Fitba' Focus

The Scottish game from the Borders to the Highlands & Islands and beyond

Scotland not yet feeling particularly 'Olympic'

You may remember one scene from Cool Runnings in which one of the Jamaican bobsleigh teams declared he was feeling 'very Olympic today', only to be met by strange looks from those around him. If...
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Scottish football needs to learn from Rangers

Fallen giants' triple demotion is right, says Craig Anderson – now let teams learn from this situation, and stop relying on money yet to be made In a week that saw Rangers demoted to Division Three...
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The SPL: More of a hindrance than a help

So the vote was finally carried, and a Rangers ‘newco’ are not to play in the SPL next season. Sporting integrity has been restored and everyone can be thoroughly pleased with themselves. Sorry: afraid...
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The fall and rise of Stephen Dobbie

Swansea's Stephen Dobbie is now a Premier League player, but five years ago this week he was hitting rock-bottom in Scotland, as Craig Anderson reports... As Stephen Dobbie prepares for Swansea City...
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Dons and Bankies stand up against the franchises

AFC Wimbledon's elevation to the Football League wasn’t just a victory for the club – for many it was a victory for football as well. The minnows from south-west London won the FA Cup in 1988 – beating...
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Hearts' "Family" as dysfunctional as any other

Vladmimir Romanov has given us a laugh down the years with some of his rants and moans about Scottish football. However, his handling over the rather unpleasant Craig Thomson affair is causing a rather...
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Rangers' great Whyte hope still has to impress

New Rangers owner Craig Whyte finally spoke publicly about his plans and hopes for the SPL champions. However it looks like new season, new owner, same mantra. With the David Murray era now consigned to...
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Review of 2010/11: Retirement, Raith & Reinvigoration

While a lot of what went on in Scottish football during the course of the last season was perhaps enough to have you reaching for some heavy medication , it really wasn’t all that bad. Really, it wasn...
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SPL 2010/11 review: Striking refs, parcel bombs & scrapping coaches

If any observer of Scottish football tells you it's been just another season, they're lying. Put it this way - what other league in Europe, nay, the world has had to put up with what we've...
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Motherwell hero Kirk hoping history repeats itself 20 years on

The word “legend” is banded about an awful lot these days. But ex-Motherwell striker Steve Kirk is a living one, at least in one Lanarkshire town anyway. It was 20 years ago almost to the day that his...
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Smith makes the perfect exit 13 years after Rangers 'sacking'

Over the last week, the SPL’s final weekend was regularly billed as ‘dramatic’ as Rangers and Celtic were to scrap it out to the death for the title – but it seems nobody told Rangers. Within eight minutes...
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Scottish football's dark day

We Scots complain that our league doesn’t get the headlines its English counterpart gets so regularly in the national media outlets – and when we do get headlines, it’s usually something negative. And...
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Humiliating Old Firm defeat leaves Smith & Rangers staring down the barrel

Celtic’s utter domination of Sunday’s Old Firm match will have left many impressed, with Neil Lennon’s side finally looking capable of winning the SPL. But where does that leave Rangers? Walter Smith’s...
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Is this 'Junior' rivalry more heated than the Old Firm?

Move aside Rangers and Celtic, here is a rivalry and hatred arguably much more fierce than the two Glasgow giants. Ayrshire sides Cumnock and Auchinleck Talbot played each other on Saturday for a place...
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El Hadji Diouf - Scotland's Public Enemy No.1?

The closing of the January transfer window is starting to be one of those great days in the football calendar, especially in Scotland after the fun and games of the last two years. Robbie Keane's arrival...
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SPL Round-up: Hearts juggernaut rolls on as Celtic open up a lead

It’s all going really well for Hearts now. After taking Celtic’s scalp earlier in the season, they’ve only gone and done the same to Rangers to elevate their chances of challenging for the SPL title. What...
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The self preservation league and the fans who want their say

The SPL have taken it upon themselves to invoke some badly needed change - but instead of giving us something new, something fresh and something to get excited about, they’ve only gone and proposed to...
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'Throwback' winger McCourt has the talent, but does he have the time?

Celtic's Paddy McCourt has impressed in flashes this season, William Heaney ponders whether the former Rochdale and Shamrock Rovers wide-man will ever get the chance to become a key figure for the...
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Scottish football baffled as Brown seeks last hurrah at Aberdeen

If you were in the Motherwell area around 5pm on Saturday night and heard some loud, raucous laughter, chances are it may well have been that of chairman John Boyle on hearing the Aberdeen result. The...
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Referees: a strike for change, or a big hissy fit?

With Scotland's referees set to strike over their grievances, Craig Anderson wonders who's to blame – and what the endgame is So it appears the referees in Scotland have finally had enough of all...
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Juniors set to grow up in the big games

It's FA Cup weekend in Scotland too, with the lower-leaguers joined by junior teams who can't get in the league. Craig Anderson looks at Scotland's rather quirky parallel system... Down the...
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Are England turning into Scotland?

If England fans can hear a rustling from north of the border, it may be Scotland fans rubbing their hands, says Craig Anderson ... Fabio Capello has drafted some new faces into his England squad for their...
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The curious case of Giovanni di Stefano

When someone raises their head above the parapet in wanting to buy a football club, the first question usually raised is "what are they in it for?" It's a question currently being asked of...
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Mark McGhee on shoogly peg as Aberdeen prepare the sack

It's been over 27 years since Aberdeen upset the European apple cart and beat Real Madrid to win the European Cup Winners' Cup. Now they're getting beaten 9-0 by one of the Old Firm. You really...
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Dundee show deep spirit in the face of adversity

Docked points, deep in debt and with a very uncertain future, Dundee deserve plaudits for Saturday's win, says William Heaney The weekend headlines in Scotland have been claimed by Celtic after their...
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Who'd be a Scottish referee?

Although it's been largely drowned out by the clatter of Clattenburg's clanger, there's been a rather more interesting refereeing controversy north of the border, as Craig Anderson reveals...
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Will McGhee's transfer gamble pay off?

Unless we count Celtic's cherry picking of Anthony Stokes from Hibernian, there was no marquee deadline day transfer signing north of the border that really caught the imagination. However the bizarre...
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Celtic seal second as Rangers make it two in a row

The title race may have been over as a contest weeks ago, but Rangers completed the formalities of winning the championship with a 1-0 win over Hibernian on Sunday. The much-maligned figure of Kyle Lafferty...
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Tensions rise as relegation fears mount

The enormous stress suffered by those trying to guide a club to Scottish Premier League safety is beginning to show on Messrs Pressley, MacPherson and Calderwood. Aberdeen 's dramatic descent down...
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Can Lennon survive after Celtic's Scottish Cup flop?

Reality may slowly be returning to Dingwall, the sleepy Highland town with a modest population of 5,000, after the frenzied excitement created by Ross County's shock semi-final victory over Glasgow...
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Aberdeen's top six dreams dashed by a familiar face

In football, fate often grants players and managers the opportunity to get one over their former employer. Kilmarnock boss Jimmy Calderwood took full advantage of such an occasion by ending Aberdeen's...
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Lennon galvanises Hoops but Gers win again

The end of Tony Mowbray's brief and unsuccessful era at Celtic arguably began with a 1-0 defeat to Kilmarnock at the start of last month. Robbie Keane was making his début for the Hoops following his...
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The runners and riders to replace Mowbray

When St Mirren's Steven Thomson smashed the ball past Lukasz Zaluska to net his side's fourth and cap a famous victory over a woeful Celtic, Tony Mowbray must have known his time was up. The 4...
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Buddies' cup dreams smashed by nine-man Gers

Who called it a Mickey Mouse Cup? The Co-operative Insurance Cup has dropped down the list of priorities for most clubs in recent times but Rangers and St Mirren conjured up an absorbing final packed full...
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Fear the Raith of rampant Rovers

"They'll be dancing in the streets of Raith tonight." The immortal words broadcast on the BBC in the 1960s after a Raith Rovers victory may have been on the tip of a few commentators'...
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Even the Red Army can't stomach dreary Dons

SPL RESULTS Sat March 6: Hamilton 1-1 Aberdeen, Hibernian 1-0 Kilmarnock, Rangers 3-1 St Mirren, St Johnstone 1-2 Motherwell. Sun March 7: Dundee United 1-0 Hearts, Falkirk 0-2 Celtic. The end of the season...
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Levein's Scotland get back to basics

Craig Levein enjoyed a dream start to his Scotland managerial career with a hard-fought, if perhaps slightly fortuitous, 1-0 win over the Czech Republic. After riding their luck in a first period dominated...
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Celts left fuming as Gers close in on title

SPL RESULTS Sat Feb 27 Aberdeen 0-1 Hearts, Dundee United 3-0 Falkirk, Hibernian 1-1 St Johnstone, Motherwell 1-0 Kilmarnock, St Mirren 0-0 Hamilton Sun Feb 28 Rangers 1-0 Celtic Full Scottish results...
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How to save Scottish football

“Can we play you every week?” is a favoured chant of the ebullient football fan everywhere. Except possibly in the Isles of Scilly Football League, where there are only two teams. It must become tiresome...
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Redemption, a late postponement and an angry fan

SPL results: Sat Feb 20 Celtic 1-0 Dundee United, Falkirk 3-1 Aberdeen, Kilmarnock 1-1 St Mirren, Motherwell 1-0 Hibernian, St Johnstone P-P Rangers Sun Feb 21 Hearts 2-0 Hamilton What a difference a week...
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Cup woes continue for dismal Dons

“A bunch of fairies.” That was the grim assessment of Aberdeen's current playing staff by club legend Joey Harper after the Dons crashed out of the Scottish Cup to lower league opposition once again...
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Dons' McGhee vindicated, Accies' Jedward celebrated

FFT.com's Scotland correspondent on an action-packed weekend involving limping horses and dancing twins... RESULTS: Sat Feb 13 Aberdeen 4-4 Celtic, Hamilton Academicals 0-0 Motherwell, Heart of Midlothian...
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Why Scotland should reach Euro 2012

It was the 10th of June 1998; I was 13 years old and sprinting home from school as fast as my wee legs could carry me. Scotland were playing World Cup holders Brazil in France 98's curtain-raiser in...
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Management is wasted on the young

To open his new regular blog on Scottish football, Danny Law couldn't help himself penning this about a enthusiastic sexagenarian... 'Broony! Broony! Broony!' came the chants from the small...
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Spotlight

75% of all TV is Bale

He's here, he's there, he's...

On the road to ruin

The cost of Premier League away travel