SJFA West Region Premiership

The SJFA West Region Premiership (also known as the McBookie.com West Region Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was a semi-professional football league run by the West Region of the Scottish Junior Football Association, and was the highest tier of league competition for its member clubs.

SJFA West Region Premiership

Founded	2002 (22 years ago) (2002)
Folded	2020
Country	Scotland
Number of teams	16
Level on pyramid	1
Promotion to	no promotion
Relegation to	West Region Championship
Domestic cup(s)	Scottish Junior Cup
Last champions	Auchinleck Talbot (7th title) (2019–20)
Most championships	Auchinleck Talbot (7 titles)
Website	Scottish Junior FA

Formerly known as the West of Scotland Super League Premier Division, the league was created in 2002 with the amalgamation of the top leagues of the Central and Ayrshire regions.

It was abolished in 2020 when all SJFA West Region clubs moved to join the newly-formed senior West of Scotland Football League.

The final champions and most successful club were Auchinleck Talbot, who won seven league titles. A total of 32 clubs competed in the league.

History

Initially two clubs were automatically relegated to the Super League First Division at the end of each season, and replaced by the clubs placed first and second in that division. A relegation play-off was added in 2006–07 which saw the club finishing third bottom contest a two-legged play-off against the team which finished third in the Super League First Division.

From the 2007–08 season, the winners of the league were eligible to enter the senior Scottish Cup at its earliest stage, with Pollok being the first champions to take part in the Scottish Cup.^[1]

In 2017 West Region clubs voted to organise all leagues on a regionwide basis and as a result, the Super League Premier Division was rebranded as the West Region Premiership for the 2018–19 season. The league was also expanded to sixteen clubs, and with clubs were relegated to a rebranded Championship also consisting of sixteen teams.^[2]

The final season was curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Champions and season summaries

Note: Champions in bold completed the 'Double' by also winning the Junior Cup.

Year	Winner	Runners-up	Relegated	Promoted	West Region League play-off (aggregate)	Champions' Progression in Scottish Cup
2002–03	Pollok	Neilston Juniors	Benburb Irvine Meadow XI	Arthurlie Troon	N/A	N/A
2003–04	Kilwinning Rangers	Arthurlie	Kilbirnie Ladeside Neilston Juniors	Bellshill Athletic Renfrew	N/A	N/A
2004–05	Pollok (2)	Arthurlie	Kilwinning Rangers Troon	Kilsyth Rangers Shotts Bon Accord	N/A	N/A
2005–06	Auchinleck Talbot	Renfrew	Johnstone Burgh Larkhall Thistle	Neilston Juniors Petershill	N/A	N/A
2006–07	Pollok (3)	Auchinleck Talbot	Maryhill Renfrew	Beith Juniors Irvine Meadow XI	Glenafton Athletic 2 Kilwinning Rangers 0	2nd Round 2007–08^[1]
2007–08	Pollok (4)	Irvine Meadow XI	Kilsyth Rangers Shotts Bon Accord	Kirkintilloch Rob Roy Vale of Clyde	Cumnock Juniors 5 Kilwinning Rangers 2	1st Round 2008–09^[3]
2008–09	Irvine Meadow XI	Pollok	Neilston Juniors Cumnock Juniors Glenafton Athletic	Largs Thistle Kilbirnie Ladeside Lanark United	Lanark United 3 Glenafton Athletic 2	4th Round 2009–10^[4]
2009–10	Beith Juniors	Arthurlie	Vale of Clyde Bellshill Athletic	Rutherglen Glencairn Cumnock Juniors	Lanark United 3 Clydebank 2	3rd Round 2010–11^[5]
2010–11	Irvine Meadow (2)	Arthurlie	Rutherglen Glencairn Lanark United	Ashfield Clydebank	Petershill 1 Glenafton Athletic 0	3rd Round 2011–12^[6]
2011–12	Irvine Meadow (3)	Petershill	Kilbirnie Ladeside Largs Thistle	Glenafton Athletic Shotts Bon Accord	Pollok 5 Renfrew 1	2nd Round 2012–13^[7]
2012–13	Auchinleck Talbot (2)	Petershill	Shotts Bon Accord Beith Juniors Ashfield	Hurlford United Kilbirnie Ladeside Largs Thistle	Largs Thistle 7 Ashfield 7 4–3 pens.^[8]	3rd Round 2013–14^[9]
2013–14	Auchinleck Talbot (3)	Irvine Meadow	Kirkintilloch Rob Roy Pollok Largs Thistle	Troon Beith Juniors Shotts Bon Accord	Shotts Bon Accord 5 Kirkintilloch Rob Roy 2^[10]	2nd Round 2014–15^[11]
2014–15	Auchinleck Talbot (4)	Hurlford United	Shotts Bon Accord Cumnock Juniors Clydebank	Pollok Shettleston Kirkintilloch Rob Roy	Kirkintilloch Rob Roy 4 Shotts Bon Accord 1^[12]	2nd Round 2015–16^[13]
2015–16	Auchinleck Talbot (5)	Hurlford United	Irvine Meadow Petershill Shettleston	Cumnock Juniors Largs Thistle Kilwinning Rangers	Kilwinning Rangers 5 Shettleston 3^[14]	Preliminary round 2 2016–17^[15]
2016–17	Glenafton Athletic	Kirkintilloch Rob Roy	Largs Thistle Troon	Girvan Clydebank	Kilwinning Rangers 3 Kilsyth Rangers 2^[16]	3rd Round 2017–18
2017–18	Beith Juniors (2)	Auchinleck Talbot	Girvan Arthurlie	Petershill Cambuslang Largs Renfrew Irvine Meadow Troon	Irvine Meadow 4 Arthurlie 1 Troon 4 Girvan 2	3rd Round 2018–19
2018–19	Auchinleck Talbot (6)	Hurlford United	Renfrew Petershill Cambuslang	Rutherglen Glencairn Benburb Rossvale		3rd Round 2019–20
2019–20^[a]	Auchinleck Talbot (7)	Kilwinning Rangers	No promotion or relegation: all clubs moved to the senior West of Scotland Football League.^[19]^[20]			Withdrew

1. Season suspended in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Champions calculated using 'points per game' algorithm, announced on 21 April.^[17][18]

References

1. "Pollok 0-1 Montrose". BBC Sport. 3 November 2007. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
2. Goldthorp, Craig (13 July 2017). "Junior football overhaul sees merger of Scotland's West and Ayrshire clubs". www.carlukegazette.co.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
3. "Spartans leave it late in City Park's last Scottish Cup tie". The Scotsman. 4 October 2008. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
4. "Hibernian 3 - 0 Irvine Meadow". BBC Sport. 9 January 2010. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
5. "Beith 3-4 Airdrie United". BBC Sport. 4 January 2011. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
6. Robertson, Alan (20 November 2011). "Irvine Meadow 0 Livingston 6". Daily Record. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
7. "Third Division Montrose and Peterhead exit Scottish Cup". BBC Sport. 29 September 2012. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
8. "Shoot-out drama as Largs win". Evening Times. 6 June 2013. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
9. "Auchinleck Talbot 2 – 3 Stranraer". BBC Sport. 9 November 2013. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
10. Thomson, Nick (11 June 2014). "Things are looking up". Daily Record. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
11. "Edinburgh City 2-1 Auchinleck Talbot". BBC Sport. 5 October 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
12. Hepburn, David (5 June 2015). "Promotion joy for Kirkintilloch Rob Roy". www.kirkintilloch-herald.co.uk. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
13. "Scottish Cup: East Stirlingshire and Clyde eliminated". BBC Sport. 24 October 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
14. McGowan, Eric (11 June 2016). "Buffs shoot down Shettleston to win promotion back to the top flight". Daily Record. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
15. O'Donnell, Jim (13 September 2016). "Don't write off Auchinleck Talbot after William Hill Scottish Cup defeat, says victorious Beith skipper John Sheridan". Evening Times. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
16. McGowan, Eric (3 June 2017). "Kilwinning Rangers retain top flight status after play-off drama at Abbey Park". Daily Record. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
17. Auchinleck Talbot awarded Scottish junior title despite being 12 points off top, BBC Sport, 21 April 2020
18. Junior football chiefs explain reasoning behind controversial league winners decision, Daily Record, 21 April 2020
19. Pyramid Update – 67 Applications Approved, Scottish Lowland Football League, 14 April 2020
20. Junior clubs in the west are about to get the best of both worlds, The Scotsman, 19 April 2020

External links

• at Non-League Scotland (archive version, 2007-08 membership)