2008/09

ANNBANK UNITED

The Bon Accord have their first league match of the new season tomorrow and it's a warm welcome to Annbank United at Hannah Park. They are a team we have never played in a league match before, in fact we've met them only three times (and every time at HP) and those matches were all in the West of Scotland Cup. We won the first two in 1964 and 1989 but lost the last in September 2003, a surprising 1-0 defeat although perhaps the red cards shown to Iain Banks and Alex Keddie the previous week at Petershill had something to do with that (any excuse will do). Certainly, there was only one loss in the next 10 matches which points to our being a reasonable team at the time.

Annbank may be a little bit sharper than the home team tomorrow, having played five competitive matches in their Ardagh Cup to our three. They started with a good 3-0 win against Whitletts, then lost 4-3 at Craigmark, won 4-2 at home to Troon (everybody's whipping boys so far this season) and narrowly lost their last two to Girvan (1-0) and Maybole (2-1), who have both qualified for the quarter-final.

Wm Hill doesn't rate Annbank's chances too highly, thinking they're a 9/2 shot to win tomorrow, but Shotts have come a cropper often enough in Superleague openers: Beith have won here twice, and Renfrew and Larkhall Thistle have both managed to hang on for a draw, whilst we also drew at Hurlford United and Auchinleck Talbot. There it is: out in the open! Shotts Bon Accord have never won their opening fixture since the inception of the Superleague. It's surely time to do something about that.

CARLUKE ROVERS

Carluke are often perceived as a bit of a bogey team but in reality they've won only once in the last 19 matches against the Bon Accord, a CLC tie two seasons ago which finished 2-1.

We are of course old friends from the Lanarkshire League and that was when most of their 32 wins against us happened. There have been a total of 141 competitive games between the two clubs and Shotts have won 84 and drawn the other 25.

Recent matches have been fairly tight and Carluke like to get in about it and shake the Shotts up right from the outset. Often they manage to take the lead but just as often Shotts come back into it late on and scrape an unfair draw or unimaginative win.

Anything can happen, as they say, but if the Bon Accord want to be in the quarter-final at New Peasy Park on Wednesday, they can't afford to muck this one up.

PETERSHILL

The last time Shotts played Petershill away in the quarter-final of the Sectional League Cup we got thumped 6-2. That was in 1981 but perhaps sore memories linger longest (that at least was the basis of many father/son relationships in west Central Scotland up to fairly recently). But that result wasn't really representative of how we usually get on there: in 33 matches we've won 13, lost 13 and drawn seven. So, we rarely travel through without at least a glimmer of hope.

Unfortunately the trend is against us. If you had looked at the stats in 2002, you would have seen that Shotts had won 13 and drawn six of the 28 matches between us at Petershill. That's right, we haven't won one of the last five, so it's about time to start putting things right. Hmm.

Like Shotts, Peasy are undefeated this season, not even a Celtic XI could knock them out of their stride in Steve Dallas's testimonial, and something's gotta give therefore. The signs are not particulary great for the Bon Accord: Shotts played an extra game on Monday and we'll see some weary legs before the end tomorrow night, Kevin Barr and others limping around at Carluke doesn't bode well, Mark McKeever's red card will keep him out, we're not really used to the lights or the surface, they've got Low (and Dallas). I could go on, but we don't want to get too depressed. After all, cup matches, real cup matches, are to be relished. Our defence will get its first real test of the season, no matter how it goes.

LARGS THISTLE

Shotts have played Largs only six times over the years, winning three, drawing twice and losing just the once (at Hannah Park incidentally). The first time was probably the best from our point of view: a 6-3 win at Barrfields in the Scottish Junior Cup in 1959. Archie Bryce got the first, then two from Willie Dundas and one each from Wilson Wood, Jackie Rae and John Hughes. And that was after being 2-0 down early in the game! Not that it did us much good ultimately: we lost 3-2 to Duntocher Hibs in the next round although it was great to see Hughes underline his precocious excellence with two well-taken goals.

The second and, untiil tomorrow, last match between the clubs at their place was a dour 0-0 league draw in 2003 which didn't please anyone at all. I seem to rememeber Kevin Wilson and John Boyack missing a few good chances but then again, maybe not. The Ayrshire men's only success was also a Scottish Junior Cup tie which they won 2-1 in 1986, so it's 22 years since they beat the Bon Accord! Then again we haven't won there since 1999 when a single goal from Brian McQuade won a first-round West of Scotland Cup tie.

Thistle's results have been a bit mixed this season but they did smite Kilwinning Rangers 3-1 in their opening Ardagh Cup tie and this helped them qualify for the quarter-final on Wednesday there in which they narrowly lost out to Hurlford United on penalties. They'll also still be smarting from last Saturday league opener when they lost 2-1 at East Kilbride Thistle in some controversial circumstances. Dangerous opponents who must not be underestimated - just what Steve Easton should have stressed to his troops before Wednesday night at New Petershill Park. I hope we take note.

ASHFIELD

It's been a long time since Shotts lost to Ashfield - 21 December 1974, to be exact - but it almost happened last season when we prevailed only after penalties (5-4) in the third round of the Central League Cup after a 0-0 draw. All in all, Shotts have won 14 of the 22 matches between the clubs and drawn four of the others. The defeats came all in a row in four consecutive matches between 23 October 1971 and the above-mentioned 21 December 1974. Forty-six goals scored and 25 conceded (not including those penalties).

Another score which had to be ignored was the 1-1 draw in the final of this very same competition at Fir Park on 6 October 1984. That was the night the lights went out prematurely and the game had to be replayed a week later with the Bon Accord lifting the Cup after a 3-0 victory (Burt, Mitchell and Canning).

The last match before the one last season took place at Saracen Park exactly 10 years previously. Shotts won 2-0 (Smith, Porter) on the way to lifting the First Division title but we remember that was also the night Tom Robertson suffered his first stroke sitting in the stand during the second half. He recovered sufficiently to celebrate the Premier Division title the following season but he was never really the same. We will take the time to recall his memory.

Ashfield have had a couple of great seasons recently, winning the Central League Division 2 in 2007 and just missing out on a second consecutive promotion to the Superleague by finishing one point behind Lanark United last season. Obviously, they won their League Cup section this season, a section containing Clydebank FC, and they came through the quarter-final last week by knocking out Glencairn on penalties. In the league they lost 1-0 to the same Glencairn on the opening day and beat Maryhill 4-3 on Saturday, coming back from 3-1 down.

The match could be a tight one again, just like last season. Ashfield have already won on penalties this season and Shotts lost out against Lesmahagow in the pre-season Lugar tournament. Let's hope they get some practice in at training on Monday night.

LANARK UNITED

The last time Lanark beat Shotts at HP was on 25 May 1987 when they won 1-0. Tony McInally, their current manager, who played in quite a few of the matches for the Bon Accord against Lanark since then, will want to do something about that tomorrow.

Since the first match between the clubs on 31 March 1951 they've fought each other 123 times; Lanark won the first and Lanark won the last, but in between Shotts have won 75 times against their 22 victories and 34 draws.

Shotts are historically the big guys in this fixture but the Yowes always have an attitude when they visit HP. They have a remarkable record in cup matches over the last few seasons and I've no doubt they will treat tomorrow's fixture as yet another cup match which will make things interesting.

In 60 matches against them at HP, we've scored 158 goals whilst conceding 74. It wouldn't be a disaster should we lose the match but it would be a little bit worrying. Lanark have had a restful week to recover from last week's fixture; perhaps we need to use some of those players, if available, who have also enjoyed a bit of a rest recently.

MAYBOLE

This going to be a tasty one tomorrow. Maybole have had a couple of very impressive results so far this season, including a 2-1 win at Auchinleck in the Ardagh Cup quarter-final and two good wins against Renfrew and Hurlford in the league.

Then last week they got nailed 4-0 at East Kilbride with the EKT website match report admitting matters could have been a lot different but for a few first-half goal line clearances and a penalty save at 1-0.  The name Paul Kerr keeps cropping up as a regular goalscorer. We'll obviously have to pay close attention to him.

On the plus side, we've never lost to Maybole. However, it has to be admitted we've only played them three times, and each time it's finished with a four-goal advantage to the Bon Accord. Two four-nils and one 6-2 appear to suggest we've got the evil eye on them, but that could change very rapidly. As I said: very tasty-looking fixture.

KILBIRNIE LADESIDE

Shotts have played Kilbirnie six times and tanked them six times, so you just know it's got to have to have a different ending this time - it's surely their due this time. Two of the games were at their place and we won them 2-0 (3 Sep 1960) with goals from Hugh Maxwell and Archie Bryce and 3-1 (18 May 2005) courtesy of a Brian Crawford penalty and two from Paul Stewart.

In West of Scotland Cup first-round ties Shotts have been drawn away 34 times since we joined the Juniors in 1950: we've won eighteen of those matches, drawn three and lost the remaining thirteen.

Last year at this time we went to Robertson Park, Uddingston where we lost 2-1 to Thorniewood United, a disgraceful result which nevertheless didn't change anything. In other words, we had plenty of advance warning that things weren't working, on the park or behind the scenes, but failed to take the necessary action to avoid ultimate relegation.

Kilbirnie fans were a bit upset around about this time last season: I seem to recall their disbelief at the score after 90 minutes of the first-round SJC tie. They were the better team for 85 minutes but Shotts came good in the last five and they left HP empty-handed. They will be looking for revenge this time.

GIRVAN

We've never played Girvan before, so it's nice to have something new to look forward to. They've played only three matches in the league so far, winning two (Port Glasgow and Kilsyth Rangers) and losing to Clydebank, something which I suspect will happen to a lot of teams this season.  They also repeated their 4-1 home win against Kilsyth at Duncansfield in the West - and that should be warning enough.

Last week they lost 1-0 at Huntly in the Scottish Cup and, according to Pete Smyth at least, they put up a good performance.  The last time Shotts played a team for the first time (not including Newmains who are clearly a reincarnation of Coltness United) I think it was Clydebank and we were extremely fortunate to beat them 1-0 a few years ago in the Central League Cup. A similar result tomorrow might be the precursor of better times ahead for the Bon Accord.

ARTHURLIE

On Tuesday we've got our first final for four years but the fourth in nine years - just shows how much better we used to be. It's against Arthurlie, a club which have us a considerable amount of grief over the years, particularly in cup matches.

We actually won the first three games against the Lie, then drew the next two but since then they've largely been more successful than we have. The worst run was seven straight defeats between 2000 and 2005 although perversely Shotts have won four of the last five. All in all Arthurlie have won 27 and Shotts 20 of the 58 matches between the clubs. 

The clubs have met three times before in the SLC: twice at the quarter-final stage and once in the 1997 final and the most alarming thing is Shotts have never scored a single goal against Arthurlie in the competition, until it got to penalties in that final that is when we won 4-1 on penalties after extra time. In the Scottish Junior Cup the Bon Accord have fared almost as badly, one win in five meetings and that was in 1968. Two wins out of four in the Central League Cup is a big improvement on that record, as is one win out of two ties in the West of Scotland Cup. So, they're the cup team, by and large.

There is no extra time any more and I think if Shotts really, really want to win this one they'll have to do it in 90 minutes. The penalties so far this season (pre-season against Lesmahagow in the Lugar tournament and against Kilbirnie Ladeside in the West of Scotland Cup) have been lamentable. We're certainly not favourites although Arthurlie have been no great shakes in the league so far, but we musn't forget their division is a lot harder than ours. Their spy on Saturday won't have seen a great deal to worry him and his team, apart from the fact that on their day the Bon Accord have some serious firepower up front. I suspect our spy will have reported something similar to our management team.

CLYDEBANK

At the time of writing it's bucketing down, but not many games are called off at Hannah Park because of rain and those that are are usually casualties of the running track being under water. That's when you can't see the potholes in the cinder track and can easily turn an ankle whilst lining up a shy. Still, although the forecast is dry tomorrow, no guarantees that the match is going ahead.

The Bon Accord will certainly do their collective utmost to get the game on as they're expecting a bit of a turn in the social club for the Scotland game afterwards. In the best-case scenario: decent weather (ho! ho!), a 2pm (or better, a later) kick off, no live international football on TV, Forth's game postponed, Bellshill playing at Girvan and Motherwell at Aberdeen, we would probably be looking at the our best crowd of the season tomorrow. As it is, we have to be grateful for every single fan who turns up. The players certainly did their bit last week.

Clydebank and Shotts have met only the once and that was about four years ago when the Bon Accord won a Central League Cup tie 1-0 at HP (thanks to a 69th-minute goal from Graeme Bryson and despite Kevin Brown getting to see the ref's yellow card on two occasions), so there's not a lot of history to look at unless you go back a bit further to Clydebank's days as a Junior club before they went Senior. We played them in the quarter-final of the Scottish Junior Cup in 1958, a match which saw the Bon Accord's record home gate.

Nine thousand turned up to watch the game and many, if not most, must have been disappointed to see the visitors take the lead in the first minute through McLaughlin. It got worse for Shotts when Frank O'Connor got a second in the 20th minute but two second-half goals from Pat Garvie and Warwick Black (in the 90th minute!) got the Bon Accord a replay.

At Kilbowie, it was the Bon Accord's turn to take a first-minute lead when Garvie shot home and after Davie Sneddon and Black had scored another two by the 20th minute, it began to look fairly straightforward for Shotts. If Big Andy had been there, he'd have been shouting, "C'mon Shotts, it's too easy, this lot are rubbish!" However, Clydebank got back into it before half-time with two goals from McLaughlin and Elliott and came close to the equaliser on a number of occasions in the second half before Black managed to play in Sneddon to finish Clydebank off with a fourth goal.

We're certainly not expecting that kind of turnout tomorrow (or even that kind of excitement) but I'm confident we'll see an intersting match between two teams who want to finish at the top of this division at the end of the season. Both teams are capable of scoring goals; I wonder if we're looking at something similar to the game against Lanark: loads of opportunities and loads of goals.

PORT GLASGOW

It's Port Glasgow at Ravenscraig Stadium in Greenock tomorrow, a place we've never played them before. Of the 32 matches we have played, Shotts have won 17 and drawn seven. The first time was a Scottish Junior Cup third-round tie on 31 January 1969 which finished 3-3. The following week Shotts won the replay 5-1 with goals from Archie Bryce 2, Des Quigley 2 and Pat O'Hara.

The next season we were in the Central League A Division together and both fixtures were draws. The season after that, still in the same division, Shotts won 3-0 at home and Port Glasgow won 3-0 at their place. And that was the beginning of the Undertakers best period against the Bon Accord: in the next 14 matches between the clubs Port Glasgow won seven and drew two until their last win on 5 March 1983, 2-1 in the second division of the Central League.

Since then, it's been 12 wins and two draws for the Bon Accord. Tomorrow's match should be relatively easy when you consider the home team only won their first league point last week after five straight defeats and Shotts are riding fairly high after a draw against league leaders Lanark United and wins against good teams such as Girvan and Clydebank. Football's not like that though, is it?

The last time we were at Greenock on 11 May 2002, it finished a very disappointing 0-0 against Greenock Juniors after John Boyack flashed a penalty kick over the bar in the 69th minute. The only players from that fixture still involved at Hannah Park are Boyack, Scholesy Wallace and Duncan Sinclair though I don't think we we'll see the last-mentioned in the start line-up. Of course, Steve Herriot was with us at the time but was unavailable for that fixture; he should be OK for tomorrow.

KILSYTH RANGERS

It's back to familiar territory tomorrow for quite a few of the Bon Accord squad: manager Sinclair was also boss at Duncansfield this time last year with Martin Feenie as his assistant of course; Hugh Kelly, Gary McSeveney, Tam McLaughlin, John Goodwin, Darren Ferguson ...

The database shows the teams have met on 57 occasions over the years with Shotts winning 33 and Kilsyth 13. Pretty depressing reading for Kilsyth fans but it gets even worse: in 29 matches since 1987 they have won precisely one.

It's the kind of game Shotts must win if they harbour any serious hopes of a quick return to the Premier League but Kilsyth have their own aspirations and have enjoyed a few good results this season as well, and they are also at home. The Bon Accord have not been greatly impressive in away matches in the league so far and this needs to change fairly soon if we want to hang on to the coat tails of some of our rivals.

Between 1963 and 1969 Shotts won the first six matches between the clubs by 8-0, 7-0, 4-2, 3-0, 5-1 and 5-2 with Archie Bryce hitting 15 of those goals. We also won the corresponding fixture last season 3-0 (and played for three-quarters of the match with only 10 men after Steve McInulty got sent off) so the odds are on a Kilsyth win tomorrow, even if Wm Hill thinks we are favourites.

KILWINNING RANGERS

We're defending a 100% record tomorrow at Kilwinning: we've played them just the once before beating them 2-1 at Hannah Park in 1987 in a third-round West of Scotland Cup tie. Brian McKay (Mark One) and Derek Lea with a second-half penalty were the scorers. So this will be our inaugural visit to Abbey Park and after last week's debacle at Kilsyth we really need a win to bolster confidence prior to the Maud game in the Scottish Cup the following week.

The team that took the field at Duncansfield didn't really work out and I'd expect to see a considerable number of changes tomorrow. There were encouraging signs of improvement at Alloa on Tuesday so, as ever, we travel in hope. However, it is another away game and the team's record on the road this season has to improve fairly soon if we're going to do anything in the league.

The only time I have been to Abbey Park was to watch a Scottish Junior Cup match (a quarter-final replay in the mid-Nineties, if memory serves) against Camelon Juniors. The standard of both teams was impressive but Camelon finally prevailed with a tap-in scored by Junior international winger Christy McKenzie. The locals were not too pleased and a number of bricks were thrown from outside the park (!) over the fence at a part of the terracing holding the majority of the Camelon fans. But we're past all that stuff now, aren't we?

28 March 1987

SBA 2-1 Kilwinning Rangers

SBA: Hendry, Halliday, Millar, Brown, Smith, Burt, Canning, Cunningham, McKay, Allen and Lea

subs: Fordyce, Harley

MAUD FC

Shotts have never played Maud before, so that might lead to a new pennant (or possibly tie, necktie that is) for our collection upstairs in the pavilion. They are doing reasonably well at the moment sitting in fifth position in their Superleague after losing narrowly their most recent league match at Banks O' Dee who are current league leaders and last season's champions. We have our own memories of them after they came back last season at HP from 4-0 down to almost force a replay in this same competition. Whew, that was mighty close and indicates we are in for a hard match tomorrow. We will have to take care, as our record at this stage of the competition is not great.

Shotts BA cannot maintain, despite having won the Scottish Junior Cup on one occasion in 1958, that they are much good in this, the most important of all the competitions open to us. In 57 attempts this will be only the 30th time we have managed to get to the third round - a pretty poor record for a club which still likes to think it belongs up there with the other greats of the Junior game.

Including four replays we have played 22 SJC third-round ties at HP winning eight, drawing five and losing nine. The annulment of the result against Pumpherston at this stage last season actually means we have won nine and lost eight, but that was jiggery-pokery; we lost the match. Basta!

The biggest defeats have been two matches which finished 3-1 to the visitors. In 63/64 we lost to Greenock after keeper Sam Johnstone was carried off fairly early in the match. (Those were the days when you could attack the goalie with impunity.) Archie Bryce replaced him between the sticks (no subs either!) and without his dangerous presence up front Shotts lost 3-1. Blantyre Vics did for us in 80/81 with the same result.

Nor should the Bon Accord think they will be able to deal with the visitors in a replay as they have never won a third-round replay away from home, having lost to Baillieston, Armadale Thistle (twice in the same season after a protest) and most recently Arthurlie. All of those were heavy defeats as well. If the manager sends out his best team tomorrow, we can have no complaints if things go wrong. After all, we have our priorities and the league is much more important despite the fact that we all like a wee run in the Scottish and the West.

EAST KILBRIDE THISTLE

If the weather holds, we'll be playing East Kilbride at Hannah Park on Saturday, the first time for 14 years we've met in a league match (if you forget the two Central League matches in 2001/02). Shotts won 2-1 away (goals from McGarvey and Smith) and 2-0 at home (Gillooly and Walker) that season. In all competitions we've met on 33 occasions and Shotts have won 18, drawn five and lost ten of them.

At HP we've won 12 times and lost and drawn three times each with the Bon Accord hitting 38 goals and the visitors 18 but the worst of those matches (from their point of view) finished 8-1 in the Bon Accord's favour, and that was the first time we played them, way back on 14 September 1963. I think that was their first season in Junior football and they soon learnt the ropes as they won narrowly at HP later that same season.

The last time East Kilbride won at HP was on 25 January 1986 when the Shotts defence were distracted by the promise of that evening's celebrated Burns Supper in the social club and allowed the visitors to escape with the points on the back of a 2-0 win.

They've not had a great start to the season (apart from that brilliant win against Largs on the opening day). Since then they've won only once away, 2-1 at Port Glasgow, which is more than we managed of course. Last time out they got a bit of a mauling at Largs, who were obviously out for revenge, but gaffer Colin Mitchell - a man I've had a lot of time for since his days at Stirling Albion (my other team) and he also did himself proud in command of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in Aden a few years before that - reckons in their local paper this week that they are only one old head away from having a decent team. Perhaps he'll have found that old head before Saturday's kick off.

East Kilbride also lost a close match at Kilbirnie, as Shotts did in a different competition, so we shouldn't be overly confident going into this fixture. Old friend Gareth Davies is with EKT this season of course and, if nothing else, his pace will cause our defenders some anxiety.

RENFREW

The men from Western Park are getting it tough at the moment; only one win in eight in the league, and that was against bottom team Hurlford United, has brought them into the relegation zone, for the time being anyway. But if you look a bit closer at their games, a slightly different story begins to emerge.

Their last three matches were against Kilsyth, Largs and Lanark. Some would say the best three teams in the division, so it's no wonder they took only one point from those three. Given the Bon Accord's away record this season a sensible man wouldn't bet too much on their chances of three points tomorrow but we've got to turn the corner some time. Throwing away commanding leads in virtually every away match won't get us back upstairs.

Renfrew's record against Shotts at Western Park is fairly even: they've won nine, drawn five and lost ten since the first fixture between the clubs on 24 March 1956, a 3-1 win for the home team in a third-round West of Scotland Cup tie. Thir biggest win was 6-1 (McMenamin) on 9 November 1971, just as Shotts were entering their darkest period. The Bon Accord's biggest success was 6-2 in a league match, with goals from Tomlinson, A Cunningham, Mitchell, Smith and two from Girasoli.

Overall, the Bon Accord hold the upper hand: 24 wins, 11 draws and 17 defeats. But the last match between the two was 2-2 draw (Brown 2) on 17 February 2007 when we were both still in the Premier Division. Draws are probably no good to us now but Renfrew gaffer was so livid about his team's lack of effort in the latest defeat at Port Glasgow that we can expect them to be all over us tomorrow. It just might be a good idea to let them score first and then see what happens.

LARGS THISTLE

For the second time this season, we've got Largs Thistle, this time at HP though. Way back at the beginning of the league season it wasn't really that important, that's the way it seemed anyway - there was still a lot of season to go - and they ended up winning with a good deal of luck at their place, but Connick and crew stood up well to the first-half lesson in football they were given. Tomorrow it's different: they've had a fantastic run of nine games unbeaten in the league and we've stumbled along with good results at home and disappointing ones away. Largs have proved themselves a very good team but it's possible they are at the top of the league because of their home record. Even if that is the case however, at least they have won away from home and the Bon Accord will have to be very careful.

We simply can't afford to let them draw any further away from us at the top of the table; we have to take revenge for the defeat at their place. And then we've got to sort East Kilbride out next week as well. If Shotts fail in either endeavour, we'll be out of it I fear. Things can change from week to week obviously but the Bon Accord can afford no more mistakes until Largs, Lanark, Clydebank and Kilbirnie begin to drop points as well.

We were the first to show the weaknesses that could well lead to another season in this division. To give ourselves a reasonable chance of catching up, we have to make sure there must be no more failure on our part. It's an extremely tall order, but the fightback, which started last week against Kilbirnie, has to be continued tomorrow against Largs. If not, we'll probably just have to content ourselves with a mid-table place, at best, in this division.

HURLFORD UNITED

We're away to Hurlford tomorrow and, under normal cicumstances you'd think: OK, difficult game but we'll come away with at least one point. That's what the history books tell you anyway.

We've only played them six times but they've yet to register a win against us: three wins and three draws in our favour and we've scored 13 goals against their three. There's a certain symmetry with the first match between the clubs on St Andrew's Day 2002 ending 1-1 (Steve Gallen with a penalty kick) and the most recent on St George's Day 2005 which Shotts won 3-0 (Kevin Brown, Brian Crawford and Davie Kirkwood).

Shotts need a win tomorrow but... We played Maybole earlier this season, a team we had never failed to beat, and we drew. We played Kilbirnie, the same and we got beat on penalties. We played Kilwinning, and for the first time ever dropped points against them, and Largs United, a team we hadn't lost to since 1986, beat us at their place as well.

Even worse, Pete Smyth's Junior News (as was, and wasn't it all the better for being just that?) has recently worked out that if every team wins their remaining games (an impossibility of course) Shotts will finish third bottom. Relegation beckons once again, if we don't get things sorted out fairly soon.

Hurlford aren't having a great season themselves and if they win tomorrow it will give them hope of survival in the SuperLeague. If Shotts lose, it will really mean we have no chance of survival. Recently, someone on this website was of the opinion that we need to win all of our remaining games to achieve promotion. That's not going to happen; let's just concentrate on staying where we are. That's truly the best we can hope for this season.

And that's amazing when you consider how close Ashfield went to knocking Irvine Meadow out of the SJC last weekend. We went to Saracen Park in September, played well and thrashed them 4-0 in the SLC semi-final; now they're the media's darlings. What has gone wrong for Shotts Bon Accord since then? Who can explain the malaise, and more importantly: who can save us from ourselves?

2009/10

Shotts have been playing Vale of Leven almost since we came into existence in 1950. They were our 12th opponents in our inaugural season - an SJC first-round tie scheduled to be played on the same day as Shotts Highland Games which they refused to change the date of, so many of our members were missing on the day but we got stuffed 4-0 anyway. Funnily enough, they are also our third-oldest opponents still in existence, after Thorniewood United and Forth Wanderers. A pound if you can tell me which club is Number 4!

It actually took Shotts 20 years to beat the Vale. We lost the first match, drew the second, lost the third, drew the fourth and then lost the fifth before we beat them in 1970.

All in all, we've played them 43 times, winning 26, drawing seven and losing 10. Eleven of those wins were at their place with four draws and six defeats, so we haven't really underperformed after a dreadful start; in fact, we've done quite well at Millburn Park. Our worst defeat was that first Scottish Cup tie but we finally got revenge for that in the opening match of the 1997/98 season when Shotts also scored four without reply. The scorers that day were Ged McConnell, Craig Cameron 2 and Tony McInally on his debut.

The last Shotts win was just 10 days ago when we won 6-1 in the SLC semi-final at Hannah Park when they were caught totally Baltic in the first 10 minutes. The Vale's last win was in a rather fraught game in March 2003 when they won 3-1 at their place in the West of Scotland Cup. Steve Herriot ended up in a local hospital after a dreadful tackle and the home team went on to win 3-1 in his absence, with Stevie Gallen scoring the Bon Accord's only goal.