Plenty of Nothing

Sumiyoshi Monogatari

This is an illustration from a manuscript of Sumiyoshi Monogatari, a Heian Cinderella story, held at Waseda University. Source. It's not yet available in English translation.

Blue and White Toilets

Blue and white toilets at the INAX Museums in Aichi.

Cape Tormentine

Steve Boyko of the blog Confessions of a Train Geek visits the abandoned Cape Tormentine train station.

Cottage Gas Station

This cottage-style gas station sits at the SW corner of Richmond Road and Island Park Drive. It was designed to fit in with the Garden City concept for the Island Park neighbourhood. Source. Gilbert Lacroix built a model of it. Source.

About Port Glasgow Athletic

Port Glasgow Athletic FC 1909-1910.

It's the fifth and final matchday of the League Cup group stage. Morton host Queen of the South.

QoS are managed by Allan Johnston who was sacked by Dunfermline in January when it became clear that the Pars were going to miss the promotion playoffs, and hired by QoS in May when it became clear that the Doonhamers were not going to avoid the relegation playoffs.

This year's Queen of the South roster includes these former Morton players: Robby McCrorie, Lee Kilday and Gary Oliver. Kyle Jacobs, who signed with Morton this summer, is formerly of QoS.

Kyle Jacobs' goals against Morton:

                  club    venue             goalie                    time

2017/2/4    QoS    Palmerston    Derek Gaston        83'

2019/4/6    QoS    Palmerston    Robbie McCrorie    42'

Other transfers: Dylan Dykes has been loaned out to Stenhousemuir. Morton have signed Cameron Blues and Henk Van Schaik, both from Livingston.

Also today: Motherwell [4 - 0] Annan

Dumbarton are off.

Coming into today's play three of eight groups have been won. Ross County won Group B with a perfect 12 points. Hibs won Group C with 11. And Partick Thistle won Group F with 10.

The only other team that can finish with 12 points is Motherwell, and they'll probably do it. [They do.]

If East Fife can beat Hearts in regulation time they win Group A. [East Fife win in the shootout and must wait for the ICT/Dundee result.]

Inverness CT and Dundee play tomorrow. The winner of that game wins Group D. [Dundee 1 - 0 ICT.]

Livingston will very probably win Group G. Today they play Berwick Rangers, who have not scored a goal since March. [Livi 5 - 0 Berwick. Berwick Rangers finish with 0 points and a -21 goal difference.]

East Kilbride have a chance to knock Dunfermline off and win Group H. What a coup that would be. [Pars 4 - 0 EK.]

For Morton to finish second in Group E they can either win in regulation time, win in the shoot-out, or lose in the shoot-out. Even if they lose in the shoot-out their superior goal difference will put them ahead of QoS, but with only 7 points they would undoubtedly not progress.

For Queen of the South to finish second they must win in regulation time. That would give them 8 points and possibly allow them to scrape into Round Two, depending on how games in the other groups play out.

The permutations and combinations are too multivarious to predict the top four second-place finishers. I'll just report on them when the dust has settled.

If Morton do get to Round Two, who will they face? Before the Round Two matches are drawn the sixteen entrants will be divided into two pots: (1) a seeded pot made up of the four European clubs plus the four best first-place teams from the group stage, and (2) an unseeded pot containing the other four first-place teams plus the four best second-place teams.

Morton almost certainly will be in the unseeded pot. Therefore they will be drawn against one of the seeded eight: Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, plus Ross County and three others.

The prize pairing for Morton would be Hearts, either at home or away. Morton have not played them in 31 years. Celtic or Rangers at Cappielow would be the most lucrative. [Hearts are also in the unseeded pot, so they'll have to meet in Round Three.]

[Morton 3 - 3 QoS. Morton win the shootout 4 - 3. Regulation time scorers for Morton are: Sutton, Cadden, McHugh. Shootout goals by Nesbitt, Jacobs, Tumilty and Cadden. Morton finish with eight points, but this year that's enough, and they go to Round Two.]

The Highland League begins today, with 17 teams. Banks O'Dee of the SJFA North Superleague ignored a strong hint to apply for membership, and the league rebuffed a proposal for a Inverness CT colt team. ICT will stock Fort William with young players instead.

The Lowland League, East of Scotland League and South of Scotland League also begin today.

2019 Canadian Championship, Round Three, second leg (July 24):

Ottawa Fury 2 - 2 HFX Wanderers (HFX goals by Skublak and Perea.)

Montreal Impact 1 - 0 York9

Vancouver Whitecaps 1 - 2 Cavalry

HFX Wanderers and York9 are eliminated, but Cavalry knock Vancouver out of the cup.

Canadian Premier League:

York9 [6 - 2] HFX Wanderers [Two for Skublak.]

Valour [1 - 1] Cavalry

Edmonton [1 - 1] Forge

Swiss Challenge League: FC Stade Lausanne-Ouchy [1 - 2] FC Winterthur (tomorrow July 30)

It's the 55th All Japan Senior Football Championship Tohoku qualifying tournament, in which sixteen clubs from Tohoku compete for two spots in the 55th All Japan Senior Football Championship in October. The task for Iwaki FC this weekend is to get to and win Match No.13.

Match No. 1: Iwaki FC [14 - 0] Parafrente Yonazawa (July 27)

Match No. 2: Morioka Zebra [0 - 4] Ganju Iwate (July 27)

Match No. 9: Iwaki FC or Parafrente [3 - 0] Morioka Zebra or Ganju Iwate (July 28)

Match No. 13: [Iwaki FC 5 - 1 Blancdieu Hirosaki] (July 29)

See the whole bracket here.

Victory in this qualifying tournament leads to the 55th All Japan Senior Championship, and victory in that leads to the Regional Champions League in November. But Iwaki FC will probably advance to the Regional Champions League anyway, as winners of the Tohoku league, which they currently lead. Victory in the Regional Champions League would put them first in line for promotion to the JFL.

About Port Glasgow Athletic

Port Glasgow Athletic FC was founded in 1878.

Port Glasgow Athletic were in the Scottish Alliance in 1891-92. Their record was 22 games played, 7 wins, 6 draws, 9 losses, 54 goals for, 56 against, for 20 points. They played three present-day members of the SPFL in the Alliance that season: Kilmarnock, Morton and Partick Thistle.

They entered the Scottish Football League in 1893-94, along with Morton. They dropped out of the league after the 1910-11 season.

The club's final season was spent in the Scottish Football Union where they finished tenth out of ten. They played 13 matches, with 2 wins, 3 draws, 8 losses, 9 goals for and 33 against, for 7 points. Johnstone FC, another lost Renfrewshire club, was also in this league. They played each other twice in it:

1911/8/26    Port Glasgow Athletic 1 - 1 Johnstone

1912/2/10    Johnstone 3 - 0 Port Glasgow Athletic

Port Glasgow Athletic never played Queen of the South.

There's a picture postcard of Clune Park here.

I'll sprinkle statistics of Port versus the current SPFL clubs through the first half of the 2019-20 season.

Port Glasgow Athletic in the Scottish Cup:

1881-82        R1        Paisley Athletic 6 - 1 Port Glasgow Athletic

1882-83        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic 3 - 2 Lochwinnoch

                     R2        Sir John Maxwell 5 - 3 Port Glasgow Athletic

                                  Sir John Maxwell 2 - 6 Port Glasgow Athletic

                     R3        Port Glasgow Athletic 2 - 5 Kilmarnock Athletic

1883-84        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic wo/scr Lochwinnoch

                     R2        Port Glasgow Athletic 1 - 3 Arthurlie

1884-85        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic 6 - 1 1st Renfrew RV

                     R2        Port Glasgow Athletic 2 - 2 Thornliebank

                                  Port Glasgow Athletic 2 - 2 Thornliebank

                                  Thornliebank 1 - 0 Port Glasgow Athletic

1885-86        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic 4 - 1 1st Renfrew RV

                     R2        Neilston 1 - 1 Port Glasgow Athletic

                                  Port Glasgow Athletic 2 - 0 Neilston

                     R3        Cartvale 1 - 1 Port Glasgow Athletic

                                  Port Glasgow Athletic 4 - 2 Cartvale

                     R4        bye

                     R5        Third Lanark 1 - 1 Port Glasgow Athletic

                                  Third Lanark 1 - 1 Port Glasgow Athletic

                                  Third Lanark 4 - 1 Port Glasgow Athletic

1886-87        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic 10 - 1 Johnstown Harp

                     R2        St Mirren 2 - 3 Port Glasgow Athletic

                     R3        Abercorn 1 - 5 Port Glasgow Athletic

                     R4        bye

                     R5        Port Glasgow Athletic 6 - 2 St Bernard's

                     R6        Port Glasgow Athletic 1 - 3 Vale of Leven

1887-88        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic 11 - 0 Greenock Rangers

                     R2        Renfrew 3 - 3 Port Glasgow Athletic

                                  Port Glasgow Athletic 5 - 3 Renfrew

                     R3        Ayr FC 4 - 0 Port Glasgow Athletic

1888-89        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic 3 - 7 Morton

1889-90        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic 2 - 1 Neilston

                     R2        Port Glasgow Athletic 8 - 0 Greenock Abstainers

                     R3        Port Glasgow Athletic 3 - 4 Kilbirnie

1890-91        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic 0 - 2 Monkcastle

1893-94        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic 7 - 5 Airdrieonians

                     R2        Renton 2 - 2 Port Glasgow Athletic

                                  Renton 1 - 3 Port Glasgow Athletic

                     R3        Third Lanark 2 - 1 Port Glasgow Athletic

1895-96        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic 4 - 2 Arthurlie

                     R2        Queen's Park 8 - 1 Port Glasgow Athletic

1897-98        R1        Leith Athletic 2 - 0 Port Glasgow Athletic

1898-99        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic 3 - 2 Renton

                     R2        Port Glasgow Athletic 3 - 1 West Calder Swifts

                     R3        Port Glasgow Athletic 7 - 3 Partick Thistle

                     SF        Celtic 4 - 2 Port Glasgow Athletic

1899-00        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic 7 - 1 Falkirk

                     R2        Port Glasgow 1 - 5 Celtic

1900-01        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic 9 - 1 Newton Stewart Athletic

                     R2        Leith Athletic 0 - 3 Port Glasgow Athletic

                     R3        Port Glasgow Athletic 1 - 5 Hearts

1901-02        R1        Arthurlie 1 - 1 Port Glasgow Athletic

                                  Port Glasgow Athletic 3 - 1 Arthurlie

                     R2        Port Glasgow Athletic 1 - 5 Hibs

1902-03        R1        St Bernard's 1 - 2 Port Glasgow Athletic

                     R2        Celtic 2 - 0 Port Glasgow Athletic

1903-04        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic 1 - 2 Leith Athletic

1904-05        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic 3 - 0 Stranraer

                     R2        Airdrieonians 3 - 0 Port Glasgow Athletic

1905-06        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic 6 - 1 Dunblane

                     R2        Kilmarnock 2 - 2 Port Glasgow Athletic

                                  Port Glasgow Athletic 0 - 0 Kilmarnock

                                  Kilmarnock 0 - 0 Port Glasgow Athletic

                                  Kilmarnock 0 - 1 Port Glasgow Athletic

                     R3        Port Glasgow Athletic 1 - 0 Rangers

                     SF        Port Glasgow Athletic 0 - 2 Hearts

1906-07        R1        Dumfries 2 - 2 Port Glasgow Athletic

                                  Port Glasgow Athletic 2 - 0 Dumfries

                     R2        St Mirren 4 - 0 Port Glasgow Athletic

1907-08        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic 7 - 2 Ayr Parkhouse

                     R2        Hearts 4 - 0 Port Glasgow Athletic

1908-09        R1        Port Glasgow Athletic 5 - 0 Dunblane

                     R2        Celtic 4 - 0 Port Glasgow Athletic

1909-10        R1        Falkirk 3 - 0 Port Glasgow Athletic

Sources: Fitbastats, Danish and English Wikipedia

Port Glasgow Station, c. 1910. Source.

Yoshida Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha

Canada sometimes claims to be the birthplace of the zipper, but YKK of Tokyo really ran with it.

Puppet Odysseus

Source.

Mifune as Meiji

Toshiro Mifune portrayed the Meiji Emperor in the 1980 film 203 Kochi. Source.

To Annan

Galabank Stadium, Annan. Source.

It's the League Cup group stage, matchday four. Morton visit Annan Athletic.

Annan Athletic have only been in the Scottish League since 2008. Today's game is the first ever League Cup match between them and Morton. The two clubs have never been members of the same division. Annan have never played at Cappielow, not even a friendly.

Morton and Annan, the historical record:

2006/12/9      Annan 0 - 3 Morton        Scottish Cup R2

2009/7/11      Annan 1 - 1 Morton         friendly

2013/7/27      Annan 1 - 0 Morton        Challenge Cup R1

2016/2/6        Annan 1 - 4 Morton        Scottish Cup R5

The situation: To stay in contention for a spot in Round Two Morton must take all three points today and run up the score in order to rebuild their goal difference, which was at +5 but is now +1. And then they must take three points off Queen of the South on Saturday.

Forty clubs entered the group stage, and twelve will progress. If you treat 9 points as the threshold for advancement to Round Two, then nineteen clubs are already eliminated: Cowdenbeath, Stenhousemuir, Montrose, Brechin, Elgin, Alloa, Stirling Albion, Cove Rangers, Raith Rovers, Annan, Dumbarton, Queen of the South, Queen's Park, Falkirk, Berwick, St Johnstone, Clyde, St Mirren and East Kilbride. That leaves twenty-one teams chasing twelve Round Two berths.

Kyle Wilkie, who played for Morton in 2012-13, signed for Annan two weeks ago.

Also today: Dumbarton [0 - 2] Motherwell.

[Annan 0 - 5 Morton. Goals by Nesbitt (2), Cadden (2) and Muirhead.]

Queen of the South are off.

[Group E after tonight's games:

                      P  W  PW PL   L   F    A    GD Pts

Motherwell    3    3    0    0    0    9    0    +9    9

Morton          3    2    0    0    1   11    5   +6    6

QoS              3    1    1    0    1    7    7      0    5

Dumbarton   4    1    0    0    3    3   12    -9    3

Annan           3    0    0    1    2    3    9     -6    1 ]

Since the group stage was introduced, which unseeded teams have gone to Round Two?

2016-17        Alloa, Ayr United, Peterhead

2017-18        Ayr United, Livingston

2018-19        Ayr United

Best showings in the group stage since 2016:

12 pts, +12 gd    Falkirk (2017-16)

12 pts, +12 gd    Ayr United (2017-18)

12 pts, +12 gd    Dunfermline (2018-19)

12 pts, +11 gd    Ayr United (2018-19)

12 pts, +10 gd    Rangers (2016-17)

12 pts, +10 gd    Motherwell (2017-18)

Worst showings in the group stage since 2016:

0 pts, -13 gd    Albion Rovers (2018-19)

0 pts, -12 gd    Buckie Thistle (2017-18)

0 pts, -11 gd    Elgin City (2017-18)

0 pts, -11 gd    Elgin City (2018-19)

0 pts, -10 gd    East Stirlingshire (2016-17)

0 pts, -10 gd    Berwick Rangers (2018-19)

Berwick could set a new low this week.

UEFA Champions League, 2QR, first leg (today and tomorrow):

Celtic [5 - 0] Nõmme Kalju (Estonia)

The New Saints [0 - 2] Copenhagen

Maribor [2 - 1] AIK

Dundalk [1 - 1] Qarabağ

UEFA Europa League, 2QR, first leg (July 25 mostly):

Rangers [2 - 0] Progrès Niederkorn

This is like a dream.

Aberdeen [1 - 1] Chikhura Sachkhere (Georgia)

Tre Penne [0 - 5] Sūduva (Lithuania)

Valur [1 - 1] Ludogorets Razgrad

HB [2 - 2] Linfield

Espanyol [4 - 0] Stjarnan

Fehérvár [1 - 0] Vaduz

Luzern [1 - 0] KÍ

Domžale (Slovenia) [2 - 2] Malmö

Shamrock Rovers [2 - 1] Apollon Limassol (Cyprus)

Wolverhampton Wanderers [2 - 0] Crusaders

Connah's Quay Nomads [0 - 1] Partizan

Canadian Premier League. At their game Sunday York9 wore their white and green home colours, and Cavalry wore their green and white away colours, somewhat missing the point of having home and away colours.

Kunohe Castle

Kunohe Masazane rebelled when the shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi appointed Nanbu Nonunao head of the Nanbu clans instead of him. The shogun sent an army to Kunohe in 1591, burnt the castle and killed Masazane and 5000 of his followers, thereby ending the Sengoku Period and unifying Japan. Source. Read a manga about it.