rockson

If League Two was significantly stronger than the Lowland League then you'd expect the clubs to bounce back immediately but not one team has gone down and won the Lowland League and, this season, the teams aren't even close. Being relegated out of the SPFL immediately makes a club less attractive to players. This is for a club that has been on the slide (East Stirling a possible exception to that, since they perennially tended to struggle) and so less likely even to keep the players they had - who weren't good enough in any case. Being promoted tends to mean higher crowds and a higher budget. Hence being relegated means a lower budget and lower crowds. Is it any wonder no team has yet gone back up? It would be a miracle of sorts if one ever does bounce back straight away.

FFS. I'm not arguing against teams getting promoted if they win their leagues. Those are the rules. All I'm saying is that doesn't mean a team is worthy of promotion. The last time Dumbarton won promotion it was through the play-offs. We had finished third - with a goal difference of zero. We went up because of the rules but was that finish worthy of promotion? Our start the next season would argue it wasn't. The Scottish pyramid has been in place for barely three seasons yet people are pushing to have it changed yesterday. The English pyramid took much longer than that even to achieve one promotion to the Football League. Two promotions only happened after teams had been promoted back into it again. A team getting back up hasn't yet happened in Scotland. If it does it might be a catalyst for change. As it stands dropping into the Lowland League (as opposed to the Highland) looks like a one-way street. That will continue as long as players look at the teams coming down into it as doubtful challengers to get back again.

No it isn't. If they won most group games and knock-out games they were clearly better than the teams they beat. In the scenario I cited the "top" team could be argued to be only luckier than the rest in their division - and not much better than the bottom one. The point I was trying to make was that while the poster I quoted said they would be worthy of promotion they obviously wouldn't have demonstrated that worthiness. Under the rules they'd still get promoted though.

It doesn't look to be going well so far.....

Even if it was on a goal difference of one (or even one more goal scored) over five other teams on the same number of points and they're all only six or so points above the bottom team in their division? A scenario like that (however unlikely: it is possible) argues they aren't worthy of promotion. Nor would the rest of the teams in that division be.

Don't mock Cliftonhill. It's bottled nostalgia in a football ground.

Seulement un peu?

Well they do act as a safety net for when Rangers go bust.

For those of us long in the tooth it's wonderfully nostalgic of the football grounds of our youth.

Watching Morocco's Safyan Amrabat at the World Cup I was reminded of Chris Turner.... (It might have been the bald head though.)

Oh, agreed.

I've had the fear about this fixture ever since it was announced.

Boghead?

I think Edinburgh Blue was referring to the fact that the original Rangers went bust.

For a second there I thought you meant up Aberdeen way ......

Some Station Roads were named because of their Police or Bus stations.

It happened at Love Street on Christmas Day 1971. One of my best Sons memories. Big Roy McCormack thumped one from way out near the touchline about fifteen yards into St Mirren's half and it soared over the keeper, hit the stanchion and bounced out to beyond the penalty spot. The ref wasn't going to give it but the linesman did - apparently, I later learned, because (as Big Roy tells it) St Mirren's left back sportingly said it had gone in. That was the middle one of three Big Roy belters in a row. He'd scored a screamer against Alloa at Boghead the game before and repeated that at Clydebank in the New Year's Day game. Happy days.

Big team found?

That comment is a bit ironic.

It gives them a higher profile for one thing.

Is that fine a possible £500 for each infringement?

That seven game winning run flattered us a bit. As subsequent games have shown.

Have their best players perhaps gone elsewhere?

We didn't.

Sarcasm doesn't work well in print.