It’s the very best time of the year, the Scottish Football season is 4 days away and the excitement is inexplicable, me personally I’ve been bored shitless this summer and have been dying for the footy to come back. No wasting any time here, time for my full Premiership-League 2 predictions, and then I’ll talk about the 5th tier briefly.
Scottish Premiership
Celtic
Rangers
Aberdeen
Hibs
Hearts
Motherwell
St Mirren
Ross County
Dundee
Kilmarnock
St Johnstone
Livingston
I know, HIbs being 4th might come across as incredibly biased, but I think we’ll eventually come good. Based on Thursday we will most certainly have a rocky start, and it might even mean that Lee Johnson loses his job, but eventually it’ll work out because that squad has talent. Livi and St Johnstone are by far the worst 2 teams in the league but the non-ability to recruit for Livingston is the deciding factor for me. This’ll be the year that their club status catches up to them. Celtic are just the stronger of the 2 old firm clubs for me, not really too interested in either of them to be honest, just hope that more teams can take points off them this season as last season was a bigger gap than there has been in a long time. Motherwell left off on a very strong note last year and although they lost their source of goals, the squad is strong enough to have a really strong season.
Championship
Partick Thistle
Dundee United
Ayr United
Dunfermline Athletic
Airdrieonians
Raith Rovers
Inverness
Queen’s Park
Greenock Morton
Arbroath
A bit controversial this one, but I think Thistle are the stronger side and have more momentum going into this campaign. United are expected to do well but after that League Cup campaign I just can’t see Jim Goodwin lasting very long. My tips for impressive seasons are Airdrie and Dunfermline, I think they’ll both come up and give it a good go for the playoffs. Dunfermline looked good the couple of times I watched them, the only thing holding them back is the lack of an out and out goalscorer. Josh O’Connor should be a good loanee from Hibs for Airdrie, the boy is young but he’s got bundles of potential, so he could be a huge goal threat for them this season. Arbroath struggled last season and I expect them to do so again this season, they’ve had some really underwhelming results in the league cup too.
League 1
Hamilton
Falkirk
Cove Rangers
Queen of the South
Stirling Albion
Alloa Athletic
Montrose
Annan Athletic
Kelty Hearts
Edinburgh City
Not much to say regarding this, just that Falkirk and Hamilton are by far the strongest teams in this division and QoS and Cove are right up there too. I’ve watched a lot of Edinburgh City last season and already in the league cup this season, and I promise you they’re going down. Might even have accepted their fate by christmas. It’s that bad. I really hope they prove me wrong though, I love going to watch them play and would rather every team in Edinburgh, or in and around it, be as successful as possible.
League 2
Dumbarton
East Fife
Clyde
Spartans
Stenhousemuir
Forfar
Stranraer
Bonnyrigg Rose
Elgin
Peterhead
Simple for this one, Dumbarton looked strong in pre season and should’ve won the league last year if they never bottled it, and East Fife are too big in the game to spend 3 years in the 4th Tier. Spartans will be the shock of this league, they are the best defensive team I’ve seen at this level and they’ve got a goalscorer in Blair Henderson too. So excited to watch them this year. Peterhead have no money which is why I expect them to struggle, and a very tough pull when the majority of clubs at that level play in the central belt, which also applies to Elgin even more. Bonnyrigg should survive off of their defence alone, but could shoot up the table if they start hitting the target more often.
Highland League Winners - Buckie Thistle
Said them last year and they were a point away from doing so, hoping they can go and win it this year
Lowland League Winners - East Kilbride
A lot of very strong sides in this division this year but I think EK’s manager Mick Kennedy is a very good one, and they’ve got a lot of quality in the squad.
Roll on this Saturday, Football’s finally back!