by John Reid
To make up for the lack of round-up last weekend (apologies to all) a special preview Stramash as we look forward to a big weekend in Scottish Football.
Celtic could be crowned SPL champions if they defeat Hibs and Motherwell lose at home to St. Mirren. To be honest, the chances of that happening are not that great as Motherwell are in a fine run of form and St. Mirren are without star striker Goncalves who is suspended are being found guilty of diving for a penalty in last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Celtic. Interestingly, Celtic have not defeated Hibs in the SPL this season. It should be an intriuging day at the top of the SPL.
The battle for the top six finshes this weekend, and anybody who predicted that Inverness and Ross County would be guaranteed to finish in the top half of the SPL is a liar. Those two clubs have been by far the biggest success stories in the SPL, and deserve great credit for what they have achieved. St. Johnstone are also guaranteed top six football, and Kilmarnock are favourites to crab the final place as they are at home to relegation doomed Dundee, who could be relegated this weekend. It seems that Aberdeen, Dundee United, Hibs and Hearts will miss the top six which really isn’t good enough for clubs of their size.
Speaking of Aberdeen, tomorrow is the last game of Craig Brown’s managerial career, as he retires to let Derek McInnes take up the post. Brown has had a fine career, and was manager of Scotland the last time the national team reached a major tournament – the 1998 World Cup.
In the first division, Morton have a chance to close the gap on Partick as they face bottom of the table Airdrie, whilst in one of the weekend’s biggest games Partick face second division champions Queen of the South in the Ramsden’s cup final, which will be watched by a sell-out crowd at Almondvale. Wednesday night sees Partick face Morton in a potential title decider.
Finally, more off-field problems for newly crowned third division champions Rangers, as a tape recording was leaked to the media showing a connection of sorts between former owner Craig Whyte and current owner Charles Green. This story will no doubt run and run. The round-up will be back on Sunday with all the news of this weekend’s action.
