ayr United 2 2 0 0 5 1 +4 6
Partick 2 1 0 1 2 1 +1 3
Morton 2 0 0 2 2 5 -3 0
Group A also had three clubs from the Championship in it: Alloa, Dundee United and Ross County. Let's make a table out of the results between them:
G W D L F A GD Pts
Ross Co 2 2 0 0 3 0 +3 6
Dundee Utd 2 0 1 1 1 2 -1 1
Alloa 2 0 1 1 1 3 -2 1
Now combine the tables:
G W D L F A GD Pts
Ayr United 2 2 0 0 5 1 +4 6
Ross Co 2 2 0 0 3 0 +3 6
Partick 2 1 0 1 2 1 +1 3
Dundee Utd 2 0 1 1 1 2 -1 1
Alloa 2 0 1 1 1 3 -2 1
Morton 2 0 0 2 2 5 -3 0
We'll see if the Championship standings line up like this after two weeks of league play. (See August 18th.)
Compare last season's group stage points (A) to the final league standings (B):
A B
Falkirk 12 St Mirren 74
Dundee Utd 11 Livingston 62
Livingston 11 Dundee Utd 61
Dunfermline 10 Dunfermline 59
Morton 8 Inverness CT 57
Inverness CT 8 QoS 52
QoS 7 Morton 50
St Mirren 6 Falkirk 47
Brechin 2 Dumbarton 30
Dumbarton 1 Brechin 4
Pretty clearly the story of last season was the rise of St Mirren and the fall of Falkirk.
Now, sort the 2018-19 Championship clubs by points earned in this year's group stage:
12 Dunfermline
12 Ayr United
9 Queen of the South
9 Ross County
9 Partick Thistle
9 Inverness CT
8 Alloa
6 Morton
6 Falkirk
5 Dundee United
(Clubs in bold advanced.)
What this list shows is that there is no doormat in this year's Championship. I think the spread between top and bottom at season's end is going to be comparatively small. This could be the year that a club with 40 points finishes tenth.
Who was the leading scorer for each Championship side in the group stage, and how many regulation-time goals did he get?
7 Stephen Dobbie (Queen of the South)
7 Lawrence Shankland (Ayr United)
4 Miles Hippolyte (Dunfermline)
3 Michael Tidser (Morton)
3 Nicky Clark (Dundee United)
3 Alan Trouten (Alloa)
3 Nathan Austin (ICT)
2 Dylan Mackin (Falkirk)
2 Shea Gordon (Partick Thistle)
1 six players (Ross County)
Did Hearts' 2-point deduction have any effect on the composition of the round of 16? No.
It's the preliminary round of the 2018-19 Challenge Cup, starring clubs 3 and 4 of the Highland and Lowland leagues. This is the first time the Challenge Cup has had such a thing as a preliminary round. It became necessary when the two English teams were added to the tournament in early June. Up till that point all eight of the participating tier V clubs thought they were in Round One. Read: Highland Bosses in a Fizz.
BSC Glasgow 0 - 1 East Stirlingshire (July 29)
Despite having been relegated from the SPFL in 2016, East Stirlingshire have yet to miss out on a Challenge Cup campaign.
Inverurie Loco Works [2 - 2] Fraserburgh (Aug 1). [Locos win on penalty kicks.]
UEFA Champions League 2QR, second leg:
Rosenborg [0 - 0] Celtic. [Celtic progress.]
Malmö [1 - 1] CFR Cluj. [Malmö progress.]
Fortuna Düsseldorf's U19 squad is holding its training camp on the Dalhousie University campus. See here for a Fortuna article on Saturday's game.
SJFA West Region League Cup group stage:
Largs Thistle 5 - 2 Saltcoats Victoria (July 30)
Kilwinning Rangers [3 - 2] Largs Thistle (Aug 1)