honestly united

To be fair if we had been 3rd seeds in England or Wales group we would be over the moon as it would have been near enough (as the highest ranked team) guarenteed semi final

Potential for an upset here if the Italians arent properly switched on

FTFY

Updated for new seasons league & League Cup games matches Motherwell 1999/00 Celtic 2001/02 Lochee United 2008/09 - NL Devronvale 2009/10 - NL Sunnybank 2010/11 - NL Clachnacludin 2012/13 - NL Cowdenbeath 2015/16 - NL Brechin 2015/16 - NL Aberdeen 2016/17 East Fife 2017/18 Forfar Athletic 2017/18 Dumbarton 2017/18 East Stirlingshire 2017/18 - NL Banks of Dee 2017/18 - NL Montrose 2017/18 Hibernian 2017/18 Beith 2018/19 - NL Auchinleck Talbot 2018/19 - NL Berwick Rangers 2019/20 Wrexham 2019/20 - F Ross County 2019/20 Hearts 2020/21 Stranraer 2020/21 Clyde 2020/21 Albion Rovers 2021/22 - NL Kilmarnock 2021/22 Edinburgh City 2021/22 St.Mirren 2021/22 QoS 2022/23 Hamilton 2022/23 Elgin City 2022/23 Annan Athletic 2022/23 Dundee 2022/23 Cove Rangers 2022/23 Pollok 2022/23 - NL Queens Park 2023/24 Inverness CT 2023/24 Partick Thistle 2023/24 St.Johnstone 2023/24 Morton 2023/24 Arbroath 2023/24 Raith Rovers 2023/24 Dundee Utd 2023/24 Livingston 2023/24 Airdrie 2023/24 Alloa Athletic 2023/24 Stirling Albion 2023/24 Stenhousemuir 2023/24 Falkirk 2023/24 Dunfermline 2023/24 Peterhead 2023/24 Kelty Hearts 23/24 Rangers 2023/24 So played every league team outwtih Celtic, Motherwell and now Bonnyrigg & Spartans, in the last 7 years Played more than half of all league teams in last 2 seasons, more than 75% in last 4 seasons

The lineout has been our biggest issue for years and we have done nothing to improve it. I get that the SA 2nd rows are big lumps so trying to go to the tail is an option normally, however with a slippery ball due to the heat - and just as big a lump in Grey, just keep it simple and win the ball. Its the lineout that cost us last time vs SA, when 5 points down and we had a 5m lineout we lost 2 on the bounce leading to a SA penalty in our half and we are 2 scores down. I thought defensively we were good, but off it in attack, due to SA's good defence. To often we were slow to the breakdown allowing SA to disrupt. On the rush defence, I dont remember ever seeing runners off of Finn, everyone was much wider - it was mentioned that we had a plan to deal with the rush defence then apart from the one break we looked clueless against it. To be positive, at least we didnt have Carley reffing our game, how he is allowed to ref internationals is beyond me. TMO was worse than Gardner. I have some smypathy for refs as the TMO's are butting in showing incidents in slow mo (or not as the case may be) that look innocuous at hte time and forcing ref's to make decisions based on 'player safety'. We lost to SA (currently the 2nd best team in the world) who have just dismantled NZ and not some dross like England or Wales, and not by a lot. Its fine tuning that is required and we have 4 weeks to get the plan right to beat Ireland. Im not saying we will, and have a track record of disappointing but there is hope, although that hope is probably resting more on a raft of red cards and injuries for Ireland over the next few weeks more than us being able to have a functioning lineout

Probably as it means we've beaten one of the teams ranked 1st or 2nd in the world. Oh and if we do its either France or NZ in the quarters. Although we get passed them the semi will be a doddle as one of Wales / England / Argentina / Australia / Fiji / Georgia so free pass to the final against one of NZ / SA / Ireland / France. It just shows our luck, if we had any we could be 3rd seeds looking forward to either Wales / Australia or England / Argentina as the top seeded teams in our group and playing one of the other 2 in quarters - and us being favourites to make the semi as the highest ranked team across groups C&D

Seemingly they are still lying empty, yet they are knocking down the Perry Barr Stadium to build more houses

Probably didnt word it well, meant it more that surely the buck lies with Bullen for the signings, rather than what scouting / profiles created on players by Glendinning.

I dont think its the recruitment thats the issue, more the management of the squad, and the squad building. It was glaringly obvious over that over the summer we needed to build a new attack to replace Dipo and 2 new full backs. Up front Rose is not a like for like replacement for Dipo (and anyone watching the 5 minute youtube video of his season at Weymouth could see that), and give the league cup games it did look like we were trying to change our style of play to suit, but that seems to have been abandoned after 2 league games. The issue is he's getting no support, being a target man isnt his game, and the only alternative is Bryden or Mckenzie On paper our wide players look decent in Murphy, Amartey, Chalmers and McGeady, but are not being utilized properly. As we have issues at fullback and in midfield there are having to drop deeper leaving Rose isolated. Centre mid is obviously an issue, last year it was obvious that Dempsey, Murdoch and Smith were all very similar players. Pendelbury at least looked like offering something different and more of an attacking threat in the brief appearances he had but that ship has sailed. We did nothing over the summer to counter that, and when Dempsey and Murdoch have got injured, we seem to have replaced with 3 players all exactly the same. I get it was late in the day and we need to replace 3 players but a 2 year deal seems insane for Sylla. CH and GK I think are ok, if we are playing McGinty just have him play a simple pass to however his CD partner is to play out and there isnt an issue. I dont know where to start with FB, RB especially. Surely before Bullen got shot of Houston and Hewitt he must have seen who the list of targets were and had an idea of what we were going to get. Either we have been knocked back / out bid on a huge list of players to end up with Ahui or something had gone terribly wrong somewhere.

So if the main character in arguably the best Star Wars movie is not worthy of a spin off then who is? BTW Im thinking Andor was the best thing on TV last year, its more star wars than star wars itself. Edit to add, aye Ahsoka's been pretty poor so far

Im thinking this with maybe Young in for Smith and if McGinty needs resting ahead of the league games McAlister in for him. Its as much as getting the new players match fitness and used to whatever our system is supposed to be

The actual transfer window never used to really apply to us as we dont tend to sign players direct from other clubs, although effects cross boarder loans. There is a separate loans window for domestic loans, and you can sign anyone that is out of contract at any time up to March. They only way it does affect us is that players have to be freed before the window shuts to be eligible to sign for someone else, but also the bigger clubs probably will be holding off on releasing / making available for loan players until there business is finished. So more interesting watching who is getting released than anything else

I watched the preshow and it was fairly clear from Perry, along the lines of cry me a river, thats real glass obviously directed at Punk after the comments about fake glass a few weeks back

Just comparing the current squad to last years, the defence looks slightly weaker at the moment as Houston at RB was probably a bit better than McAlister, and jury still out on Ahui, hopefully he comes good, but obviously both FB positions not properly addressed over the summer. If you take out the injuries to Dempsey and Murdoch, we have cleared out McGuire and McAleer and brought in Pendlebury, and Smith has been pushed so should be stronger but hasnt worked out that way. Same out wide in that we have cleared out Mullins, JML, Ashford and replaced with McGeady, Murphy and Amartey which is a huge upgrade. We were never replacing Dipo with anyone as good, but on paper Rose looks a good signing (Livi had him on trial so obviously other teams were aware of him) but as a different type of player we should have looked to change our style of play to suit. It looked like we had in the league cup but we have revereted to type as soon as the league started. I get a midfield 2 of Smith and Pendlebury would be lighweight, but surely given our squad going with a 4-3-3 / 4-5-1 would have been a better option than Musonda in midfield. The blame has to be squarely with Bullen now, I think he should get some time to turn things around, but as others have said surely he knew what players / types of players were coming in / being pursued so either something has broken down in communication or he's no idea what tactics would fit them

Scences when Fiji and Georgia top there group knocking Wales and Australia out

Vunipola on 2 games if he goes to tackling school https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/66585194

No Matt Carley is a huge bonus, as is no Reynal We had Nic Berry for the 2nd France game, I thought he was ok (was he?) Angus Gardner for SA, not sure if that is good or bad Edit to add Gardner did the Italy game is 6Nations so will be re-watching that also

He sounds like part Duncan George, prowling about the centre circle kicking people, but once he wins the ball rather than the simple pass, he attempts some hollywood esque 60 yard cross field pass

He only seemed to play up until December then wasnt even getting on the bench for a good chunk of the 2nd half of the season, not sure if injury or not, but given the finished close to relegation and brought in 7 players in January could be telling. He played in most of their pre-season games but hasnt been the in the squad for any league games

There were at least 2 over the weekend that went to bunker review and remained a yellow. The one in the wales game I didnt even think it was a yellow as the player was already being tackled and fell into his shoulder and he was already fairly low

Just heard Miotti is away to France, a couple of months after signing a new contract. Glasgow seemingly not going to bring anyone else in at this point, and will run with Thomson and Jordan with Weir and however's in the academy (is Toonies son still there?).

TNS or Bala away were the only 2 good draws (as they are fairly close for me!) Colreaine, Cliftonville, East Kilbride, Kelty and University of Stirling acceptable as I dont think we have ever played any of those before. I used to quite like the Challenge Cup (or Centenary cup as it started out as) but the b teams have ruined it for everyone. I quite like the LL/HL and the Irish, Welsh, Lower League English teams being in it though

I miss the days of having loads of players in on trial but not signing them as they were "no better than what we have already"

The tackle is shoulder to head level, and he leads with the shoulder in a no arms technique, the change in direction makes no difference to that This is absolutely dreadful stuff. They implement the yellow with 10 mins for video ref to review, as they were complaining about too many red cards and video reviews taking too long, then when someone gets a red card they decide the 10 minutes isnt long enough to properly review. Why are we having video refs if the disciplinary panels dont agree with it.

Unfortunately we would need to sink another level down (at a guess, maybe more) to get a game against Hungary, it would be Czechia as hosts along Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Romania, Poland, and Switzerland