⚽ The Kick-Off | Monday 7th April 2025

Weekend round up. Brora odds on favourites for Highland League title. Maeda, Gray and Lyons win monthly awards. East Kilbride win the treble. Play-off dates confirmed.

Apr 07, 2025

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➡️ Random Scottish Football Fact #31: Queen's Park have played in two English FA Cup Finals (1884 & 1885).

THE WEEKEND ROUND UP

➡️ SPFL Premiership
There were three home wins and three away wins this weekend. All of which the winning team kept a clean sheet. The biggest surprise was bottom-of-the-table St Johnstone beating Celtic 1-0 at McDiarmid Park. Rangers have now lost five games in a row at Ibrox after going down 2-0 to Hibernian. Aberdeen beat Ross County 1-0 and remain one point behind third-placed Hibs. Dundee United are still in the hunt for third following their 1-0 win away at Hearts. Kilmarnock and Dundee both picked up vital 2-0 home wins. Kilmarnock beat Motherwell and Dundee beat St Mirren. - View the Premiership table here

➡️ SPFL Championship
The title is nearly confirmed for Falkirk. They beat Greenock Morton 5-0 and are at most two wins away from the title. Things are getting tense at the bottom, however. Airdieonians 2-1 victory over Partick Thistle has put them within three points of Dunfermline in ninth. The Pars lost 1-0 at home to Hamilton Academical, who moved into eighth place and remained five points clear of Airdrie. Queen’s Park's poor run continues as they were beaten 3-0 by Livingston. They are only six points clear of bottom-side Airdrie. Raith Rovers kept their play-off hopes alive with a 1-0 win over Ayr United. - View the Championship table here

➡️ SPFL League One
Arbroath need just one point next weekend to win the title. They beat Montrose 1-0 on Saturday. Closest challengers Cove Rangers and Stenhousemuir both lost again. Cove lost 3-0 at home to Inverness and Stenny lost 4-1 at home to Alloa Athletic. Alloa are one point outside the play-off places. Queen of the South currently sit fourth after beating Annan Athletic 2-0. The result of the day goes to already relegated Dumbarton who beat Kelty Hearts 6-0 away. - View the League One table here

➡️ SPFL League Two
Peterhead moved four points clear at the top of the league following their 5-0 win over bottom-side Bonnyrigg Rose. East Fife lost 1-0 away to Forfar Athletic who are now six points clear of Bonnyrigg at the bottom. Stirling Albion kept their play-off hopes alive with a 2-0 win away to fourth-placed Elgin City. The Spartans kept the pressure on with their 2-1 victory over Stranraer. Edinburgh City also won 2-1. They beat Clyde at home. - View the League Two table here

NEWS

🏆 East Kilbride completed a treble this week by winning the FinestCarMats.co.uk South Challenge Cup yesterday. They beat Auchinleck Talbot 2-0 to win their second successive South Challenge Cup trophy.

It was quite the week for Kilby. They won the Lowland League Cup last Sunday, the Lowland League midweek and the South Challenge Cup yesterday.

🔝 The Breedon Highland League title is looking like it is headed to Brora following their 2-0 win over Huntly on Saturday. Despite Brechin City also winning at the weekend, Brora have a superior goal difference and take on bottom-side Rothes at home in the final game of the season. Should the unexpected happen, a win for Brechin at home to Lossiemouth will see them dramatically clinch the title. - view the Highland League table here

🔝 Clydebank won the West of Scotland Premier Division at the weekend. As things stand they will participate in a play-off for promotion to the Lowland League with the winners of the East of Scotland Premier Division and South of Scotland League. - view the West of Scotland Premier Division table

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🆙 Congratulations to Camelon Juniors who have won promotion to the East of Scotland Premier Division. - view the East of Scotland League tables

🆚 The SPFL have confirmed the post-split and play-off dates.

The second leg of the Premiership Play-Off Final is scheduled to take place on Monday 26th of May, unless St Johnstone make the Scottish Cup Final, in which case it would be Friday 30th of May. - View all the play-off dates on the SPFL website

🏟️ Hearts have secured additional Scottish Cup Semi-Final tickets after initially selling 20,000.

The Scottish FA have provided an extra 1,941 tickets. - Robbie Hanratty, Hearts Standard

🏅 Both Daizen Maeda and David Gray have won back-to-back SPFL awards. Maeda won William Hill Premiership Player of the Month for March after winning the February award. David Gray followed up his February Scottish Premiership Glen’s Manager of the Month by winning the March award too.

Montrose’s Blair Lyons won the League One Player of the Month award for March. - SPFL website

💷 Dumbarton fans have raised £119,000 for the club since they entered administration.

Quantuma, the club administrators issued a short statement saying that discussions with interested buyers are still ongoing and that the funding gap until the end of the season is still shy of £14k. - Dumbarton FC website

🗣️ On Friday, Queen’s Park issued a statement confirming that Lord Willie Haughey is pulling his sponsorship from the club.

The statement also said they are reviewing the future of their academy although it has been widely reported that they will be ending their Elite Academy programme. - Queen’s Park website

🤕 Noah Chilvers will be out long-term for Ross County after the English midfielder picked up an ACL injury in training. - Andrew Henderson, Ross-Shire Journal

4️⃣ Scotland Women’s National Team lost 4-0 to Germany in the UEFA Women’s Nation League at Tannadice on Friday.

Up next is an away game in Germany tomorrow. - Watch the highlights here

4️⃣ It was also a 4-0 defeat for Scotland Women’s Under-19s in their UEFA EURO Qualifier at the weekend. Spain now tops the group. The final qualifier is against Switzerland tomorrow in what looks like a battle for second. - view the group table here

🏟️ The Highland Council have approved a planning application for North Caledonian League Champions Invergordon to improve their home ground.

Invergordon hope to have the ground ready and a Scottish FA Club License to challenge for promotion to the Highland League next season. - Niall Harkiss, Ross-Shire Journal

↕️ The BBC have created a handy guide to what can happen and when in the final weeks of the SPFL season. - view the guide here

SCOTTISH FOOTBALL FIXTURES TODAY

🏆 Cree Lodge Cup Quarter-Final

Wigtown & Bladnoch v Lochar Thistle (7.45pm)