OFFSET YOUR WORLD CUP TRAVEL WITH GREENERTRAVEL
Date: 14th May 2026
Spare a thought
By Donald C Stewart
It’s that time of the season when some are looking at who won the championship in their division or they are currently in the midst of a final in one part of the pyramid or another.
Or just sitting wondering what happened from August through to May… and why it should never, ever happen again…
However, indulge me and spare a thought for an individual who has had one heck of a rollercoaster season and a club who are still mired in an uncertain future.
Scott Arfield at Livingston, thrust into the manager’s position, probably never thought at the beginning of this season that this was going to happen. But it has. It’s a funny old game somebody used to say in Saints and Greavsie (ask yer papa).
This season has been a very peculiar one because we never knew what was round the corner. Who could have foreseen Wilfried Nancy and Russell Martin, who left their indelible ink stain on Rangers and Celtic.
Hearts have risen to the top, Motherwell have found a new Messiah, and everybody is waxing lyrical about how great John McGlynn has been at Falkirk.
In the lower reaches, we’ve had the resurgence of Inverness Caledonian Thistle and the continued rise of East Kilbride who have been showing that getting into the SPFL was no fluke.
But some fans are struggling to try and put this season behind them, and are contemplating a future without much hope, it would seem. Or does hope spring eternal?
Arfield took over from Marvyn Bartley, after Bartley resigned when he was told he would have to reapply for his own job, who took over from Davie Martindale when he got punted upstairs. At my own club, Ayr United, we had John Rankin brought in to take over from Scott Brown, and he managed to steady the ship within the dressing room and the club. Unfortunately, he was unable to put results on the park, which meant he was not in a strong position to take over for next season. It seems to have been exactly the same for Bartley. Rankin has left our club too and will be replaced by the manager at Stenhousemuir, once their involvement in the play-offs is complete – as they hope to be in the same league as the club to which their manager is now going!
For Bartley, it was not as bad as it had been under Martindale, it certainly wasn’t as good as they’d hoped it was going to be. And so, Arfield, telling everybody he’s not putting his hat in the ring, has now got his hat in the ring whilst sitting in the dugout. Or will he still be playing on the pitch because he still believes he’s got plenty to give as a player.
Let’s see how that works out for the end of the season for a team who are going down.
And so, from the east to the west where everything appeared to be looking good for Hamilton Academical: moving back home to New Douglas Park with players and staff having a rosy glow and a hopeful future.
Things have become turbulent once again. Don’t forget, this is a club where staff were about to go on strike because they hadn’t been paid, were stuck for a year in Broadwood in Cumbernauld, has been falling down the divisions, were handed point deduction after point deduction, and ended up second bottom of the league.
They’re in a play-off.
That means their hope, is that the trapdoor down to League Two, is going to stay shut if they can find momentum. They now need to win one game of football or not lose it by a significant margin.
HMRC meanwhile issued a winding-up petition.
BOO HISS!!!
But this is no pantomime.
In the past, I’ve called for the SPFL and SFA to do something for their member club. However, on this occasion, it would appear that the only thing that is going to keep the HMRC off their back is if they have options to pay and evidence of funds. Hamilton Academical claim they have done that, and the Accies, hopefully, are now in a position where, if they get through the play-offs, they’re going to be in League One next year in a better financial position.
Other teams suffering points penalties – Inverness and Edinburgh City have had mixed fortunes this year. Inverness Caledonian Thistle has become champions, pipping Stenhousemuir to the top spot and are off to the Championship. Perhaps this is a place that they should be, and given the size of their stadium, like Falkirk’s, perhaps it is natural to assume that they’re going to be challenging up the top end to get back into the Premiership.
As a fan of a club who is also in the Championship, I bleeding well hope not.
However, football, as I said, is a funny game.
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