The Ubiquitous Chip
Horse and Train
Sentimental Value by Chris Ware
West End FC
West End FC existed from 1873 till 1878. They played at Burnbank Park in Glasgow’s Woodlands neighbourhood at first, and at Avenue Park in Cowlairs from 1876 to 1878. West End (Greenock) is a different club.
West End FC (Cowlairs) 1877-78:
1877/12/1 West End 2 – 1 Havelock (at Towerhill Park)
1877/10/6 Havelock 1 – 0 West End
1877/9/29 Strathclyde 5 – 1 West End (Sc Cup R1)
(Sources: The Beautiful Dribbling Game for the Scottish Cup; the Glasgow Herald for the rest.)
West End FC (Cowlairs) 1876-77:
1876/11/18 Edinburgh Swifts 1 – 1 West End (West End disqualified) (Sc Cup R3)
1876/10/28 Govan 0 – 1 West End (Sc Cup R2 replay)
1876/10/21 West End 2 – 2 Govan (Sc Cup R2)
1876/9/30 West End 2 – 0 4th RRV (Sc Cup R1)
(Source: The Beautiful Dribbling Game for the Scottish Cup.)
West End FC 1875-76:
1876/2/19 West End 5 – 0 Sandyford (at Cowlairs) “a return match”
1875/11/20 2nd West End 0 – 1 2nd Havelock (at Cowlairs)
1875/11/6 West End 0 – 6 Rovers (Sc Cup R2)
1875/10/16 West End 1 – 1 Partick FC (both advanced) (Sc Cup R1 replay)
1875/10/2 Partick FC 1 – 1 West End (Sc Cup R1)
(Sources: The Beautiful Dribbling Game for the Scottish Cup; the Glasgow Herald for the rest.)
West End FC 1874-75:
1875/3/20 Vale of Leven 2nd XI 5 – 0 West End 2nd XI
1875/3/6 2nd Hamilton 0 – 1 2nd West End
1875/3/6 Hamilton 1 – 4 West End
1875/2/6 23rd RRV (Cathcart) 1 – 0 West End (Glasgow)
1874/11/21 Queen’s Park 7 – 0 West End (Sc Cup R2)
1874/10/31 2nd West End 0 – 1 2nd Standard
1874/10/31 Standard 2 – 1 West End
1874/10/24 West End 3 – 0 Star of Leven (Sc Cup R1)
(Sources: The Beautiful Dribbling Game for the Scottish Cup; the Glasgow Herald for the rest.)
West End FC 1873-74:
1874/2/14 Alexandra Athletic 2 – 0 West End Wanderers (Is this them?)
1973/12/6 Alexandra Athletic 2 – 0 West End Wanderers
1873/8/30 founding meeting
(Source: the Glasgow Herald.)
2025-26 Scottish Challenge Cup Final
It’s the final of the Scottish Challenge Cup, a fixture steeped in tradition, fraught with meaning, the antithesis of diddiness.
ICT won the cup in 2003-04 and 2017-18, Raith in 2013-14 and 2021-22. They were to have met in the 2019-20 final but it was cancelled due to Covid and the two sides were declared co-winners, so it’s correct to say that each has won the cup two-and-a-half times.
Raith are fifth in the Championship, Inverness first in League One. They met in the League Cup group stage back in July and Raith won 5 – 1. Only four third-tier teams have ever won this cup: Stenhousemuir, Stranraer, Alloa and Queen of the South.
Clubs that have never played in the Challenge Cup final are: Celtic, Aberdeen, Motherwell, Hearts, Hibs, Kilmarnock, Arbroath, Montrose, East Fife, Cove Rangers, Kelty Hearts, East Kilbride, The Spartans, Forfar, Annan, Elgin, Stirling Albion and Edinburgh City.
Top ticket price is £20. Top ticket price for the coming FIFA World Cup final is $10,990. Story.
2025-26 Scottish Challenge Cup final (tomorrow):
Raith Rovers [4 – 1] Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Meanwhile in the Championship, Morton visit Dunfermline. The Pars are fourth in the Championship with 40 points, and Morton are sixth with 36. So far this season they’re even, with a win, a loss and a draw each. A win today would put Morton 1 point out of the promotion playoffs.
The last Morton player to score against Dunfermline was Cammy MacPherson on February 17th. The last Dunfermline player to score against Morton was Charlie Gilmour on November 22nd.
[Dunfermline 3 – 1 Morton. Morton goal by Blues.]
The other Championship matches:
Arbroath (3rd) [2 – 4] St Johnstone (1st)
Ayr United (8th) [1 – 1] Partick Thistle (2nd)
Ayr sacked their manager Monday. They’re on an eight-game winless streak.
Ross County (9th) [0 – 4] Airdrieonians (10th)
Other matches:
Drumchapel United 0 – 2 Largs Thistle (March 31)
Cowdenbeath 0 – 4 Clydebank (April 1)
Lipno Stęszew [1 – 1] Środa
1.FC Kaiserlauten [3 – 0] Fortuna Düsseldorf
Banks o’ Dee [6 – 1] Wick Academy
Only Brechin, Brora or Formartine can win the Highland League.
Clydebank [4 – 0] Broxburn Athletic
Only Clydebank, Bonnyrigg Rose, Linlithgow Rose or Tranent can win the Lowland League.
Largs Thistle [0 – 1] Rutherglen Glencairn
Lesmahagow vs Greenock [postponed]
Ardeer Thistle [4 – 0] Port Glasgow
Inverkeithing Hillfield Swifts [3 – 3] Coldstream
ReinMeer Aomori [2 – 2] Grulla Morioka [Grulla win on PK] (tomorrow)
Tokyo Verdy Beleza [0 – 1] Elfen Saitama (tomorrow)
Aberdeen have joined the Union of European Clubs. Story.
Hamilton Accies will play at New Douglas Stadium next season. Story.
Bo’ness Athletic will fold at the end of this season. Story.
Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for the third straight time. Story.
Whenever the Scottish Sun has a story about a non-Premiership club the accompanying photo is always just a pile of footballs.
The 2026 Canadian Premier League begins:
Vancouver FC [0 – 1] HFX Wanderers [Goal by Callegari.]
This is the eighth season for the Canadian Premier League. The league now has a team in Montreal, but no longer has a team in Winnipeg. Only five of the league’s original seven clubs remain and one of those has rebranded itself twice.
There’s a gap in the CanPL schedule in June where the World Cup group stage will go, though none of the CanPL clubs play at a World Cup venue. The Toronto Argonauts and BC Lions are the ones who have had to move out of their stadiums for FIFA.
The league has abandoned its eccentric five-team playoff format and returned to the rational universe of two semi-finals and a final.
J League 100 Year Vision League East, matchday 9:
[Machida Zelvia 0 – 3 FC Tokyo (April 1)]
JEF United (10th) [3 – 2] Tokyo Verdy (4th)
Mito HollyHock (9th) [1 – 1] Kashima Antlers (1st) [Mito win on PK]
Kashiwa Reysol (8th) [3 – 0] Yokohama F Marinos (7th) (tomorrow)
FC Tokyo (3rd) [0 – 0] Machida Zelvia (2nd) [Zelvia win on PK] (tomorrow)
Kawasaki Frontale (6th) [3 – 2] Urawa Red Diamonds (5th) (tomorrow)
Historical matches:
1891/4/4 Cowlairs 4 – 5 Morton
1931/4/4 Rangers 2 – 1 Morton
1953/4/4 Morton 4 – 1 Alloa
1981/4/1 Rangers 4 – 0 Morton
1981/4/4 Morton 1 – 3 Aberdeen
SFL results 1890-91:
1891/4/4 St Mirren 1 – 0 Celtic
1891/4/4 Third Lanark 1 – 2 Cambuslang
1891/4/4 Rangers 4 – 0 Vale of Leven
Cedar Sake Cup
Lego Ulm Minster
Sceptres versus Charge at Calgary
Flames versus Blues. Source.
Ottawa and Toronto meet up in Calgary for one of the PWHL’s Takeover Tour road games. These are staged by the league to broaden the popularity of the women’s game, and to size up potential expansion cities. So while the scores matter to the teams, the attendance figures matter to the league. (See below.)
Ottawa comes into the game in 4th place with 33 points. Toronto is 5th with 31. Both teams are after the fourth and final playoff spot.
Ottawa’s leading scorers are Rebecca Leslie and Brianne Jenner, both with 19 points. Toronto’s leading scorer is Daryl Watts with 17.
Toronto Sceptres players who have played for Ottawa: Savannah Harmon, Daryl Watts, Kristin Della Rovere.
Ottawa Charge players who have played for Toronto: Jocelyne Larocque, Rebecca Leslie, Alexa Vasko.
[Toronto 2, Ottawa 1]
Previous results:
2025/12/4 Toronto 3 – 1 Ottawa
2025/12/23 Ottawa 4 – 3 Toronto
2025-26 Takeover Tour attendances:
2025/12/21 Chicago 7,238
2025/12/27 Edmonton 10,264
2025/12/28 Dallas 8,514
2026/1/3 Hamilton 16,012
2026/1/3 Detroit 9,624
2026/1/11 Halifax 10,452
2026/1/11 Quebec 14,624
2026/1/18 Washington 17,228
2026/1/25 Denver 11,612
2026/3/15 Denver 15,512
2026/3/22 Winnipeg 15,225
2026/3/25 Chicago 10,006
2026/3/28 Detroit 15,938
SDHL finals:
2026/3/22 Frölunda 1 – 4 Brynäs
2026/3/24 Frölunda 0 – 2 Brynäs
2026/3/27 Brynäs 6 – 2 Frölunda
Swiss Women’s League finals:
2026/3/21 Zug 7 – 1 Bern
2026/3/22 Bern 0 – 4 Zug
2026/3/25 Zug 6 – 3 Bern
Sydney Mines High School, 1913
I attended this place in 1970-71 when it was called Barrington School and housed grades 3 to 6. The whole building smelled of dry rot and the schoolyard was paved with furnace clinkers and broken glass. Those dear old school days. Source.
Apples by Faith Fyles
atonofsnow.com 