grazza

That's good amount for sure. Makes me wonder though how much more it would be if cup had a sponsor and prize money must be mainly from TV deal. Crazy to think nearly 3 years and SFA have not got a sponsor. It's a great competition.

Friday 3rd Feb

Really is embarrassing that a club in professional league can't take basic efforts to protect their pitch knowing what the weather was likely to be and today it is 6 degrees. Clubs need to be held accountable for the state of their pitch. Even the highland league wouldn't let Fort William play while their pitch was a mess yet at tier 2 we have this with Cove and Dens park unable to cope with a spit of rain. Until teams getting official warning, chance to sort it out or threat of games being moved, forfeited or switched to away team playing at home what reason do some of these tinpot clubs have to get off their backside and show a hint of professionalism.

A 2nd group phase of 3 teams looks interesting. Issue though could be that group winner plays in first 2 matches then are already through and we have a dead rubber. Or a scenario where team A beat team B 5-0, Team B beat team C 1-0 then team C have to win by 5 goals on final game to get through. The team that plays in game 1 and 3 and gets rest may get slight advantage. A bye for top 8 group winners would work well and increase the intensity in group games. 7 points you've got good chance but if you lose even 1 game then very likely be punished for it.

1. Pulp Fiction 2. Star Trek Wrath of Khan 3. American History X 4. The Dark Knight 5. Reservoir Dogs 6. The Matrix 7. Back to The Future 8. Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back 9. Terminator 2 Judgement Day 10. Django Unchained

For an adult what would be first steps and involved in getting properly tested. Is it case of just going to GP who make basic assessment then refer you on. There will be plenty folk that need more urgent attention but just would be good to get idea of what is involved. I get the feeling something is going on with me. In the last year or so I got round to the idea it was anxiety. Though for a long time I do really struggle in social situations and making friends. Also that I come across differently outside of social norms towards others. I probably take things worse than I should and difficult to let go though that's an internal thing I think it difficult to concentre, reading for example I struggle to focus. It is better for non fiction which I do part time course on history and politics, reading about facts is easier, concepts are trickier. Fiction though I really struggle, if it was something like Star Trek which I have watched plenty of then that universe I guess I already have an idea for but reading something new from scratch I find difficult. Its not a case of just kind of accepting that's just me. I have pushed myself in terms of getting through uni a couple times and force myself out the house going to gigs. There is good music community here but I still get anxious and struggle to engage with folk even when I want to and a lot of them are really kind about it. Eye contact I struggle with for whatever reason. I think its assumed I'm quiet and shy but alright. It just feels like going down a rabbit hole the more I read about this and probably not good to self diagnose. Maybe just anxiety or a bit of something else. If I go to GP we have what 10 mins?

Make a stopover going to Australia to start filming Neighbours.

Kenny Mcintyre doing my nut in. Can we all chip in extra quid on licence fee if it means getting Richard Gordon back.

Euro 2020 was across Europe I think it was a good idea so smaller countries with largish stadium and cities could host matches. Was the worst possible time to have due being in a pandemic. I would be in favour of having the format every 2nd tournament and so 4 years after allow a large single host e.g. Germany, France, Italy, England, Spain. In the 3 euros prior to 2020 that involved co-hosts they were equal partners 4 stadiums each. This 2028 bid just looks very lopsided, looks like a done deal though. Just seems crazy that Northern Ireland who don't even have a functioning government and no approval or ground broken on proposed stadium gets in ahead of Edinburgh and a stadium with 67k capacity. Seem crazy Anfield and Old Trafford not going to be involved at all.

This is from an article in 2019 but imagine prize money is at least the same. Hopefully we are competing in top half of the league so there is £75k difference per position. That is before you consider increased crowds the better the team is performing and related corporate and merch sales. How we do in the cup and potential draw if we make it through also has an influence. Also play off revenue if we ended up in a play off position. So would need to carefully consider the risk of selling any major players against this and need a fee that justifies that. Also easier to convince players to sing new contracts in January if they are convinced we are keeping our best players. There is also intangibles there linked to feel good factor around the club and better relationship between them and fans. Trying to think what the biggest transfer has been for a Scottish Tier 2 team in the last 20 years don't think any of them are close to what we would be looking for Dipo in January.

think its sorted now cheers

I've got the same happening with me. opened another tab it does say below message So I have e-mailed hopefully they will resolve and come back to me

I think it was more about showing we are behind the team and not throwing toys out pram over given how how they have played before today. Today was poor given a lot of unforced errors in giving away the ball. It was a frustrating game. In games we haven't won there has generally been decent amount of positives to take. Raith game at least so resilience in the come back and ICT game we had plenty of chances to win it. Really missed Murdoch as an assured link.

Works for me as I live in Dundee so would get PPV from me on a regular basis but would rather have that option at 3pm. The whole 3pm blackout thing in this day and age is getting a bit silly. Understand having blackout normal tv like sky and not having pubs showing games so local clubs get the focus at that timeslot and broadcasters can do what they want out with that but for normal club PPV should be permitted. In a world where vpn's and IPTV seem to be common place at least give people a legit option to stream the game and support their team. Probably half the folk I grew up with in School live outside Ayrshire these days. I assume this is similar these days across the board, there is a significant number of folk that went to games as a kid but moved away. Streams would allow more folk to stay in touch and not drift away.

Fair does appreciate the wider perspective there. I got caught up on the forced narrative the director took us on and would be quite upsetting the way it presented. Something really didn't add up in terms of that team. There seemed to be a lot of self delusion and acting up from the players probably for the cameras. Its like a crappy rock band that go on that one tour.

Hillcoat was good half time entertainment with the cones

Just watched the documentary this morning on iplayer. The highland league chairman seemed to brimming with delight anytime he mentions Fort's downfall. Ultimately though there is a pyramid so dropping down might be better for them to be more competitive. The way the players talked they were putting in full time hours in addition to jobs they had. Even a part time league 1 team probably doesn't put the hours in training they were claiming. It just didn't really add up.

Aye I seen they have moved it to the Thursday. Just generally would be much better turn out on a Saturday for league games rather than challenge cup. The pic is the character Gyp Rosetti from Boardwalk Empire.

Should postpone (if not allowed to scrap) the round of challenge cup being played in a fortnight and play this weekends league fixtures then. Have 1pm kick off to allow folk enough time should they be going to hampden for Scotland game.

Seems so. Can only go by what appears on my podcast feed. Seems to be podcasts during match days for premiership, league cup or the European games. I guess I can understand this week having 3 teams in European group stages the attention mostly on that but does seem like they have really cut back on coverage outside of match days. There wasn't even a podcast at the end of the transfer window.

Don't think they have nearly as much coverage these days. Mainly would just be on podcasts the next days walking to work I would listen but we only seem to get them now on match days. Pre covid there was a Scottish football podcast everyday based on the sportsound show. Your right that Macintyre is quite provocative which worked ok on a non match day where they were having more in depth discussions but he just doesn't suit the Richard Gordon role someone like Jane Lewis would have been better for that. Think since BBC have grovelled to rangers so they can get access again they have become somewhat neutered in giving insightful coverage. The terrace podcast is very good on the lower leagues. Like the tv show they give fair coverage of the lower leagues. Thursdays they do an episode that focuses on the lower leagues. If you get Shaughan McGuigan and Craig Telfer on together its a great listen. They did a big season preview podcast covering championship to league 2 and it was 4 hours long. The SPFL themselves could be a lot more joined up especially the lower leagues get either at round up tv show or youtube show each week. The womens league do it so no reason its not achievable.

Regarding replays I quite liked it. Made sense to get rid where a neutral venue in final and semis. I suppose Premier sports or whoever has 1st choice of games not that fussed in covering replays unless celtic and rangers involved. Just seems to be the way that we copy what they do in England look at how we named tiers 2 to 4. I wonder how soon before they insist or sky insist on midweek rounds so they don't need to bother bidding for cup rights to cover their weekend schedule

Camera location and coverage was lot worse that last season. What the deal with black and white tv initially they were letting folk use it and put up a few videos each week beyond highlights and press conferences then I though plan was to charge a fiver a month. I get with covid they probably found it difficult to get enough content. If they want to charge got stuff I get why they are putting on black and white tv otherwise why not just also put on youtube. My old man can barely work a computer but now with smart tv he can work youtube quite well. If your not charging for it then make it accessible and easy to share on social media which sponsors would probably want to see.

I have followed the club since mid 90's. The Dalziel era did give us some great cup days but nothing to show in terms of structure of the club once it finished despite the money put in over that time. From 2003 onwards until 2019 any time we got the 2nd tier we went straight back down again and many seasons of midtable obscurity in tier 3 and only right at the end of that did we actually win a league title. So basically 15 years of being arguably the biggest in terms of fanbase part time club but little to celebrate. Going full time again was key and was handled in the right way and McCall was a good experienced manager that helped Lachlan gradually build things in a sustainable manner. Lachlan at least had been around football long enough to have a reasonable day to day understanding. Smith came in at a time when it was the right call to get rid of Kerr but there wasn't that day to day experience to appoint a suitable manager for what the club needed. Mathie hopefully is that link now he does have experience at a higher level with Hibs but it is ultimately a learning process at this level with less resources. I'm curious on our history of being full time prior to the Barr era can anyone give a timeline on that. Certainly in my memory its only been in the last 5 years that the club have been full time without a massive benefactor. We've seen Raith, QOTS and Morton make play offs for premier the odd season but then they never manager to sustain it and yoyo like ourselves. There are more clubs coming up like Queens Park and Cove that due to money being pumped in are on similar par to us and these clubs. So to have sustainable success we have to make the boring long term decisions and at times stick to the plan within reason. In relative terms if you take away Mccall's last 15 months or so we are doing well and learning. The margins between success and failure in this league are pretty tight and fan base is often as fickle as the last result.