Congrats to Edinburgh City on promotion to the SPFL

[DarkSithLord]

Edinburgh City are the first team to be promoted via the new play-off system in to the Scottish League 2 after defeating perennial struggler East Stirling 2-1 on aggregate.

Great to see a new team promoted.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36234801

 

[Dr Mantis Toboggan]

*team

 

[Gulliball]

Many congratulations to them. I went to the first leg last week and it's a good set-up.

Quite interestingly, they haven't finished the league season yet, although have already won the play-offs. They had already won the Lowland League, and so had to play Cove Rangers, who won the Highland League, and then the winners faced East Stirling. With the play-offs being time specific, they had to play these games without completing the league season.

They were at least honest in the programme fixture list regarding dates...

Also interestingly, they have one player with a squad number - No. 21 Joe Mbu, and the programme again explains why...

The ground was built for the Commonwealth Games in 1970, so has seen better days, but with 7 500 seats and a capacity of 16 500 it would be able to handle any game, even if they drew Hibs in a cup.

The facilities are good for a lower league club, and the one big stand that everyone's in has a decent view of the pitch for a stadium with an athletics track. There are plans in the future to knock it down/rebuild it, but as long as they have access to a suitable stadium then I think they can grow.

Some crowds are in the low hundreds, but they had over a thousand for the home play-off last week, which is phenomenal for Scottish L2 club. In a City the size of Edinburgh, they are the 3rd largest club after Hearts/Hibs, and now that they are in the SPFL can offer lower league football, which is a pretty large market for half a million people. Being central they should be able to attract some good part-time players as well, so you'd think they can grow quite a lot if they can run themselves well.

I will go and watch them a few times next season in away games to go and see some new grounds.

 

[Pliny Harris]

I love those Scottish regional grounds. Shows how non-league grounds in England could have been without the stringent regulations. I say that more or less neutrally; there's a fair bit of character there despite the athletics track, but I also reckon it's a good thing that facilities in England have to be fit for purpose, complete with seating that many junior league outfits don't have, as much as these places look so quaint. Getting into the SFL for the first time is beating the odds imo, so good on them. I hope they can get numbers on their kits now.