The Post Office designed this commemorative stamp in 1978, just in case.
It's the first day of the 2017-18 Scottish Championship. Morton visit Dumbarton.
Dumbarton are now into their sixth straight year in tier II, their best showing since the 1980s. That's not too bad for a parttime club consistently predicted to finish ninth or tenth in the division. (They have finished 7th, 5th, 7th, 8th, and 8th.) They feel so confident in their future that they're embarking on the construction of a new stadium. On the other hand, they've just scrapped their youth program.
Dumbarton had a very bad League Cup group stage, with only one point earned in a shootout loss to Annan. Last year they got two points. In preseason friendlies the Sons posted two wins (including one against Partick Thistle) and two draws.
Last season Morton had two wins, a draw and a loss against the Sons. In the 21st Century Morton have 19 wins, 8 draws and 8 losses.
Last year Dumbarton won their home opener, beating Dundee United. In 2015 they won their home opener, beating Hibs.
Dumbarton signed thirteen new players during the close season, the highest number of any Championship club, and behind only Clyde in the SPFL. Morton signed six.
Morton's starting XI: [Gaston, Murdoch, Lamie, Doyle, Forbes, Quitongo, Thomson, McHugh, Tidser, Russell, Connor McManus.]
Compare last year: Gaston, Kilday, Lamie, O'Ware, Doyle, Oliver, Forbes, Lindsay, Tidser, McDonagh, Quitongo.
[That's the sixth consecutive opening day for GK Derek Gaston.]
Which clubs are in the 2017-18 Scottish Championship, and when did they know for sure?
Livingston April 8
Dunfermline April 22
QoS April 22
St Mirren May 6
Dumbarton May 6
Morton May 12
Falkirk May 19
Inverness CT May 20
Brechin May 20
Dundee United May 28
Which year did each one most recently enter the division, and was it from above or below?
2017 Inverness CT (above)
2017 Livingston (below)
2017 Brechin (below)
2016 Dundee United (above)
2016 Dunfermline (below)
2015 St Mirren (above)
2015 Morton (below)
2013 Queen of the South (below)
2012 Dumbarton (below)
2010 Falkirk (above)
How many years has each one spent in the second tier since 1994, including 2017-18?
17 Falkirk
16 Morton
15 Queen of the South
14 St Mirren
11 Livingston
10 Dunfermline
7 Dumbarton
7 Inverness CT
3 Dundee United
3 Brechin
Plenty of Nothing's objectives for Morton 2017-18:
1) Beat everyone at least once.
2) Beat someone four times.
3) Finish above St Mirren.
4) Finish above Inverness CT.
5) Make the playoffs.
6) Get on television. This is less likely now that Dundee United are the only big club in the Championship.
7) Score more goals than last season.
8) Play Hearts. Morton haven't played them since 1988. This would be the year to do it too -- they sacked their manager five days before the start of the season.
9) Win the Challenge Cup. Well, why not? Stenhousemuir have done it.
How high will Morton finish? Based on the League Predictions thread at Pie & Bovril (as of June 22nd, when I looked), Morton should finish in 5.8th place. An interesting discussion sprang from one post predicting a 10th place finish. Essentially the point was: they can't score. And it's true, Morton's 44 goals last season was the lowest total among the eight Championship clubs that were not relegated.
When was the last time each club won its first league match of the season, and who did they beat?
Brechin 2016/8/6 Stenhousemuir
Dunfermline 2016/8/6 Dumbarton
Livingston 2016/8/6 Stranraer
Dumbarton 2015/8/8 Hibs
QoS 2015/8/8 Alloa
Inverness CT 2014/8/9 Hamilton
Dundee Utd 2014/8/10 Aberdeen
Morton 2013/8/10 Cowdenbeath
Falkirk 2007/8/4 Gretna
St Mirren 2006/7/29 Inverness CT
[FT: Dumbarton 0 - 0 Morton. Video.]
1978-79. Last season we followed Morton through their 1898-99 campaign. This year Saturday falls on the same calendar dates as in 1978-79, so let's follow Morton through that very interesting season.
Morton won promotion to the Premier Division at the end of 1977-78 along with second-place Hearts, while third-place Dundee, who had the superior goal difference of the three, missed out by one point. In the late Seventies there were three divisions, a win was worth two points, and the top two and bottom two teams were automatically promoted or relegated.
The World Cup took place in June in Argentina. Scotland came in third in Group 4, with a loss to Peru, a draw against Iran, and an astounding 3 - 2 win over the Netherlands on the strength of two goals by Archie Gemmill and one by Kenny Dalglish, but it was not enough for the Scots to advance. None of the Scotland players were with Morton at the time, though Joe Jordan and Joe Harper had started out with them in the Sixties.
Morton began their campaign on August 5th, 1978, with an away game against Raith Rovers in the Anglo-Scottish Cup. What was the Anglo-Scottish Cup? The Anglo-Scottish Cup was a tournament in the late 1970s for English and Scottish clubs that had missed out on European competition. It was a continuation under a new name of the Texaco Cup, which began in 1970-71 and included six English clubs, six Scottish clubs, two clubs from the Republic of Ireland and two from Northern Ireland. The 1978-79 version was made up of sixteen English clubs and eight Scottish ones: Celtic, Clyde, Hearts, Morton, Motherwell, Partick, Raith Rovers and St Mirren. Yep, Celtic missed out on Europe in 1978.
The eight Scottish clubs paired off, and each played home and away games against its opponent. Morton's opponent was Raith Rovers. On August 5th, 1978, it was Raith 1 - 2 Morton in Kirkcaldy. (Morton goals by James Rooney and Andy Ritchie.) On August 8th the return leg was played at Cappielow: Morton 4 - 1 Raith. (Morton goals by Rooney, Robert Russell, Alistair Scott, and Ritchie.) Morton moved on to the quarter-finals in September. Raith's home strip in 1978-79 consisted of a medium-blue top and socks, with white shorts.
Largs Thistle. Their season began midweek with a West Region League Cup group stage match against Winton Rovers. Largs' opponents in the group stage are Winton, Kilbirnie, Beith, Dalry and Kilwinning. Three of them are in the top (Super Premier) division, and two in the third (Ayrshire District) division. Largs are in the second (Super First) division.
Largs 3 - 1 Winton Rovers (Wed)
Largs [3 - 1] Kilbirnie (today)
UEFA Champions League 3QR, second leg:
Rosenborg 0 - 1 Celtic
Celtic advance.
FH 0 - 1 Maribor
FH are out.
Europa League 3QR, second leg:
Fola Esch 1 - 2 Östersund
Östersund advance.
Apollon Limossol 2 - 0 Aberdeen
Aberdeen are out.
CONCACAF League. Determining the best club of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football is a long and complicated process involving three tournaments. The first one is the CFU Club Championship, which winnows down the top clubs of the Caribbean countries to four. (We followed the CFU Club Championship in the spring.) The Caribbean champion gets a bye and the three runners-up are thrown into the CONCACAF League tournament along with thirteen Central American clubs. Five other Central American clubs have a bye. The CFU Club champion and the CONCACAF League winner go into the 2018 Champions League along with those five Central American clubs and nine North American clubs.
It's the CONCACAF League Round of 16. Let's follow the three clubs we already know from the Caribbean club championship. The first leg was played this week.
San Juan Jabloteh (Trinidad) 2 - 6 Santos de Guápiles (Costa Rica)
Árabe Unido (Panama) 2 - 1 Central (Trinidad)
Plaza Amador (Panama) 0 - 1 Portmore United (Jamaica)
Emperor's Cup: On August 2nd Vanraure Hachinohe and Nagoya Grampus completed their Third Round match abandoned July 12th in the 65th minute due to lightning. The continued match ended 2 - 1 in favour of Nagoya. Both the 65-minute game and the 25-minute continuation were played in Nagoya.
If the Emperor's Cup were under the Scottish Football Association the original match would have been abandoned and a complete 90-minute rematch played.
A third possibility, which I've never seen used, would have been to treat the original 65-minute game as the first game of a two-legged tie, with a second complete game in Hachinohe.
SWFL Div 2 West: Morton [13 - 0] Pollok United
It's the Extra Preliminary Round of the English FA Cup. There are 170 matches going on today. Let's watch:
Cheddar [0 - 2] Willand Rovers
Germany:
SV Elversberg (0 - 0) 1. FC Saarbrücken (August 2nd)
1. FC Saarbrücken [3 - 1] Hessen Kassel (tomorrow)
This postage stamp, issued in France in 2005, commemorates the hundredth anniversary of the Breton cartoon character Bécassine, who first appeared in a girls' magazine in 1905, a generation before Tintin. It's also an illustration of how the modern world is not as globalised as we believe. There are plenty of cultural icons out there who are happy to go on representing national or local identity without the benefit of a Disney contract.
