The following five fixtures are scheduled to be played in the Premier League next Saturday, 8 December 2012:
Bathgate Thistle v Broughty Athletic 
Dundee Violet v Jeanfield Swifts 
Glenrothes v Dalkeith Thistle 
Tayport v Armadale Thistle 
Ballingry Rovers v Oakley United

The five Premier League fixtures scheduled for today have been postponed due to the weather:
Armadale Thistle v Glenrothes
Ballingry Rovers  v Tayport 
Bathgate Thistle v Newtongrange Star  
Dalkeith Thistle v Dundee Violet
Jeanfield Swifts v Broughty Athletic

Broughty Athletic's Premier League match due to be played in Glenrothes today was postponed. Four other Premier fixtures were completed and the League Table on this site has been updated to include these reults:
Newtongrange Star 2 Armadale Thistle 1
Dalkeith Thistle 0 Bathgate Thistle 1
Dundee Violet 2 Tayport 1
Jeanfield Swifts 2 Ballingry Rovers 3

This week’s Junior Football odds from William Hill, including who will win the Emirates Scottish Junior Cup and the various championships throughout Scotland, are now available as a download.

Please see the side menu on this site.

Dalkeith Thistle results so far this season are as follows:
01/09/2012 Dalkeith Thistle 2 Armadale Thistle 1
08/09/2012 Bathgate Thistle 2 Dalkeith Thistle 2
15/09/2012 Penicuik Athletic 1 Dalkeith Thistle 1
22/09/2012 Dalkeith Thistle 1 Glenrothes 0
29/09/2012 Tayport 8 Dalkeith Thistle 1
06/10/2012 Dalkeith Thistle 2 Newtongrange Star 1
13/10/2012 Jeanfield Swifts 4 Dalkeith Thistle 4
03/11/2012 Dalkeith Thistle 5 Oakley United 5
10/11/2012 Ballingry Rovers 2 Dalkeith Thistle 0

Summary: P9, W3, D4, L2 F18, A24, 13Pts

Thirteen may be deemed unlucky by some but no doubt most people associated with Dalkeith Thistle will be pleased to have collected that number of points from their first nine Premier League matches. 

Ten of Thistle’s points have been won at King’s Park, where they remain undefeated in the league. Their only home draw to date was that incredible high-scoring match with Oakley United two weeks ago, a 5-5 score-line immediately preceded by a 4-4 draw with Jeanfield Swifts in Perth.      

As if taking part in matches with ten and eight goals wasn’t enough Dalkeith’s fifth fixture had produced nine! It speaks volumes for the present Thistle team that they recovered at the first opportunity following that heavy defeat in Tayport.

So far Dalkeith Thistle’s matches have averaged just under five goals per match…and with Broughty Athletic scoring four last week it looks like Whitton Park is the place to be for entertaining football this Saturday. 

On 26 October 2012 we reported that club captain Lee Bertie, one of only four championship-winning skippers in the club’s ninety-two year history, was making excellent progress in his rehabilitation from an achilles injury.

No date has yet been set for his return to Premier League action - and Lee’s inclusion in a Broughty team for the first time this season is obviously something which can’t be rushed - but when it happens it will be a fantastic achievement for the player himself and a great boost to the younger Fed players around him.    

Issue 8 of Blue Ultra, the weekly online Junior league paper, can be found at http://blueultra.co.uk/

This week’s edition carries a fully illustrated and comprehensive report of last Saturday's Dundee North End v Kirrie Thistle North Division match played at North End Park, with the names of former Fed players to the fore.

Summaries of several other matches can be found on pages 7 and 8.  

The online paper's history section features John Duncan, the famed Fifer who in the late 1920s captained the most successful ever Leicester City side.

Broughty Athletic yesterday travelled to Oakley in good spirits following last week’s draw with Penicuik. Oakley United were expected to provide difficult opposition, having drawn 2-2 at Whitton Park last season and won 1-0 at home in the last game of the 2011-12 season.  

The Fed starting line-up was as follows: a.Cormack, Shannon, Hegarty, Burns, K. Brash, Timmons, M. Brash, Donaldson, Allan, MacLeod and Fraser. The substitutes were named as: D Burns, Farquharson, Plenderleith, R. Cormack and Middleton.

Broughty were playing with two up front, aiming to cause problems to an Oakley defence which had been conceding goals in recent weeks but yet again it was the Whitton Parkers who started badly. Within the first two minutes, following uncertainty in the Ferry men’s back four, Oakley took the lead through Scarborough. Oakley’s scorer was making an immediate impact on the game, which was ominous for the Fed. 

Keeper Cormack had to be alert to turn another Oakley effort over the bar shortly after the opening goal.  

MacLeod had a couple of half-chances saved by the Oakley keeper and Fraser was giving the home centre backs problems with his pace and close ball control. The equaliser came soon enough when Mark Brash stole in at the back post to head home from a corner.

There was an immediate surge in Broughty confidence and they started to dominate but Oakley continued to move the ball well on the break, with Blackadder the main playmaker, spraying passes around to good effect. However, in keeping with the balance of play, it was Broughty who took the lead with another Mark Brash header at the back post, converting a great cross from brother Kris to make it something of a family affair.

Oakley were never out of the game and they got their equaliser in the thirty-fifth minute through that man Scarborough, who got on the end of a great through ball twelve yards out. Things get worse for the visitors before the half was out with two more quick goals from Scarborough, whose job was made all the easier by some inept defending by the visitors. That observation apart, it had proved to be a very entertaining first half.

Half time: Oakley United 4 Brougty Athletic 2

Broughty appeared to have changed their set-up for the second half by moving to three at the back with Timmons and then Plenderleith, who came on as a substitute for Shannon, playing further up the park. Broughty got their reward on fifty minutes when Plenderleith forced an effort over the line from close in to score his first goal for the club and make it 4-3 in Oakley's favour. The match had been very open from the start and looked to be continuing in the same vein;  entertaining for the crowd if not for the coaches.

Paton for Oakley went close a couple of times and on one occasion was halted by Timmons who had raced back to get in a superb challenge inside the box to prevent a near certain goal.

The equaliser for Broughty came shortly afterwards, when a deep hanging cross into the Oakley box was poorly defended and MacLeod was able to get his head to the high ball and see it loop over the Oakley keeper and into the net to make it 4-4.

With twenty minutes to go either team looked capable of winning and both were going for it.

With fifteen minutes to go Fraser was removed from the action and replaced by Farquharson and shortly after that Middleton replaced Hegarty who had taken a knock. 

Oakley’s Blackadder went closest with a shot which hit the post and trundled along the line without going in. It was eventually cleared but Oakley were not to be denied and the deciding goal was scored by Scarborough; who else?

The winner came from a ball into the box which Scarborough ran onto, but under a challenge from Cormack went down and was awarded s a penalty. There was no resulting sending off, as there was no clear goal-scoring opportunity.  If anything it looked as if Scarborough had lost control of the ball and it was going out but the referee still booked Cormack for the offence and Scarborough made no mistake from the spot.

The final ten minutes were played out in a much fierier manner, with the visitors becoming more desperate. There were some fierce challenges going in especially from Broughty’s Kris Brash, who incensed the Oakley support with one sliding challenge which was deemed fair by the referee. He then went through another Oakley player and got himself a booking for a reckless challenge. Oakley’s no 2 Mauchlan over-reacted to the latter incident and earned a straight red for aggressive behaviour.

Broughty kept fighting to the end but Oakley held on to win 5-4. It was probably a deserved outcome but only on the balance of chances made and taken, as Broughty matched them all over the pitch in all other regards.

Full time: Oakley United 5 Broughty Athletic 4

It’s obvious the season has not been going to plan so far for the Fed but it’s equally apparent that this young Broughty Athletic team is determined to get the results turned around.

Meantime, the manager situation remains unresolved. Following a meeting between the senior players and the committee in the past week, it was decided not to rush an appointment but to leave the senior players in charge until the end of the year.  “Performances such as against Penicuik and Oakley are a great encouragement and much appreciated by everyone involved with the club,” a club spokesman told the website. 

Last Saturday Oakley United scored five goals away from home and only earned a point. This week they scored another five at home to Broughty Athletic, won all three points but scored only one more goal than their visitors from Dundee.

Until today the Fed hadn’t scored more than one goal in any competitive match this season, so it’s all the more galling to return from west Fife with no further points added to the league total – but plenty of evidence that recent claims of the terrific team spirit which exists at the Ferry club are fully warranted.

In the other Premier League matches played today the scores were as follows:
Ballingry Rovers 2 Dalkeith Thistle 0
Glenrothes 1 Jeanfield Swifts 0
Penicuik Athletic 2 Dundee Violet 1
Tayport 0 Newtongrange Star 0

The Bathgate Thistle v Armadale Thistle fixture was postponed.