Saxons to replace Edinburgh

Essex Saxons will compete in next year's BritLeague due to Edinburgh FC's financial troubles.

Originally the West London Warriors, who beat the Saxons in the BritLeague 2's Match for Promotion, were to replace last placed Ulster FC, but with Edinburgh's situation means the Saxons will take their place in the top flight with the Warriors.

Romano brace buries 'Burgh

Andrea Romano's two-goal performance gave London Town a 3-0 win against Edinburgh at Easter Road.

Zvonimir Markovic also played well, setting up one Romano goal and then scoring a goal himself.

This result for Edinburgh means the Scottish side are still 18th in the table, although they remain ten points clear of relegation-threatened Leicester Phantoms.

Goals
Edinburgh: none.
London Town: Romano 5', 80', Markovic 76'.

Saturday's Action from Round 1

FC Nottingham cruised to a 3-0 win at Glasgow, while South Coast Rangers managed a 1-0 win at Dublin.

Manchester Rockers defeated Edinburgh 2-0, Newcastle Geordies easily defeated Sheffield Strikers 3-0, while Dragons and East Anglia were held to a 1-1 draw.

Phantoms 0-0 Edinburgh FC

Saturday 1st May

Walkers Stadium, Leicester. Att: 10,382.

The Leicester Phantoms played host to a dull nil-all draw with Edinburgh FC.

The clear-cut chance came from Edinburgh, with Darren Morrison screwing his shot wide, with only the keeper to beat.

Goals

Phantoms: none.

Edinburgh FC: none.

Edinburgh FC 1-2 Ruckus

Monday 5th April

Tynecastle, Edinburgh. Att: 8,584.

South Coast grabbed a crucial win against Edinburgh at Tynecastle on Easter Monday.

Ryan Wise made it 1-0 before Mario Dokic doubled their advantage.

But Edinburgh made sure to deny the Ruckus a clean sheet with a header from defender Paul Gray.

Goals

Edinburgh FC: Gray 86'.

Ruckus: Wise 37', Dokic 79'.

Strikers 1-0 Edinburgh FC

Saturday 27th March

Hillsborough, Sheffield. Att: 16,840.

A acute shot from Paolo Baggola was enough to give the Strikers the win against Edinburgh.

Goals

Strikers: Baggola 33'.

Edinburgh FC: none.

Edinburgh FC 2-0 Rockers

Saturday 13th March

Tynecastle, Edinburgh. Att: 9,237.

Edinburgh pulled off a stunning 2-0 victory over the Manchester Rockers at Tynecastle.

The game was centred on the Rockers' John Jeffries and EFC's Kevin Tennent, after Jeffries allegedly slept with Tennent's wife, leading to Jeffries being stripped of the Scottish captaincy.

And Tennent made his feelings known when he avoided shaking his Scotland CSA colleague Jeffries' hand in the pre-game.

Jeffries was booed every time he touched the ball, and the crowd chanted, "Carefree, wherever you may be, don't leave your wife with John Jeffries" and "Who's the b****** in the beige?" (The Rockers were wearing their beige away kit.)

And Mark Danicoletta headed Edinburgh in front after 23 minutes and in the ensuing celebrations pointed at Tennent in support of his beleaguered teammate. Danicoletta and others were also seen wearing 'Team Tennent" t-shirts in the warm-up.

And a miserable afternoon for Jeffries and the Rockers was complete when the centre-back misplayed it to Keith Morkins, and Edinburgh's young English striker slotted home.

But for the beleaguered former Scotland captain, the misery would not end until after the final whistle when the crowd sang "Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye" as he walked off the pitch.

Goals

Edinburgh FC: Danicoletta 23', Morkins 86'.

Rockers: none.

FC London 3-0 Edinburgh FC

Saturday 6th March

FC London Stadium, London. Att: 46,037

FC London got their new BritLeague season off to a flying start with an easy win over Edinburgh.

Ryan Welch scored in his first BritLeague appearance, having signed from E-League champions London City.

Craig Palmer scored one of the goals of match-week one, with a mazy solo run through the Edinburgh defence.

And young Australian striker Craig Cinoli scored a fantastic goal from 25 yards, flew into the top corner.

Goals

FC London: Welch 41', Palmer 68', Cinoli 75'.

Edinburgh FC: none.

BritLeague launches respect scheme

The BritLeague has announced that it will launch a respect scheme for the upcoming 2010 season after witnessing several unsavoury incidents in 2009.

The League hopes the new scheme, called "Play the Game", will clamp down on violent incidents seen in '09.

This follows after last season's mass brawl in the Battle of Scotland between Edinburgh and Glasgow as well as the Yorkshire Derby between Leeds Lightning and Sheffield Strikers which saw seven players booked and four players sent off.

MLF to become BritLeague for '09, plus more changes

Major League Football has announced that they will change its name to the BritLeague with immediate effect following that they don't want any confusion with the similarly named North American football (soccer) league called Major League Soccer.

"We want to be our own identity," said the BritLeague commisioner.

MLF2 is now to be known as BritLeague D (the Development League), MLF Europe will now be known as EuroLeague Football and MLF International will be called InterLeague.

Also many teams have changed their names. Manchester Magic will become Manchester Rockers because of Manchester's long history of indie music, Edinburgh Eagles will now be FC Edinburgh 2007, Dublin Druids (who were criticised for their name, they had no idea what druid meant at the time) will now be the Dublin Shamrocks, and Ajax London (who have ended their partnership with the Dutch team Ajax Amsterdam this year) will now become London Town.

Also the Middlesbrough Monsters have dropped the town name in favour of the Monsters Football Club, as they will move into their own stadium next year outside Middlesbrough after using Middlesbrough FC's Riverside Stadium for the past three years.

And finally, Reading Ruckus will move to Hampshire next year, after poor attendances at the Madejski Stadium. They will now be known as the South Coast Ruckus, however it is unknown whether they will use Southampton's St. Mary's or Portsmouth's Fratton Park as their main arena.