Season 2018/19 – Ladbrokes League 1 takes shape

With the Championship and League 1 play-offs coming to a conclusion over the weekend the ‘Loons’ now know the exact nature of their nine opponents with whom they will do battle for league points next season commencing on the 4th of August.

There will be four new ‘faces’ in the league with the maximum two having been both promoted and relegated.

League 2 champions Montrose will now be joined by Stenhousemuir who finished fourth in the league season, but then saw off both Queens Park and Peterhead in play-off ties.

Yesterday saw Alloa Athletic who had lost the home leg of their final with Dumbarton by a solitary goal, bounce back under Dumbarton Rock to clinch a 2-0 win in extra-time over the ‘Sons’ and with it a return to the Championship for Jim Goodwin’s side.

One has to say that the ‘Wasps’ form in the closing weeks of the season has been impressive.

League victories over Ayr United and Raith Rovers saw them finish third in the league table behind those two opponents.

They followed this up with home and away successes over Rovers in the play-off semi final before deservedly clinching their aggregate success over Stevie Aitken’s side yesterday.

Much has of course been made locally about the fact that all four Angus clubs are in the same league for the first time since 1992/3 season and this coupled with the presence of East Fife and Raith Rovers is certainly a great boost in all probability on two fronts for the Athies.

Firstly a financial boost at the turnstiles, secondly twice on five occasions the travelling support will have a relatively short journey to support their side.   

Stenhousemuir is also not exactly a mammoth away trip, with Airdrie and Dumbarton well under two hours drive from the ‘toonie’, leaving only Stranraer in fact as a major haul.

Incidentally the clashes with Dumbarton will be our first league jousts with the ‘Sons’ for six years.

It certainly looks like being a very interesting and certainly very competitive league, with Airdrie leading the way at present in the squad building process.

As a footnote to the four Angus clubs being in the same league for the first time in 25 years, back in 92/3, the league set up saw fourteen clubs compete in League Two, with all sides playing each other three times.   Brechin City clinched promotion to League One in second place behind champions Clyde.   Forfar Athletic finished fourth, Arbroath sixth and Montrose were down in twelfth spot.

Amazingly by a twixt of the fixture computer at the time, Forfar played all three Angus clubs at home only once with two away fixtures.

The results were however encouraging with five wins, three draws and only one defeat.

v Arbroath – 1-1 (home) 3-2 and 0-0 (away)

v Brechin City – 0-1 (home) 2-1 and 1-0 (away)

v  Montrose – 4-3 (home) 0-0 and 3-1 (away)