SPL Starting XI: Week 19/20

By: Ian Rose | December 31st, 2007

I went back and forth about this column this week, about whether it was appropriate to even report on the past week’s SPL action without focusing on Phil O’Donnell’s death. By picking an XI this week from the league’s matches, though, I wanted to acknowledge some of the great achievements that I and everyone else involved in Scottish football wished were our headlines. I’ve said my piece for now about O’Donnell, and I feel unable to say much more. Instead, I’ll try my best to report on the game that he loved so well, and even though this weekend will never be remembered for its football, give credit where credit is due for some great playing performances.

To reiterate the rules of this column, I pick a formation of eleven SPL players based on their performances in the past week. 1 keeper, 4 defenders, 3-5 midfielders, and 1-3 forwards are selected, without consideration to their more specific positions. If there are four great left-backs, then we have a defense of all left-backs. Here goes.

My Starting XI for Week 19/20 in the SPL are:
GK: Langfield (Aberdeen)
DF: Balde (Celtic), McManus (Celtic), Quinn (Motherwell), Aafjes (Falkirk)
MF: Cowie (Inverness), Jenkins (Gretna), McGeady (Celtic)
FW: Clarkson (Motherwell), Cousin (Rangers), Lovell (Aberdeen)

Aberdeen had a tough week, but without Jamie Langfield and Steve Lovell, it could have been a lot worse. First, yes, Jamie did let in a goal against Gretna, but his twelve saves in the week’s two matches for Aberdeen secured them one clean sheet and four points, when the offense (one player aside) was stumbling. That one player was substitute Steve Lovell. His two goals this week, one in the 86th minute against Gretna to secure a point and the other in the 85th to beat St. Mirren, were the team’s only goals. He was literally a three-point substitution, since without him a win and a draw would be a loss and a draw.

After being left off of the list last week, Celtic came back in a very big way in the past two matchdays. Bobo Balde is wearing a halo around the green side of Glasgow this week, after his return to the Hoops defense seems to have brought some stability to that leaky back four. Two clean sheets and a total scoreline of 5-0 against Dundee United and Gretna, with two different keepers, makes Bobo a no-brainer this week. In addition, Steven McManus not only held tight on defense, but scored another goal of his own against United. Aiden McGeady, who might have the best form of any midfielder in the league right now, booted in one against Gretna and assisted another. But it was also the passes that didn’t, but should have led to goals that earns him this spot. Had he been passing to the Scott McDonald of October, or the Vennegor of Hesselink of last season, Celtic would have at least one more goal.

The other two defenders on the list both had impressive weeks as well. Falkirk managed two wins this week and conceded one total goal, beating both an in-form Inverness Caley Thistle (breaking our 5-game win streak) and an admittedly out-of-form Hearts. Gerard Aafjes came into the Inverness match on return from a foot injury, and he gave the foot at least a little rest, using his head to put the game’s only goal past Micheal Fraser for his first goal as a Bairn. Meanwhile, Motherwell’s Paul Quinn managed an equalizer against Rangers before compatriot Chris Porter’s own goal handed the match back to the Gers.

Gretna has had a tough go of it in their first year in the top flight, and stand alone at the bottom of the league. As St. Mirren, Kilmarnock and now Hearts falter, every point that Gretna can grab is vital if there is any hope of staying up in the SPL. Allan Jenkins was already responsible for a few of those points this season, getting the game-winner against Dundee United in Gretna’s first-ever top flight win, and he added to his prestige with the club this week against Aberdeen, netting an injury-time equalizer that salvaged a priceless point from the Dons.

Rangers’ Daniel Cousin scored two this week, both at incredibly important times. First, he opened the scoring against Motherwell, giving Rangers the lead going into the half. A few days later, he scored the winning goal over Hibs, saving Rangers from the same 1-1 fate that the Hibees had inflicted on Celtic a week earlier. In Inverness, Don Cowie continues to be the center of the Caley team that has won six of seven. He added his sixth of the season against Kilmarnock. In any other week, Marius Niculae’s brace might have won him a spot here too, but there were just too many inspired strikers this time around.

Of course, as I said before, this week will not be remembered for football, and there are few for whom this is more true than Motherwell’s David Clarkson. The joy of the brace he scored in the span of less than two minutes to put away Dundee United is surely forgotten, as it was only twenty minutes later that he watched in horror as his uncle and captain collapsed. I include him in this week’s eleven not out of sympathy and not to honor his uncle, but to recognize that even though those two goals are meaningless to him in the context of what else happened, on any other day they would have earned him this spot.