IrishBhoy
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Posts posted by IrishBhoy
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Me and my friend are trying to plan a European weekend away where we can take in a couple of matches. We’ve been to Germany and the Netherlands before, and fancied going somewhere that’s maybe not as popular but can still guarantee a lively atmosphere at the games as well as a nice city to explore.
From the research I’ve done over the last few days Krakow looks like somewhere that could tick all those boxes. Neither of us have been to Poland before so that would be a bonus, and if we chose our games correctly I’m sure we could guarantee a good atmosphere. Has anyone got any experience of watching football in Krakow? Is it easy enough to get tickets etc. As well as either Wisla Krakow of Cracovia, we would quite like to take in a lower league game as well. I know there’s some guys on here with an encyclopaedic knowledge of lower league European football, are there any teams in the Krakow region that would be worth visiting anytime between the start of September and the end of October?
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10 hours ago, davidmcc said:
Way too many unknowns at this point. Urminsky, Strain, Bacchus and Ayunga could be brilliant. Gallagher may get back to his best. Brophy might stay relatively fit. Main can only be better than last season (well possibly at least).
Baccus looked bright against Edinburgh City, but I will reserve judgement on him until he plays a few games against teams on our level. He did come from the A-League though, which is of a comparable standard to ours, and by all accounts was highly regarded by the fans of Western Sydney Warriors. Early days, but he gives off the vibe of a pretty solid piece of business by the club. Similar story with Strain, who also performed well against Edinburgh, and looks like he will be an asset in attack this season. Defensively he hasn’t looked great so far although it’s very early days.
Main is a guy that has severely underperformed for St Mirren so far, the last couple of games of last season excepted. Hopefully Robinson can rekindle the form he showed at Motherwell, because on his day he is an absolute handful for any centre half in this league. We all know he’s not a natural finisher, and he’s not going to all of a sudden start playing like Karim Benzema, but if he can spark a partnership with any of Grieve, Ayunga or Brophy then he can be a dangerous player for us. I recall Robinson using Main as a sort of makeshift battering ram for Motherwell; a strong, physical forward that could cause chaos in the oppositions 18 yard box, with balls launched in his general direction and Main having the energy to go and fight for it. Too many times last season he looked lethargic and plodded around halfheartedly closing down defenders. That might have been the instruction he was given, but in those final few games under Robinson he hardly stopped running whenever he was on the pitch, and he seemed to gain a confidence from the support of the fans who noticed how hard he was working off the ball, and he scored a couple of crackers in to the bargain.
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11 hours ago, Doctor Sanchez said:
I very rarely veer off of the St Mirren games and this thread. But I've just had a peek on the Motherwell thread.
f**k my old hat, they're a miserable bunch. Bad signings, need cover for X, Y and Z, lack of investment, too much investment, reckless spending, not enough spending, financial disaster looming, shit manager, deffo going to be sacked before Christmas, finishing top 6 is shit, hibs and Aberdeen have more money, but reassuringly they seem to have the same apathy to the Arse Cheeks as we have.
I felt strangly at home there, might start going back a bit more regularly...
I think the St Johnstone one is even worse
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Thanks for that result earlier Motherwell. I’ve got family over in Ireland giving me no end of abuse now, after years of me telling them St Mirren would win the Irish League at a canter.
All kidding aside that’s a really poor result, the home tie especially with the Motherwell fans turning out in excellent numbers to support the team. It would be too reactionary to call it anything other than an upset though, and I don’t think it will have too much bearing on how Motherwells season pans out. For all the good results we’ve had in Europe like St Johnstone beating Rosenborg or Aberdeen beating Groningen, there’s always been results like Hearts getting beat by Birkirkara or Kilmarnock getting embarrassed by Connahs Quay.
I’m sure we will have to endure our footballing media, as well as OF fans on Twitter, coming out with tropes that we are ‘the laughing stock of Europe’ or such nonsense over this result, when in reality nobody in Europe particularly gives a f**k about a Conference League qualifying match. Always makes me laugh when I hear things like that, as if football fans in France, Spain or Germany are sitting with their friends saying things like ‘Scottish football must be shite btw, Motherwell just got beat off Sligo Rovers’.
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Any Game of Thrones/ASOIAF fans going to be watching this prequel? From what I can gather it looks like it’s been given a budget that will allow it to compete at the same level as the later seasons of GoT, potentially more depending on how well received it is.
Set around 2-300 years prior to the events in Game of Thrones, it tells the story of a Targaryen civil war where siblings are set against each other for the right to the Iron Throne, at a time when the Targaryens were in no short supply of dragons. George R.R. Martin seems to have had a influential role in the direction of the series, and many people who worked on the original GoT series have returned for this one, including Ramin Djawadi who done such an excellent job as musical composer.
I’ve seen a few YouTube videos where they show images from the sets of Kings Landing, Dragonstone and Harrenhall. From those images it looks like they have went into unbelievable detail to keep Westeros true to what we have seen in GoT, and also true to the original Ice and Fire book series. I bought the books during lockdown but have only managed to finish A Game of Thrones so far, and I’m about a third of the way through A Clash of Kings. I know this series doesn’t rely at all on any book material but it’s given me the motivation to go and try and finish the book series first. GRRM has a certain style of writing that I know is not to everyone’s taste, but I find his overly descriptive approach brings a clarity to his words and allows for a deeper understanding of character traits and personalities; which is helpful in a book where not everyone is telling the truth to the reader and it’s up to you to find a characters ulterior motives.
I hope the producers of House of the Dragon take the criticism of the later seasons of GoT on board, where character dialogue was ignored for fancy special effects. I think most people would agree that the political manoeuvring of characters like Littlefinger and Varys was what made the early seasons of GoT so good, so I hope they lean heavily on those kind of storylines.
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On 22/07/2022 at 18:54, Hoose Rice said:
Thanks again for all your worry, help and hope on here again by the way.
I'm 100% legit when saying you don't know how much it means and has helped and also 100% when saying if it wasn't for this wonderful forum I wouldn't be here any longer.
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As much as this website has played it’s part in helping you, don’t forget that everything that you have overcome/achieved in the past few months has been because of you.
It’s good to see you posting regularly on here again, and please remember that no matter how you are feeling at any given time, those feelings will pass. That goes for the highs as well as the lows, nothing is permanent in life, and being able to accept these ups and downs without judgement or reaction will stand you in good stead for the future.
Edit - I’ve just caught up with the rest of the thread. Fair play to some of the guys on this site going above and beyond, and giving genuinely helpful advice to someone they will more than likely never meet. I’ve never used this forum as anything other than a source for my own entertainment at times, but it’s good to see that when a serious matter arises that there is characters on here that are willing to help.
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4 hours ago, peasy23 said:
Talking of sponsors, Ken Brown posted a picture of a letter on twitter the other day, it was hist first ever golf ball contract with Dunlop.
It provided him with "half a dozen per month for the months of March to October inclusive, and a quarter of a dozen in the months of January, February, November and December."
I saw that
he must have been some player if those Dunlop balls lasted him all year. The first time I played Gullane No.2 a few years ago, I had to buy a dozen TaylorMade TPz balls from the pro shop because I’d turned up with only one Srixon soft feel in my bag.
It was the windiest day that I’ve ever played golf in, and after losing the Srixon somewhere in the rough on the 2nd, I proceeded to go through 11 of the 12 Taylormades on the rest of the holes. Funny thing was that I had said to my pals on the first tee that I always play well when I buy good balls from the pro shop, after I bought a sleeve of club branded ProV1s at Kingsbarns a few months prior and played the full round with the same ball.
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On 20/07/2022 at 09:48, Caledonian1 said:
£380 is a mental amount simply to fly golf clubs independently of your own air travel - surely they will be flown over (or am I missing something that they are called SHIPsticks) Any cargo on a plane is at risk of not turning up so I am not sure what your £380 gets you. Would imagine it would be cheaper to buy a second hand set in Portugal....or rent
I agree it is a mental price. However I wouldn’t want to arrange 10 days off work, spend my hard earned money on a golfing holiday, and then my clubs don’t appear off the flight. I don’t know if you’ve seen some of the horror stories on Twitter recently? European Tour players having their clubs going missing for 3 or 4 weeks, the Americans that travelled over to Scotland recently for once in a lifetime golf holidays having to rent clubs because their luggage was left sitting in a pile at Heathrow Airport?
I’m bad enough at golf with my own clubs that are fitted to me, so the option of renting clubs over in Vilamoura doesn’t really appeal to me either. ShipSticks can collect your clubs from your house and ship to your hotel in ‘2-6 days’ according to their website. My clubs and bag combined have cost the best part of 2 and a half grand, so a few hundred to almost guarantee safe travel doesn’t seem like the worst deal when weighed up against the risk of loss/damage right now.
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2 hours ago, invergowrie arab said:
Why?
Well I was only about 12 years old but I assume my uncle wanted to get me a souvenir, and that top was probably 1/5th the price of the home top. Either that or they were giving them away.
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8 hours ago, doulikefish said:
Decided to hire in Vilamoura later on this year after hearing about all the horror stories in basically every airport just now even though I've had no problems in the past
Been told to use a company called ShipSticks for getting the clubs across. I’m going to Vilamoura in September and was quoted £380 there and back. It’s quite steep but I’ve heard too many horror stories recently that I’m willing to pay, and they seem to have a good reputation. Would hate to be sitting on the plane wondering if my clubs were still in one piece when I landed.
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I got taken to an Everton game by a relative a good few years back, a 3-2 defeat to Bolton, and after the game we went in to the club shop and I was bought this strip. I’ve probably still got it somewhere but the pink strip posted above just reminded me of it.
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10 hours ago, eez-eh said:
The confiscating of it is bad enough but to then stand there beside it grinning like a pair of gormless clowns, as if this is what they got into policing for, is really the cherry on top.
Fucking gimps.
Standing there like they’ve just bust a Colombian cartel and took 500 kilo of cocaine off the streets. What a genuinely sad profession the police must be if they find taking bottles of alcopops and Mad Dog off teenagers worthy of a picture. Someone has actually taken the time to collect them all, take them to a police office, line them up neatly on the table and then shout a couple of bottom feeder officers in for a picture.
Just clocked that it’s the Transport Police too, even the normal police look down at them.
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Just now, DumbartonBud said:
Even if we start the league well, ( I know, I know) after this and his first few games he will never be more than a couple of bad results away from being under pressure.
just a matter of time ……. Tick tock. …
That’s how I’m seeing it too. Those first few games last season, along with some of his post match interviews, means he doesn’t have much favour built up to withstand a 5 or 6 game losing streak. I think the fact that we have shelled out a not insignificant sum of money to bring him here will make the board reluctant to pull the trigger early.
I’m willing to give him time, we wouldn’t be the first team to have a horrific league cup campaign and then go on to have a decent season. I reserve the right to change that opinion if the performances are of a similar level to last season. He’s had a full pre-season to implement the 433, and 7 new signings that should fit the system. Admittedly the League Cup results are worrying, but it’s the League games that he will ultimately be judged on. As you say, if we lose the first few games the club is going to be under huge pressure to act quickly, which I think they will be reluctant to do after spending 6 figures on him.1 -
12 minutes ago, houston_bud said:
In other news, Daniel Finlayson played 90mins for Linfield in a Champions League qualifier against Bodo/Glimt and they won 1-0.
To think we beat Linfield a few weeks back and Bodo/Glimt pumped Celtic not so long ago.
That’s some result for Linfield, albeit Bodo/Glimt have cashed in on some of their better players from last seasons Europa League run.
I watched our game against Linfield a few weeks ago and thought the signs were promising. Ayunga looked like he had a bit of quality, Grieve was working hard to press the defenders, and it looked like we were setting up to play a high press with midfielders willing to bust a gut when the ball was turned over. There was times in that game where we didn’t allow Linfield to string 2 passes together before we won the ball back. Obviously it was a friendly, but I was quite content with the team after that game. After these last few games I’m now hoping St Johnstone are as bad as their fans say they are.
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2 minutes ago, ford prefect said:
We are terrible. This is Stubbs level mismanagement. Get him out.
If we carry this form into the league he will be going the same way as Stubbs. He came in at the tail end of last season and changed the formation of a winning team, which resulted in some proper woeful performances and dragged us back in to a relegation fight when we should have been miles clear. He’s stuck with the same formation, and presumably went out and got players who are suited to that formation, but nothing seems to have changed.
I had high hopes for a couple of the new signings. Strain looked like a bit of a coup for us, coming from a good standard of football. Baccus seems to be highly thought of as well and will hopefully do well here, and Gallacher was a solid signing for a team at our level. The confidence amongst the players will be shot if we go into the league off the back of defeats to Airdrie and Arbroath.
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Anyone at the game who can report on Olusanyas performance? Was his substitution a tactical decision?
Not a great start to his time at Saints, being subbed at half time on his debut and after 35 minutes tonight.
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17 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:
Aye, as long as Saints offer him a contract.
I should have known that.
Down to 10 men at the Excelsior.
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Put me down as another one who is a tad cynical about the Dylan Reid ‘deal’. By all accounts we accepted a bid from Celtic a couple of weeks ago, with Rangers reportedly interested as well, and all of a sudden the club put out a statement to say he’s staying. The bid from Celtic seemed very low, but I understand that the club may have been looking at the sell on fees etc. as the real money maker. Do we still get the development fee for him if he leaves at the end of his contract?
For the benefit of his development I obviously think it’s good that’s he’s staying at Saints, and he will hopefully get plenty of opportunities to show how good he is in the Premiership this season rather than the Lowland League with an OF ‘B’ team.
If he is to get his chance in the first team however, and doesn't put in the sort of performances that some St Mirren fans are expecting of him then it could work against us. I’ve only seen him play 3 or 4 times, one of those in the Scotland U19s I think, and he does look like a tidy player. I worry that he’s being hyped up a bit too much by the fans because he’s came through our youth system. If he happened to be playing for a team in the Championship, would we be looking to buy him and put him straight into the first team? Now that he has the carrot of higher wages and bigger clubs looking at him come the end of the season, hopefully it spurs him on to produce some good performances for us.
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On 18/07/2022 at 15:03, stevieKTID said:
I watched this again recently I'd totally forgot about Steve Fleming, what a brilliant character, the way he's constantly laughing trying to hide the fact that he's absolutely seething is brilliant.
Although Peter Mannion is fantastic I'm firmly in Team Tucker.
I've got a to-do list longer than a fucking Leonard Cohen song.
Get me a fucking curly wurly right.
Someone get me a fucking fanta.
It’s an excellent performance, you can see him barely managing to keep a lid on his temper when faced with the incompetency of DoSac. The manic laugh that he does whenever he wants to explode with rage is brilliant.
When I watch Prime Ministers Questions or see backbench MPs on TV coming across all statesmanlike and professional, I always wonder what ones are like Steve Fleming away from the cameras. Dominic Raab looks like he has the potential to be an absolute psychopath of a person in private. Amongst others I’m sure.
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On 09/07/2022 at 22:52, King Kebab said:Spoiler
Was that what happened. I’m usually quite an observant person but that completely passed me by, until someone in work told me the next day.
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2 minutes ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:
I would agree. The course looks a bit too ‘polished’ if that makes sense.
I was always a regular attendee when they hosted it at Loch Lomond as it’s only 15 minutes up the road from me and I always thought it was a great weekend. Junior members of the local golf courses always got free/discounted entry so there would always be a team of us up there having a rare time. I understand the switch to a links course but for selfish reasons it’s never really felt the same since they moved it from there.
Yes that’s exactly what I mean too, its not got the rough edges that come with the best Scottish links courses.
I did attend Loch Lomond one year but I was about 12 so don’t have the best memory of it. From all accounts it’s an excellent course, but the general snobbery that surrounds it puts me off, as well as the fact it’s not a links course.
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1 hour ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:
After a few unexpected days off work I’ve decided to fester on the couch and invest most of my time into watching the Scottish Open. I have no idea why but I just haven’t enjoyed it at all. Perhaps it’s all a bit low key because it’s basically a few prep rounds for The Open? maybe it’s the course? maybe the pre weekend crowd were a bit drab (it looks really quiet)?. God knows, but it’s felt like a bit of a slog!
It would be better if it was played on a proper links course that doesn’t look as manufactured as The Renaissance. Im sure it’s a good course but it’s too well presented, it doesn’t have the natural grit that the best links courses have. So many to choose from and we’ve ended up at a course that just lacks the character that a historical links course would give.
I know there’s probably a lot of money involved and logistical factors to take into consideration too, but I would love to see the Scottish Open played at somewhere like Prestwick with the historical ties that course has to The Open. Plenty to choose from right up the east coast as well that would suit the Scottish Open better.
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3 minutes ago, oaksoft said:
You could have simply asked instead of assuming.
It seems fashionable on here to screech at posters first and then ask questions later.
That's why we can't have genuinely interesting conversations about anything.
It’s a Scottish football forum, not the Oxford Union debating chamber.
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33 minutes ago, Left Back said:
No we don’t.
Apologies I’ve misread the figures, that is the projected amount that will be spent maintaining Trident and replacing it. It’s still eye watering sums being spent on that and other projects, and it was only a few weeks ago that Johnson said he wanted to be spending £190 billion on defence by the year 2025.
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Scotrail
in The General Nonsense Forum
Posted
I keep seeing clowns like Truss and Shapps talking about how future strikes will become toothless due to the policy they are about to implement that involves bringing in agency/contract staff to cover striking workers. I’ve been a contractor in the rail industry for 10+ years, I’ve been contracted on jobs for TfL, Scotrail, Northern Rail and numerous other TOC’s, so I would like to think I have a good understanding of how contractors are used in the industry.
Ive seen them mention this during interviews numerous times now, and not once have they been asked to explain just how they are going to find the requisite number of contractors, who are willing to defy nationwide strike action, that will be able to fill the number of positions required for the trains to run without disruption. Where do you find contractor signallers, track maintenance staff, station operational managers? In the most part these are full time employees who will be abiding by their unions wishes to take strike action. Even if there was a wealth of contractors out there able to do these jobs during strike action, how do you organise them into work on 2 or 3 weeks notice? They won’t stay round the corner from Glasgow Central or Euston. That’s not even getting to how these contractors will be paid, or how much. It’s not uncommon for contractors in management positions to be on 4 figure day rates in the rail industry. Maintenance contractors will be looking for £30-£40 per hour. It infuriates me that these buffoons are able to spout this sort of nonsense without any scrutiny from our media. The next time we hear this from Truss or Shapps, a journalist should ask ‘where are these agency staff that you are going to use currently working?’. The correct answer to that is either contracted to a TOC/Network Rail, or subcontracted to a company working for them. Are we expected to believe that even some of these people will leave a steady contract to cover strike action for a day/week?
There has been an attempt by the Conservative party to paint this solely as a dispute with the train drivers, which allows them to point to the drivers above average annual salary, hoping that the general public turn against them. Only yesterday Shapps put out a tweet along the lines of ‘train drivers earn £60k per year and your tax money paid their wages during covid’. This is disingenuous in the extreme, for multiple reasons, but it disregards the cleaners, tickets inspectors, maintenance staff etc., who aren’t on wages like that, and who haven’t been getting a fair slice of the pie whilst profits for rail operators and their shareholders is rising.
Shapps and Truss, along with the vast majority of this current Govt., seem happy to spout mistruths and downright lies in order to convince the working public they are on their side. They have managed to get the media parroting the ‘8% pay rise offered to RMT and they didn’t even consult their members before rejecting it’. What they fail to mention is that it’s not 8% by any manner or means, it’s 4% this year and 4% next year, with the threat of involuntary redundancies still on the table. These politicians are the perfect mix of being absolutely thick as shit, at the same time as being in a position of extreme power, which should worry almost everyone (Tory MPs and millionaires excepted). Only last week we had a Conservative leader candidate who made Britain leaving the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights one of her main policies, and people were supporting her
It’s 2022 and workers rights and conditions are going backwards, and a front bench MP is openly advocating for removing basic human rights, and it hardly raised an eyebrow.