Ivo den Bieman

^^ Tory found

Yep, the HL champions most likely to be Fraserburgh, whom Cowdenbeath have already beaten at Bellslea Park earlier this season. Fraserburgh are a good HL side and have been there or thereabouts for a number of years but unlikely to trouble Bonnyrigg seriously. The reality ios that the HFL weakens year on year just as the Lowland League strengthens with the ex junior big names. It will take an exceptional HFL side now to prevail in the play-offs. Broch are very good, but not exceptional IMO. If Fraserburgh stumble in the title run-in the beneficiaries will be Buckie who still pretty much don't want promotion; the fans, board and town seem quite happy being stuck in 1957 in perpetuity and are the only side in the regular top 6 who appear at best, sceptical, of promotion. Kelty annihilated Buckie in the cup this year. It's not true that most of that Cove side are playing at the top of L1- nonsense, in fact. Sheran is now a director and only 2-3 of Saturday's team that beat Montrose were around in their HL championship season.

Yeah, Rennie is long-term injured. A good hard-working player when fit and always chipped in with useful goals.

I've seen Cowden a couple of times this season and they are actually alright- there have been far worse sides in this predicament. Mariuce Ross has them playing decent enough football. They are killed by lack of a goalscorer though-the source of all their problems. In the games I saw they should have comfortably seen off Albion Rovers at Central Park just before Christmas, and more than matched Forfar for 80% of a game at Station Park before falling away in the last ten minutes. It looks bleak as Bonnyrigg are a match for any side in L2 and (as we discovered in the cup recently) L1. Having seen off a very good EK side on penalties, and provoked one of the most hilarious raging radio meltdowns from John Sheran at Cove, the club certainly knows how to survive these. This will be a much bigger test I fear. Good luck guys, hope you make it.

I'm talking about chairmen. Yes Livingston were in a league of their own- a European champions league of bullies, fantasists, crooks, liars, shysters, fraudsters and real estate hucksters, from 1995- the year of their franchising- until 2009. That's a track record of fourteen years as the franchise's board has been semi-competent since then. Dundee's crooks date back to the 1980s, charitably.

I've been watching Scottish football for nearly 40 years now ( ) and bar a brief spell in the second half of the 80s, and some brief hubris under Stainrod (early 90s), the spending-imaginary-money-team, and a little bit of smugness when Jocky Scott signed a young Leigh Griffiths, Dundee have been largely poor. More often that not, the fans seething, humiliated, or both. And I can't think of another club run by such a rogues gallery of crooks, chancers, fantasists and absentee landlords, from Cook, through Ron Dixon, the dalliance with Giovanni di Stefano, Melville, to the current incumbent, who seems to be Ron Dixon Mark II. The fans should have kept control, and may have to step in again.

I can remember the old days of the early-mid 2000s when a visit to Balmoor with a dispiriting & feeble agglomeration of old lags, never-quite-weres and random 16 year old YTS boys always meant a shellacking at Balmoor. Neither side on great form but you'd hope Montrose have enough about them to get a win and get back on track.

It's pretty clear David Goodwillie will find it difficult to find another senior club in the UK. If he actually wants to keep playing football, he'll have to go abroad. Pretty unbelievable stuff from Clyde, re-signing him. I had thought recent mentions of him re-signing on loan were poor-taste jokes. Feel sorry for the decent fans amongst the Clyde support to be honest.

Clach worked very hard in that game, which was admirable, but there was a big gulf in class between the sides on the day. No doubt the Broch teamtalk was full of phrases like "looking for a reaction after that on Wednesday", and they got it. Clach also lacked any outlet going forward in the game.

Two poor teams & an even worse referee

Simon Rusk is a very highly regarded young coach, yes it didn't work out at Stockport but that was more to do with expectations- promotion from a very tight National League. He was far from a disaster there. I got the sense he just didn't fit that club, and he also was following a legendary manager dismissed in murky circumstances. Maybe there's a medium term plan for him to take over. I honestly had no idea McGhee was still working, a pretty jaw-dropping appointment. The only time I have seen his name recently is "John McVeigh" type suggestions when a club is looking for a new manager. anyway this is verging on "reasoned analysis" so... I would also recommend some of the twitter meltdowns in the comments under the club's official announcement.

Perhaps you could identify which parts upset you the most? Very odd response to a bland and seemingly factual match summary (I wasn't there). What a state to get yourself in.

Derek Adams' sacking hasn't exactly gone down badly with the Bradford City faithful, going by the comments belopw their official statement firing him. Accused of relntless negativity and "poisoning" the club. No doubt he did a near-miraculous job in getting Morecambe into League One and had a good spell at Plymouth too, but he does seem to be an acquired taste.

It was a weird time linguistically too- a whole bunch of shadowy chancers with names that sounded more like neo-fascist terror organisations (The Blue Knights lol...more like the Barron Knights) appeared to cut a slice from the carcass whilst shiny domed administrators turned up from London using words like "quantum". Tabloid journalists largely lost their minds as well, stopping just short of predicting civil war if Rangers folded, and a nuclear winter for the rest of Scottish football.

Aye poor big house guy is no longer with us (RIP). The wee specky guy is probably a traffic warden, pen pusher, or something similar

The glaikit specky boy awkwardly patting big hoose guy on the back after his rant was always the most disturbing thing about that news package.

Lads it’s perfectly reasonable to express disappointment & frustration after a game like that where we should have won, but failed to because of our own attacking shortcomings. Football supports aren’t normally made up of emotionless androids, chess gradmasters & metronome-watching brain surgeons. No apologies for expressing disappointment / annoyance last night.

Maybe just me, but being called a Tory is far too serious a matter for a "joke"

It also elected Boris Johnson as mayor, not so long ago had a mass of BNP councillors in Barking/Dagenham, and has a long history of "luminaries" such as Dame Shirley Porter. One accidental Tory MP in three decades hardly makes our town "Tory". Just showing your ignorance there.

Given your location I'd fancy you have far more Tories to worry about than us in Angus.

It caused so much fury as Carswell sliced down Watson as he crossed the half-way line, (provoking the stupid reaction which was a red card) and should have been ordered off as well. Really, really frustrating afternoon and we had more than enough chances to take all three points against a poor team that had little to offer beyond play-acting, and lungpower. Glad I don't have to watch that every week. Dreadful timewating and simulation of injury from about an hour onwards fully indulged by a dreadful referee. That said we only have ourselves to blame. We were way on top in terms of possession and time spent in the opponents half, but wasted it. The goal we gave away was one of the poorest I've seen at Links Park for a while, and virtually their only attack in the ninety. Beyond the first twenty minutes or so we were *far* too slow in the build up and trying to walk the ball into the net. Decision making on the ball was very poor. Yes we hit the post twice but the number of times we chose intricate tippy tappy build up over directness against a clogging defence really was infuriating. It just gave them the time to get organised. Everyone praises Montrose and we have been on a big high since 2018. This is a really solid group with a very good manager- one of the best in our history. The difference to where we were in 2015 really is extraordinary. But we are far too content with single goal leads rather than killing teams off, when we are on top, and I wish our forward play had a "direct" setting when playing against an assembly of cloggers no one else wants- like Dumbarton. Well, just have to put it down to an off-day- we could still be playing now and not have scored the winner.

Well, congratulations to the Raith Rovers fans who've been through the wringer this week. A really textbook grassroots campaign and some real bravery shown. Fair play. A lot of things still to happen in the weeks and months ahead but it's a really big victory in determining what sort of club you want yours to be. Fan power still works. As for the footballer, Clyde is at the outermost reaches of his expectations now. This case has attracted international attention and playing somewhere else, even part time in front of 600 people, seems optimistic. Chairmen and managers will be spooked. The player is so radioactive his only likely move is to Stroitel Pripyat, now. A long period of gardening leave with a dwindling pay off is a likely outcome.

It depends on your definition of "thick", which is a word that should be filed in the bin alongside "ned", "chav", etc. If you sneer at people who aren't academically bright and paint them in negative terms as a result don't be surprised if they live up to your negative typecasting, with interest. As the actor Peter Mullan said, "If you want a ned I'll give you a ned" having been serially written off / beaten by Glasgow Corporation school teachers when at school. Yes the majority of footballers may not be academically gifted, but not all by any means. Steven Tweed was very smart, and a gifted financial adviser / investor. Stuart Petrie is a pretty senior banker. You also have lawyers, doctors (Deuchar, K.), teachers (Danny Denholm), plenty of pretty smart business people. Sports science & nutrition has been a pretty well established field of academic study for a long time now and it's increasingly important. The younger managers have to be all over that stuff if they want to progress. The broader point of course is that academic qualifications are perhaps over-valued and held in too much reverence by people over 35/40. Younger folk going through it pretty much see through the structures of the degree and its weaknesses. I say this as someone who has a great deal of academic qualifications, having spent my life working in and around academic instiutions. The average football dressing room- just like any group- will have a range of abilities and plenty of bright folk, regardless of their employment. It's a weird snobbery, this "thick" stuff. Everyone has a contribution to make, and shouldn't be written off just because they can't write an essay. I would be lost hanging a door, wiring a house, servicing a car. It's a one-way snobbery, too. I'm a very poor footballer but on the odd occasion where I've played fives or had a kick about with an ex-pro or a junior player on the park they've been nothing but encouraging. Imagine if pro footballers sneered at amateurs the way academic people sneer at the "thick". If we got even 10% of the contempt some of us show to the academically non-gifted we'd put our kit on e-bay and never go near football again.

Any sane media adivser would have told him to say this: "We have met David and he is training with us. We're all aware of the controversial nature of his signing. Our job is to concentrate on football so I will not be commenting further. If you wish to discuss his signing you'll need to speak to the chairman". That of course pre-supposes that 1. there's still a media adviser that hasn't resigned 2. the chairman isn't "riding things out" having locked himself in his own safe in Bangkok.

Yeah good shout- the name will change in the next day or so- just deciding what it'll be.