Author: lojmit

Derek Cornelius

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Canadian centre-back Derek Cornelius is on loan to Rangers from Marseilles. Source.

Morton host Ayr United. The Honest Men are fourth in the division with 27 points. Morton are seventh with 21, 6 points out of fourth place and 4 points out of ninth.

So far this season Ayr have a win and a draw against Morton.

Dougie Imrie appears as January in Morton’s 2026 wall calendar despite having joined Raith Rovers in November. Picture.

[Morton 1 – 1 Ayr United. Morton goal by Lyall.]

The other Championship matches:
Arbroath (3rd) [1 – 1] Airdrieonians (9th)
Queen’s Park (8th) [2 – 2] Partick Thistle (2nd)
Raith Rovers (5th) [1 – 2] Dunfermline Athletic (6th)
Ross County (10th) [0 – 0] St Johnstone (1st)

Other matches:
Brora Rangers [3 – 0] Wick Academy
Clydebank [5 – 0] Gretna 2008
Coldstream [4 – 1] Linton Hotspur

Goalie Marco Carducci, who made 193 starts for Cavalry FC and is the league’s Golden Glove winner for 2019 and 2022, has joined HFX Wanderers on a two-year contract.

Scottish Challenge Cup, R2 (December 22):
Montrose (L1) 2 – 1 The Spartans (L2)

Book: Charles W. Alcock, Football: Our Winter Game.

Historical matches:
1890/12/27 Morton 1 – 1 Glasgow Wanderers
1930/12/25 Morton 4 – 2 St Mirren
1930/12/27 Airdrieonians 2 – 0 Morton
1952/12/27 Arbroath 1 – 0 Morton
1980/12/27 Morton 2 – 0 Partick Thistle

SFL results 1890-91:
1890/12/27 Abercorn 1 – 2 Dumbarton

When was the last time each SPFL club beat Celtic?
[2025/12/30 Motherwell 2 – 0 Celtic]
2025/12/17 Dundee United 2 – 1 Celtic
2025/12/14 St Mirren 3 – 1 Celtic
2025/12/7 Celtic 1 – 2 Hearts
2025/10/19 Dundee 2 – 0 Celtic
2025/5/24 Aberdeen 1 – 1 Celtic (Aberdeen won on PK)
2025/4/6 St Johnstone 1 – 0 Celtic
2025/3/16 Celtic 2 – 3 Rangers
2025/2/22 Hibs 2 – 1 Celtic
2023/12/10 Kilmarnock 2 – 1 Celtic
2021/9/19 Livingston 1 – 0 Celtic
2021/2/21 Ross County 1 – 0 Celtic
2015/12/19 Celtic 1 – 2 Motherwell
2015/4/19 Inverness CT 3 – 2 Celtic
2014/10/5 Celtic 0 – 1 Hamilton Academical
2013/9/24 Celtic 0 – 1 Morton
2007/3/18 Falkirk 1 – 0 Celtic
2006/1/8 Clyde 2 – 1 Celtic
2005/11/26 Celtic 0 – 1 Dunfermline Athletic
1995/5/2 Celtic 1 – 3 Partick Thistle
1994/11/27 Raith Rovers 2 – 2 Celtic (Raith Rovers won on PK)
1985/5/14 Celtic 2 – 3 Queen’s Park
1980/8/27 Stirling Albion 1 – 0 Celtic
1980/7/27 Celtic 0 – 1 Ayr United
1964/9/9 East Fife 2 – 0 Celtic
1962/11/10 Celtic 0 – 1 Queen of the South
1943/9/4 Celtic 1 – 4 Dumbarton
1937/10/9 Arbroath 2 – 0 Celtic
The rest never.

2025 Spengler Cup

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Sparta Prague. Source.

It’s the Spengler Cup, the annual invitational tournament hosted by HC Davos in Switzerland and played from Boxing Day till New Year’s Eve. Six teams take part; this year they are host Davos, Team Canada, US College Selects, Sparta Prague, HIFK and Fribourg-Gottéron. The teams are divided into two groups, each group plays a round robin and the standings from the round robin determine the playoff positions. The games are:

Group Torriani:
Match 1 (December 26) Fribourg-Gottéron [5 – 2] Sparta Prague
Match 3 (December 27) HIFK [1 – 4] [Sparta Prague]
Match 5 (December 28) [Fribourg-Gottéron] [4 – 3] HIFK

Group Cattini:
Match 2 (December 26) Team Canada [3 – 2] US Selects
Match 4 (December 27) Davos [3 – 5] [US Selects]
Match 6 (December 28) [Team Canada] [1 – 4] Davos

Quarter-finals:
Match 7 (December 29) [Sparta Prague] [5 – 1] [Team Canada]
Match 8 (December 29) [Davos] [3 – 0] [HIFK]

Semi-finals:
Match 9 (December 30) [US Selects] [5 – 3] [Sparta Prague]
Match 10 (December 30) [Fribourg-Gottéron] [1 – 3] [Davos]

Final:
Match 11 (December 31) winner [US Selects] [3 – 6] [Davos]

The Spengler Cup was first played in 1923, which would make this the 103rd edition, except that there were six years when it wasn’t played due to war or some other thing, making this the 97th edition.

Despite being host club, HC Davos have not played in every Spengler Cup, but they have won the tournament 16 times. They are currently in first place in the Swiss National League by a wide margin.

Team Canada first attended the tournament in 1984 and have won it 16 times. The squad is made up chiefly of Canadians playing in the Swiss league or the AHL.

The US College Selects appear for the first time. But it’s not the first time university players have participated. Oxford University won the inaugural Spengler Cup in 1923.

Sparta Prague have been to the Spengler Cup ten times before and have won it twice. They are currently second in the Czech Extraliga.

Fribourg-Gottéron play in the Swiss National League. They won the Spengler Cup last year. They are presently second in the NL.

HIFK from Helsinki have been to the Spengler Cup four times before. Currently they’re 13th in the Finnish Liiga.

Kilsyth

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Kilsyth, 1926. Kilsyth is on the northeast fringe of Glasgow, situated between the Kilsyth Hills to the north, the River Kelvin to the south, and bogs and marshes to the east and west. It was the site of the Battle of Kilsyth between Royalists and Covenanters in 1645. It’s the home of the first curling club, founded in 1716. Building stone has been quarried here for centuries, which has left several large holes in the townscape.

Kilsyth Rangers began in 1913 and play at Duncansfield Park. Kilsyth Athletic was formed in 2002 and uses Kilsyth Sports Field as its home ground. The two are in the West of Scotland League Second Division this year and play each other today.

Morton visit St Johnstone. St Johnstone are top of the division with 38 points. Morton are seventh with 21.

The season is half over. Morton are on track to finish with 42 points, good enough for sixth place in last year’s Championship.

Hearts are after St Johnstone’s top scorer Josh McPake (who played for Morton in 2020-21). McPake leads the Championship with 12 goals. It’s not too long since Rangers were after Hearts’ top scorer.

Hamilton Academical have been docked 9 points for failing to maintain a bronze licence.

Gary Miller has taken on the role of interim head coach at Morton.

[St Johnstone 5 – 0 Morton.]

The other Championship matches:
Aidrieonians (8th) [0 – 3] Queen’s Park (9th)
Dunfermline Athletic (5th) [2 – 3] Ayr United (4th)
Partick Thistle (2nd) [0 – 0] Raith Rovers (6th)
Ross County (10th) [0 – 2] Arbroath (3rd)
Ross County sacked their manager after last weekend’s loss.

Scottish Challenge Cup, R2 (December 16):
Dumbarton (L2) 0 – 9 Inverness CT (L1)
By my count this is Dumbarton’s third-worst result ever, and their worst at home. They were beaten 11 – 1 twice: at Albion Rovers in 1926 in Division Two and at Ayr United in 1952 in the League Cup.
Elgin City (L2) 2 – 3 East Fife (L1)
Montrose (L1) vs The Spartans (L2) (postponed again)
Cove Rangers (L1) 1 – 2 Partick Thistle (Ch)
Hearts B 0 – 1 St Johnstone (Ch)
Queen of the South (L1) 4 – 3 Dunfermline Athletic (Ch) Upset
Queen’s Park (Ch) 2 – 1 Clyde (L2)

Other matches:
Golspie Sutherland 1 – 0 Bonar Bridge (December 17)
Fortuna Düsseldorf [2 – 1] Greuther Fürth
Wick Academy [2 – 1] Huntly
Largs Thistle [3 – 0] Kilwinning Rangers
Kilsyth Athletic [2 – 1] Kilsyth Rangers
Glasgow Perthshire [1 – 6] Port Glasgow
Elfen Saitama [0 – 1] JEF United

South Challenge Cup, R4:
St Roch’s (W1) [2 – 1] Bonnyrigg Rose (LL) Upset

South Challenge Cup, R5:
Cumnock (WP) [3 – 0] Neilston (W1)
Greenock (W2) vs Glenafton Athletic (WP) [postponed]
Kilbirnie Ladeside (W1) [2 – 6] Cumbernauld United (W1)
Leith Athletic (E1) [0 – 3] Haddington Athletic (E3) Upset
Muirkirk (W1) [3 – 2] Rutherglen Glencairn (WP) Upset
Vale of Clyde (W1) [1 – 0] Caledonian Braves (LL) Upset
University of Stirling (LL) [4 – 0] Renfrew (WP)

Scottish Junior Cup, R3:
Fraserburgh United [wo – scr] Dundonald Bluebell

UEFA Conference League, league phase, matchday 6 (December 18):
Sparta Prague 3 – 0 Aberdeen
Shamrock Rovers 3 – 1 Hamrun Spartans
Celje 0 – 0 Shelbourne
Aberdeen, Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne are out.

With the World Cup approaching like a distant cloud of locusts the CFL has had to plan ahead and release its 2026 schedule early. There will be no Argonaut home games between May 29th (preseason week 3) and August 6th (regular season week 10) and no BC Lions home games between May 23rd (preseason week 2) and June 27th (Week 4). As the Lions are giving themselves less than 24 hours to convert their stadium from World Cup to CFL football after New Zealand vs Belgium June 26th, you can imagine a postponement happening.

Historical matches:
1890/12/20 Morton 1 – 2 Linthouse
1930/12/20 Morton 1 – 1 Ayr United
1952/12/20 Morton 1 – 0 Cowdenbeath
1980/12/20 Hearts 0 – 0 Morton

Cup results of the 1890-91 SFL clubs:
1890/12/20 Vale of Leven 12 – 0 Kirkintilloch Athletic (Dumbartonshire Cup SF replay)
1890/12/20 Leith Athletic 2 – 3 Abercorn (Sc Cup R6)
1890/12/20 Dumbarton 3 – 0 Celtic (Sc Cup R6)
1890/12/20 East Stirlingshire 1 – 3 Hearts (Sc Cup R6)