Scotland-wide Weekend Preview

By: Ian Rose | August 10th, 2007

Everyone may have their minds on the start of the English Premiership this weekend, but there are great matches at just about every level north of the border in Scotland as well. Here are some of them, starting with week two in the top flight.

SPL Week 2:
After their awful 4-0 loss to Falkirk in their first-ever SPL match, Gretna will have it no easier this week, as they travel to a Hibs squad still high on their opening derby win over Hearts. Speaking of Hearts, they’ll be traveling to Aberdeen for the Dons’ home opener on Sunday, a big match as both sides look to right the ship. Caley Thistle fared not much better than Gretna in their 3-0 opening-day loss to Rangers, but head to Motherwell buoyed by new striker Marius Niculae and his freshly processed work permit. Rangers captain Barry Ferguson will look to keep his squad’s winning ways going as they head to St. Mirren. Meanwhile, defending champions Celtic will be at Falkirk, and you can bet they’ll be gunning for all points after their disappointing scoreless draw at home to Killie last week. Kilmarnock and Dundee United will wait until Monday for their match, both fresh from good starts last week.

Note: I’ll be at the Aberdeen-Hearts match on Sunday, and will have a full report (with exclusive photos) here on The Offside.

Division One:
All ten Division One sides play Saturday. Dunfermline take on Morton, in the last match before their European season begins on Thursday. Livingston find themselves at the bottom of the table after one week, but showed in this week’s CIS Cup demolishing of Ayr (5-0) that they have the ability to score, and will need some of that same quality against Partick Thistle. Current top of the table Dundee take on Queen of the South, who will out for blood after a surprisingly early exit from the CIS Cup this week. In the other matches, Clyde hosts Hamilton and Stirling goes to St. Johnstone.

Cups:
The CIS Cup first round is over, but there is still some cup action this weekend in the Highland League as the SFA Challenge Cup gets underway. I’ll be supporting the local side here (Nairn County) as they host Forres Mechanics on Saturday, and I’ll hopefully have some pictures from that local derby match on the blog. Forres may well have revenge on their minds after losing the final of North of Scotland Cup to Nairn two seasons ago.

Enjoy all the action, and I’ll be posting here as results come in. Have a good weekend, folks.