Charlie Christie on a Friday: Championship title race continues to be most open for years as two points separate handful of teams
Last weekend was a good one all round for Inverness Caley Thistle fans as the team got their league campaign back on the tracks with a well-deserved victory under the lights at Queen of the South on Friday evening which was quickly followed by the surprise defeat of Kilmarnock at Rugby Park by Dick Campbell’s Arbroath on Saturday afternoon.
Those results, along with wins for Raith Rovers and Partick Thistle, meant that we woke on Monday morning to see a Scottish Championship table with only two points separating the top five – quite incredible at this stage of the season!
Whilst Raith Rovers have done particularly well with the squad they have it is Arbroath who are the season’s ‘surprise package’ so far and three wins and two draws in their last five matches shows just how difficult the league’s only part-time team are to beat.
It offers up the question and one which I am often asked by friends as to how a part-time team can mix it with full time players given the reduced training time afforded to them and the fact that almost all their players will have full time employment outside of football?
There is no easy answer but if the ‘Red Lichties’ train three times per week in the evenings and work in the gym on one other evening (as I suspect they do) then the actual hours will not differ too greatly from the full-time teams, most of whom will train 4–5 sessions per week with Wednesdays off.
Obviously, part time teams will not have the ‘extra’ time to undertake a great amount of video analysis, team shaping or individual player work, but it has not hindered Dick Campbell’s team so far and credit to them.
Dick turned 68 years of age on Monday morning and I take my hat off to the man for his longevity in such a challenging profession.
He is an individual who doesn’t suffer fools gladly and is demanding of all his teams, but nobody could argue that his methods aren’t working so far this season.
Meanwhile Hibernian ripped up the script for an Old Firm Scottish League Cup Final by turning in one of their finest displays in recent memory to defeat Rangers at Hampden and manager Jack Ross deserves great credit for the way he set his team out.
Playing a front two caused Rangers all sorts of problems with the pace of hat trick hero Martin Boyle the main ingredient for much of their success.
His two goals inside the first 21 minutes set the foundation for their win and, after he completed his hat trick with a 38th minute spot kick, it was always going to be an unlikely ask for the Ibrox side to turn things around.
Whilst Scott Arfield’s goal just before the interval gave some hope to their fans it never really looked like Rangers had the craft or drive to score two more and the Easter Road side saw out the match in relative comfort.
Watching from the Main Stand at Hampden was newly appointed Rangers boss Giovanni Van Bronckhorst and the display will have given the Dutchman plenty to think about as will the after match comments from central defender Conor Goldson.
Goldson said that the team had ‘lost a bit of hunger’ which, given that Rangers have not won a domestic cup since 2011, was quite incredible to hear.
Winning the league last season and stopping Celtic completing 10-in-a-row was commendable bit it is maintaining that success that is now important to their fans and Sunday’s performance was miles away from the standards they set last season.
Hibernian, on the other hand, can now look forward to the final on December 19 although they have an incredibly busy schedule prior to that match which will see them playing seven matches in 21 days before stepping onto the pitch at Hampden.
Whilst not ideal, I’m sure Jack Ross will use the carrot of a cup final starting berth as incentive in those league games and his players will certainly look to use Sunday’s success as the catalyst to turn around their recently poor league results.