
It's Morton versus Falkirk at Cappielow. This game has been moved to Friday night for television presentation on BBC Scotland. Can you feel the seethe? When St Mirren get back into the Championship next season they're going to find out that they're no longer Morton's most hated opponent.
Rumours persist that Michael Tidser has a pre-contract agreement with Falkirk. He was off to his best year ever when McKinnon was manager, but under Johansson not so much. A GMFC supporter at the Morton Forum makes the point that if Morton can send Falkirk to League One then Falkirk or Tidser or both will back out of the PCA.
Morton are sixth in the Championship with 33 points. Falkirk are ninth with 25. Morton won their first meeting 1 - 0. The second was a 0 - 0 draw.
This is the 201st competitive match between these two, counting Scottish League, Scottish Cup, League Cup, Challenge Cup, Anglo-Scottish Cup, Southern League, Southern League Cup, and Summer Cup. (Source: Fitbastats.)
Ross MacLean, who played the first half of 2018-19 for Morton, is now with Falkirk.
Current undefeated streaks:
6 Falkirk
5 Dundee United
3 Dunfermline
2 Ross County
1 Morton
1 Alloa
0 Ayr United
0 Inverness CT
0 Queen of the South
0 Partick Thistle
How many games have Falkirk played against the other 2018-19 Championship clubs?
217 Partick Thistle
200 Morton
141 Ayr United
132 Queen of the South
119 Dunfermline
106 Dundee United
74 Alloa
49 Inverness CT
36 Ross County
Ross MacLean's goals for Morton:
date venue opponent goalkeeper competition
2018/7/21 Cappielow Stenhousemuir Graeme Smith League Cup
2018/8/4 Cappielow QoS Alan Martin league
How have Morton fared in Match 27 this decade?
2018/3/10 Falkirk 3 - 1 Morton
2017/3/18 Falkirk 0 - 1 Morton
2016/3/1 Livingston 0 - 0 Morton
2015/3/3 Morton 4 - 0 Stirling Albion
2014/3/15 Raith Rovers 2 - 1 Morton
2013/3/9 Morton 2 - 0 Falkirk
2012/3/13 Ross County 2 - 2 Morton
2011/3/19 Morton 0 - 0 Raith Rovers
2010/3/23 Morton 1 - 1 Raith Rovers
3 wins, 4 draws, 2 losses.
[Today it's Morton 1 - 1 Falkirk. Morton goal by Greg Kiltie.]
Another Championship match (tomorrow):
Dunfermline [1 - 0] Queen of the South
Manageria: Brendan Rodgers has left Celtic for Leicester City. Neil Lennon is back with Celtic. David Hopkin has resigned from Bradford City.
It's the Scottish Cup quarter-finals:
Hibs [0 - 2] Celtic (Saturday)
These are the last two clubs to win the cup.
Aberdeen [1 - 1] Rangers (Sunday)
Dundee United [1 - 2] Inverness CT (Sunday)
The Championship is guaranteed to have a club in the semi-finals.
Partick [1 - 1] Hearts (Monday)
Apart from 1920-21, Hearts have always prevailed in this Scottish Cup pairing.
1928-29: Morton visited Stenhousemuir and won 1 - 2.
1951-52: On March 1st 1952 beat Heart of Midlothian 3 - 1 at Cappielow.
Kenny Miller's goals against Morton, for no good reason:
date time club venue goalie competition
2015/12/12 2 min Rangers Ibrox Adam league
2016/1/25 26 min Rangers Cappielow Gaston league
2016/3/11 43 min Rangers Ibrox Gaston league
2016/3/11 46 min Rangers Ibrox Gaston league
2017/2/12 13 min Rangers Ibrox Gaston Scottish Cup
Cowlairs versus Arbroath. These two met in Round Five of the 1887-88 Scottish Cup. Arbroath won 5 - 1.
SWFL2 Cup: Westdyke Thistle Ladies [0 - 6] Morton Women (Sunday)
The 2019 Canadian Premier League schedule is out, and it's batshit crazy; or weird and wonderful if you are of a more charitable disposition.
Each team will play 28 games, which suggests the league really did expect to have the Ottawa Fury in its ranks, because 28 games is a quadruple round robin for an 8-team league. With only 7 teams, a 28-games schedule must be unbalanced. Halifax will play Pacific, Valour, Cavalry and York 5 times each, and Forge and Edmonton 4 times.
It's a split season. There's an apertura (called Spring Season) and a clausura (Fall Season). The winner of each will meet in the CPL Championship in October. If the same team wins both halves then the championship will be between the top two teams in the combined table.
So if Team A wins in the Spring and Team B finishes 7th, and Team B wins in the Fall and Team A finishes 7th, they will meet in the championship, even if Team C finishes 2nd in both halves and is higher than both A and B in the combined table.
On top of that, and this is where it gets really peculiar, the two halves are different lengths. Each team plays 10 games in the Spring and 18 in the Fall. The end of the Spring Season falls on Canada Day, and just in time for the CONCACAF League.
The results between the three 'oldest' clubs, Edmonton, Valour and Forge, will be extracted from Spring Season results and the best of those three will represent the CPL in the 2019 CONCACAF League.
I think the CPL should have just waited for the 2020 CONCACAF League.
There are a lot of midweek games. HFX will play 14 games on Saturday, 9 on Wednesday, 3 on Monday and 2 on Sunday. Wednesday games are not as common in say the SPFL, but the CPL has to cram a year's worth of soccer into six months. Two clubs, Valour and Forge, use CFL stadiums, and the CFL schedule includes no Wednesday games at all.
There's a potential bottleneck in August around the time of the Voyageurs Cup semi-finals. If HFX Wanderers or Valour FC make it that far they will have to play on August 5th, 7th and 10th, unless something gets moved. Also, if Valour, Forge or Edmonton do well in the CONCACAF League, there could be scheduling problems with all those Wednesday games already pencilled in.
If HFX make the third round of the Voyageurs Cup they will play nine games in July.
I think the league will expand to ten or twelve teams as quickly as possible, so these 2019 expedients are something to relish while they last.
I'm waiting for the Tohoku Soccer League schedule to come out, but I believe that league is literally run by bears who are still hibernating.
West of Scotland Premiership: Renfrew [5 - 2] Largs Thistle
The Danish 1st Division is back: Køge [3 - 3] Fredericia (Sunday)
Køge was the site of a battle between the Danish and the British in 1807.
Swiss Challenge League: Winterthur [1 - 1] Lausanne (Sunday)
Regionalliga Südwest: 1. FC Saarbrücken [4 - 0] TSV Steinbach
Panini Cheapskates are brilliant. Read about them here.