New Look For The West Juniors On Its Way

CONFESSION time – I used to be, a decade or three ago, Graham Spiers's Ayrshire Juniors “spy”. My epistles from the old Ayrshire Region of the SJFA's disciplinary committee filled acres of space in Graham's Sports Diary in Scotland On Sunday.

The Baptist minister's son has lang syne moved-on, to join the Establishment of “The Thunderer” - I continue to contribute to SOS, albeit, I now cover a much-gentler and more-civilised sport: Rugby Union.

But, I still take the odd diversion into fitba reporting, and this season, I covered my 31^st Scottish Junior Cup Final. Being from God's County, MY TEAM will always be Lugar Boswell Thistle, and no finer XI ever took the field than: Jock Fraser; Davie Love and Charlie Cathie; Andy McEwan, Jim Baird and Jim Donnelly; Alex Bingham, Jimmy Collins, “Sanny” Sharpe; Hughie Neil and Eric Wilkie, the “Jaggie Bunnets” team in the 1956 Junior Cup Final.

So, I was interested to learn this week that major reorganisation is planned for the West of Scotland Regional Leagues of the SJFA. Out will go the current five-divisions set-up: Premier League, First Division, Central Leagues Divisions One and Two and Ayrshire League; instead well will see four divisions: Premiership, Championship, League One and League Two.

The new four-division set-up will come in in August, 2018, at the start of the 2018-19 season. This means, the new season (2017-18), when it begins, will see a lot of jockeying for position. Only the top ten Premier Division clubs at the end of the season which starts this August, will be guaranteed top-flight status the following season. They will be joined by the top four in the First Division, at the end of season 2017-18, while the bottom two clubs in the Premier Division will play-off against the sides finishing fifth and sixth in the First Division.

The two play-off losers, plus the remaining First Division clubs will be joined in the new Championship, by the top three in the Ayrshire League and the Central First Division.

There will be play-offs between the bottom two in the First Division and the teams finishing fourth in the Ayrshire League and the Central First Division to complete the Championship division.

The two losers from these play-offs will then join the clubs finishing fifth six and seventh in the Ayrshire League and the next 11 Central League clubs in the new League One division, with the remaining Ayrshire and Celtral League clubs forming the bottom League Two.

Personally, Ah hae ma doots about changing a system which has worked well. Just look at how the West has dominated the Junior Cup since the “Superleague” was formed. The cynic in me somehow sees this as a means of ensuring the Medda and the Peasie have a better chance of regaining top-flight status, something they have found impossible on the park.

So, if we take this season's final league positions as a hypothetical guide, and assume the higher-ranked club wins any play-offs, IF the new set-up was to have started in August 2017, instead of August 2018, the tables would have looked like this:

Premiership: Arthurlie, Auchinleck Talbot, Beith, Clydebank, Cumnock, Girvan, Glenafton Athletic, Hurlford United, Kilbirnie Ladeside, Kilsyth Rangers, Kilwinning Rangers, Kirkintilloch Rob Roy, Largs Thistle, Petershill, Pollok and Troon.

Championship: Ardrossan Winton Rovers, Blantyre Victoria, Cambuslang Rangers, Cumbernauld United, Darvel, Irvine Meadow, Irvine Victoria, Kello Rovers, Larkhall Thistle, Maryhill, Renfrew, Rutherglen Glencairn, St Roch's, Shettleston, Shotts Bon Accord, Yoker Athletic.

League One: Annbank United, Bellshill Athletic, Benburb, Dalry Thistle, Forth Wanderers, Glasgow Perthshire, Greenock, Johnstone Burgh, Lesmahagow, Neilston, Port Glasgow, Rossvale, Thorniewood United, Vale of Clyde, Whitletts Victoria, Wishaw.

League Two: Ardeer Thistle, Ashfield, Carluke Rovers, Craigmark Burntonians, Dunipace, East Kilbride Thistle, Gartcairn, Lanark United, Lugar Boswell Thistle, Maybole, Muirkirk, Newmains United, Royal Albert, St Anthony's, Saltcoats Victoria, Vale of Leven.

Treble-winners 2016-17 - Glenafton Athletic

I AM still trying to decide if I would rather see the: “Disaster for Scotland” headlines, rather than the over-hyping which even a minor success such as still being in Europe at the Glasgow Fair will bring, as I contemplate the second leg of the European qualifiers which involve Scottish clubs.

I would like to think Rangers tripping over the Luxembourg minnows, and St Johnstone falling flat on their faces in Lithuania might bring about the long-overdue and much-needed revolution in Scottish football, which will be necessary before we get back to where we think we should be, far less where we feel we are entitled to be in the European pecking order.

But, naw, the “blazers”, with their allies among the “stenographers” have been kidding us on for years, I fear they are still some way away from saying: “Enough is enough” and sorting-out the mess which is Scottish fitba. Still, I live in hope.

When you see Luxembourg part-timers better technically and more-comfortable on the ball than the FGR, well – you wonder what that club, and Scotland, has learned in 60-years in Europe.