Auchinleck Talbot in Scottish Cup

[Auchinleckian]

Auchinleck have been drawn at home against Fort William in their first ever venture in the Scottish Cup - we'll spank them!
If anyone wants a programme please let me know in good time. Can't guarantee the quality of the programme, but they will be bound to be collectable. Sold two centenary programmes v Kilmarnock on ebay week before last (that I'd advertised for pre orders at cost like this one) for £9 apiece. Cover price £1.

[andyfromboston]

Send us one down Auch, Fort William haven't won in about 2 years now so I'll expect you to batter them.

[oldbolt]

Put me down for one.thanks

[Marco_Polo]

Well as it seems trendy put me down for one too...I had heard that some Ogliarch (Gorbals drug dealer) was taking over Just William with the intention of firing them into the Europa stratosphere??

[mdjw_41]

May I have one too?

[Auchinleckian]

Can everybody who wants one please pm me their address details? Programmes are usually £1, but I've asked Talbot to do something a wee bit special for this historic occasion - don't think it will happen though.

[Marco_Polo]

Auchinleckian wrote:

Can everybody who wants one please pm me their address details? Programmes are usually £1, but I've asked Talbot to do something a wee bit special for this historic occasion - don't think it will happen though.

Not another bloody stain on the cover...

[stodin]

Off topic slightly, how does promotion from non league work in scotland?

Do winners of the junior leagues get promoted to the 'senior' non league leagues?

and how do teams from say, the highland league get promoted to the Scottish 3rd division?

Or is it all by election?

[Auchinleckian]

There's no pyramid structure as there is in England - thank God! I note it's £10 odd to watch non league some distance below the Conference level.
It's basically dead man's shoes for any teams with genuine league aspirations from the non league game, but you find few, if any, of the Junior clubs would entertain going senior even though it's a better standard of football at the top of the Junior game than thge Highland League. The other leagues are very basic, East of Scotland and South of Scotland.
It's down to a number of things why Juniors opt to stay Junior (they're only called Junior because they're not affiliated to the SFA, and ther'es many ex pros playing Junior)
(1) Cost - it's a fiver to watch Junior Super League games, and £4 below that
(2) Cost - of going Senior, increased travel, wages, policing, grounds up to scratch - Talbot like most Juniors don't have floodlights
(3) Travel for fans - why go to Elgin on a freezing cold February night, 200 miles away, when the league structure in the Junior game, only 22 matches means that there aren't any midwinter midweek games.
(4) Big fish in a little pond syndrome. Talbot have been Scotland's most successful Junior club over the last 25 years, and we've gloried in our triumphs. We're a very small community, the village has only 5,500 people, and in an old pit town that Thatcher shut after the miner's strike in 84-5, we're the only thing the communit's got to rally around.
I can watch top class non league football all season, in a radius of 60 miles maximum from Auchinleck. Why would I want to lose that? None of the fans want it, the players love the community aspect of the club - all the players know the fans well - and professional football in Scotland has long been unsustainable, so why sign up to something like that?

[stodin]

Thanks for the answer. My only experience of Scottish junior football was attending a Largs Thistle match some years ago. very enjoyable it was too, mainly for the agression rather than the skill of players

I totally understand why teams would want to remain at junior level, plus there are far too many examples to clubs going tits up after overspending chasing the professional dream. Gretna among many, many others springs to mind. Just today Farsley Celtic, a team with over 100 years of history, have gone bust and look likely to become totally extinct.

I have always said that if my team (Hucknall) ever got promoted to the league, I would stop watching them altogether and find another non league club.

Best of luck to you in the cup

[Barrett]

Auchinleckian, wouldn't you ever like to see your team play against sides from other countries though?

I suppose it would be a good idea for a yearly 'Non League European Tournament'. It doesnt have to be all about money but just the chance to test youerselves against non league teams from other countries.

[CTFC]

Barrett wrote:

Auchinleckian, wouldn't you ever like to see your team play against sides from other countries though? I suppose it would be a good idea for a yearly 'Non League European Tournament'. It doesnt have to be all about money but just the chance to test youerselves against non league teams from other countries.

I remember being taken when I was quite young to watch Nuneaton and Yeovil playing in the Anglo-Italian cup. Always prefered it when it was a non-league tournament.

I have always loved the idea of a Champions League for non league teams around Europe or a return of the Anglo-Scottish cup type set up.

[Auchinleckian]

With the Scottish Cup now accepting Juniors into it (the winners of the respective Super Leagues and the Junior Cup) it throws up an anomaly of how certain clubs should be auomatically included whilst others such as the Junior representation have strict criteria.
Auchinleck Talbot are the most successful Junior club in Scotland, winning the Junior Cup 8 times in total (4 being the next highest) 7 of those wins have come in the last 23 years. Fort William, our opponents, are without doubt the worst non Junior club side in Scotland. Last season they took one point from 36 games, and this is not an unusual occurrence for them. Yet they get guaranteed entry into the Scottish Cup every year because they belong to the Highland League.
It is not inconceivable that in a few years there may be a more generous cirteria for entry, ie finishing in the top four of each Super League, which would certainly make the Highhland League teams quake as they would find it difficult to avoid Junior teams thereby threatening their ability to advance into the latter stages of the Cup.
Do I think there's any point in a national cup? Think there would be fantastic potential for an all Scotland non league cup, but only for seeded teams from the Juniors, Southern Counties, Highland and East of Scotland Leagues. It would take a hell of a lot of organising though. Don't see any point for games against English non league sides as it wouldn't prove anything, albeit I could see a match between the FA Trophy winners and the Junior Cup as a nice curtain raiser to a new season.