Winning In The Rain: Feeling 22

The 22nd annual Oban Saints pre-season tournament takes place this Saturday at Mossfield Stadium and Oban Lorne Rugby Club. The enduring popularity of the event is exhibited in the top class opposition which the tournament continues to attract. All five of this years visitors are regular attenders and can boast a half century of appearances between them. The return of Premiership new boys Heart of Midlothian after an absence of three years brings the number of competitors back to the normal six with the usual format of the teams playing each other once.
Despite the competition being principally designed to aid in the building of pre-season fitness it is keenly contested and victory is greeted with as much celebration as any other trophy win. The tournament has been blessed with some excellent weather over the years but unfortunately Saturday's forecast is for rain. Whatever the weather the anticipated large crowd is sure to be entertained to a feast of quality football.
Saints are delighted that shirt sponsor D&K Lafferty Contractors have agreed to sponsor the club's flagship event for the third consecutive year. D&K Lafferty are fantastic supporters of local sport and it's great to see them getting the exposure that sponsorship of this prestigious tournament can offer.

Accies make their 12th consecutive appearance at the tournament and for the second year they do so as holders of the trophy. Accies will bring their full first team squad as they bid to become the first ever club to record three successive tournament victories. After last year's successful D&K Cup defence Accies embarked on an enthralling roller-coaster season which saw them top the SPFL Premiership table briefly following a sensational victory over eventual Champions Celtic at Parkhead. The successes enjoyed by Accies didn't go unnoticed and Manager Alex Neil was soon spirited away to lead Norwich City's charge to play-off success for a place in the Premier League. New Manager Martin Canning found it hard going to emulate his predecessor but eventually steadied the ship to finish top of the bottom six after the league split. With Accies being many pundits' tip for a swift return to the Championship their final league position must be seen as a great success and one which they will hope to build on in the coming season

Making their 9th consecutive appearance three time winners Alloa Athletic are now locked in a three-way tie with Heart of Midlothian and Dundee United to become the tournament's most successful competitors with a record breaking fourth win. The Wasps are unbeaten in three matches this pre-season recording home victories over Lowland League Champions Edinburgh City and SPFL League One side Airdrieonians 4 - 3 and 2 - 0 respectively, and a 1 - 1 draw against an Albion
Rovers side managed by former Wasp Darren Young. The Wasps finished 9th in last season's SPFL Championship, level on points with Livingston but with an inferior goal difference which thrust them into a thrilling play-off for league survival. Aggregate wins over Brechin City and Forfar Athletic ultimately secured Championship football for another season at Recreation Park. It was also thrills a-plenty in the Petrofac Training Cup where victories over local rivals Stirling Albion and tournament favourites Glasgow Rangers propelled the Wasps to a final showdown with fellow relegation contenders Livingston. Unfortunately for the Wasps Livingston also prevailed in this battle but the run to the cup final will live long in the memory of every Alloa Athletic fan.

Dundee United have an excellent record of three wins from their ten previous appearances. Carrying United's hopes for the honour of being the first club to record four victories this year are the under 20's. United's under 20's finished in 10th place with 40 points from 32 games in last season's highly competitive SPFL under 20's league and will be keen to test themselves against the senior professionals of Alloa Athletic, Hamilton Academical and Heart of Midlothian.

The only one of this years participants yet to record a tournament victory are St Johnstone. The Perth Saints are making their 11th tournament appearance and, like Dundee United, will be represented by their under 20's. St Johnstone under 20's finished 9th in last season's SPFL under 20's league two points ahead of Dundee United and will relish to prospect to succeed where their first team colleagues have previously failed in winning this prestigious event.

Returning after a three year absence are last season's SPFL Championship runaway winners Heart of Midlothian. A tremendous season's work from the Jambos where they suffered only three defeats saw them comfortably hold off the challenge of city rivals Hibernian and Glasgow giants Rangers to return to the Premier League as Champions. Hearts have been in excellent form so far this pre-season recording impressive away victories at League of Ireland clubs Bohemians and Shelbourne, who are both currently in the middle of their own league campaigns, and Raith Rovers of the SPFL Championship. The three time tournament winners are clearly taking their 11th tournament appearance very seriously as they are bringing their full first team squad of twenty four players plus ten management, coaching and backroom staff.

Saints 2014 - 15 campaign failed to hit the heights of the previous season's league and cup double and, despite reaching a league cup semi-final and notching up a seventh top three Scottish Amateur Football League finish in nine seasons, there was a distinct feeling of "should have done better" at the end of the campaign. The low point of the season was undoubtedly an extremely poor performance away at Alba Thistle in their penultimate fixture which gifted the relegation threatened Paisley side three valuable league points ultimately helping them secure their Premier Division status for another season. Strangely enough Saints best performances also came in defeats, firstly to top Caledonian Amateur Football League side Giffnock North who knocked Saints out of the Scottish Amateur Cup by the odd goal in thirteen after two rip-roaring cup ties, and then in the West of Scotland cup to eventual Scottish Amateur Cup and Central Scottish Amateur Football League winners Harestanes. The Hares are quite correctly considered to be the top amateur team in Scotland at present and the excellent showing put up by Saints in an extremely tight fourth round tie in Kirkintilloch demonstrated that Saints are well equipped to compete with the big guns of amateur football.

A veteran of every tournament since it's inception back in 1994 former Saints Manager Iain Jackson will attend this year's event as nothing more than an interested spectator. Iain handed over the management reins to Alex Craik at the end of last season and the Silver Fox will make for an interesting watch on the sidelines as he struggles to come to terms with life as a fan.