Ivo den Bieman

Really dire stuff, been a dreadful game. Sadly not unexpected.

Good news: one of Dinamo’s best and most creative players, Pavel Sedko, has been left in Minsk as he has fallen out with coach Skripchenko. Dinamo have much more of an attacking threat with him in the side. The charming fellow in the poster is Dinamo captain Sergei Politevich, a centre-back. Tony Mowbray with a beard.

Weel, great result. Hope it's the start of a run for the Shire away from trouble.

Yep 5/7 of the Belarusian Premier games are free on youtube. It's a shame, it used to be quite a presentable league- certainly better than the Baltic leagues and on a par with the Polish leagues. It has dropped through the floor since Belarus' international isolation in 2020/21. Their expereinced DM Sachivko says the closed doors status will favour Dinamo as they are much more used to playing in these circumstances. Would say it will be quite a closely matched game as Dinamo and maybe Neman Grodno and Dinamo Brest at the top of the league would be bottom six in the Scottish Premiership. Some real gubbins sides in the league though who would be League One standard in Scotland. In Hearts' favour are that Dinamo are very slow in build up and predictable, and also there is no friendly ref and obliging opponent to roll over in this one. We'll see.

If they're free agent and of sufficient standing as players you could sign them tomorrow and get them through the door as far as I understand. But yes contracted players will have to wait until January. I guess my clumsy point was that this guy's contact book won't just be the Daily Record's "Gies a Game" database.

Who is this Cami of whom you speak?

Riga's squad is a heady mix of Latvians, South Americans, Africans, players from all over the Balkans, and Belarusians. Certainly the St.Johnstone squad should become a more interesting place in the months ahead. The Lativan season will finish up in the first weekend of November so I wonder if he has tapped up a few of these guys. Certainly should make for a more interesting dressing room soon than the current squad full of time served jobbers whose biggest achievement was winning something with Hamilton/ Hearts U-21s over a decade ago. Whether it will work or be a complete disaster only time will tell, but it certainly won't be boring.

Feeling confident against Dinamo lads? I follow Belarusian football quite closely ( a gift of the pandemic years). Dinamo are the Lukashenko regime’s favoured club and although they are sitting second in the table presently they’ll clean up the title by a good few points I reckon (Belarus season runs March - November). They are a decent if not outstanding side, managed by Vadim Skripchenko, who was FC Minsk coach when they saw off St.Johnstone over two legs a decade or so ago. Players to watch for: young Lapoukhov in goal, who has had a very good breakthrough season both for Dinamo & the national team; Bakhar & Podstrelov on the wings; Selyava & Demchenko in midfield. Will be a tough game for Hearts, the coach should be looking for a fast start & not to let Dinamo dictate the pace of the game. They lost last time out in Europe to Anderlecht in Belgium, but only narrowly, giving them a fright in the process. Dinamo trained in Baku today and club media hyping the game up. ‘Home’ games invilving clubs from Belarus, because of the country’s awful politics, have to be played behind closed doors as I recall. Honestly hope you get it right up then. The Rangers of Belarus with sectarianism replaced by Lukashenko servility / sycophancy. Fun fact: Dinamo’s legendary Soviet championship-winning side in 1982 was coached by one Eduard Malofeev, who rolled up at Tynecastle for a deranged fortnight towards the end of the Romanov years. He’s in the centre of the middle row here:

Posted similar on another thread but I do genuinely fear for the Shire in their present state. The club seems barely alive now. Down to the hardcore 100-150 and a chairman who seems disengaged, leaving the club to be run by a small number of hard-pressed volunteers. Almost all of the old small band of posters from the league days seem to have disappeared. Also, how does Pat Scullion still have a job? Been a disaster. Sandy Clark worked hard to bring through young players and get the Shire well set up and competitive. The last time I saw Shire was two years back and although they weren't great and the opposition (Dalbeattie) well on their way to relegation, they looked well organised and there seemed some promise that the club might have stablised on the park. A nosedive since Clark's departure. Without change or investment EOS football seems all but inevitable. Hope the Shire can find their way out of it but desperate straits presently. I do wonder if long term their previous status as everyone's favourite joke club, at the end of their league days, has come back to haunt them a bit. The joke's worn off and Geoffrey from Trowbridge and Gary from Weymouth have found another oddball team to follow from afar and buy merchandise from- much the same as has happened to Fort William since their relegation from the Highland League. I can remember us jousting with them at the turn of the century to avoid the Third Division wooden spoon in a few seasons, before the play off was introduced. Shire-Montrose games back then were genuinely entertaining festivals of incompetence. All part time teams are only a bad owner or a couple of bad managers away from this. In Shire's case, both.

Wouldn't surprise me at all to see the Shire folding in the next 3-5 years. The fanbase seems to be down to the hardcore 100-150 and the club seems barely alive, being run by a couple of volunteers. The chairman doesn't seem terribly invested. Hard to see how they avoid the drop into the EoS this year as things stand. Have no idea how Pat Scullion still has a job as manager, I guess they can't afford to sack him. It's a real shame, they were always a niche club followed by a loyal group of masochists and eccentrics and I hope some way can be found for them to recover at least at LL level.

Holm Kaska was the most deranged signing as I recall, barely good enough for lower tier junior football, as was. Drfited out the game after his bizarre brief spell at Fir Park, last heard of playing amateur in Germany. As I recall his team mates thought him a very nice guy, but just couldn't play football.

Threave's player-manager, the amusingly named Dunglinson, looks like the manager of a chain of tanning shops, crossed with a badly designed novelty candle.

Not the best draw unfortunately, lots of boring same-league ties. Only Forfar-Berwick, Threave-Stranraer, Inverurie-North End and Peterhead v Lochee really stood out. Hill O'Beath v Bo'ness United will also be tasty I think. Bonnyrigg get the opportunity to revive an old LL rivalry with Chicken Man's All Stars. That's about it. E2A: East Fife get the chance of revenge over Banks O'Dee having been humiliated there in the cup a few years back.

It looks 84-85 to me, someone like Dickson, Flexney. The Brian Ahern era

Hm, slightly strange one if so. Hardly had a stellar career in management, more a middle ranking one. The battle in Latvia is between Riga FC and "Riga Football School" and Riga second fiddle again this season. Both those clubs have a much bigger budget than any other by Latvian standards. I'm guessing Peter Leven is staying at Aberdeen as well. Strong Harri Kampmann vibes about this appointment (for younger viewers, a Finnish messiah appointed by Motherwell in the late 90s, I think, left with the Steelmen in a rip tide of disaster)