Jambo'ness

Fair dos, Again, personally speaking, I feel that the farce that is the leadership of the SJFA has caused a lot of this. They have done nothing to honestly re-assure clubs. All they have said have turned out to be, at best, half-truths. When you have no trust in the leadership but can't realistically change it, then you are left with one alternative. Get out!

Until we all know the final figures of who is in what grade, we will not know a thing, rumours aside, about how it will be made-up.

The childish comments are certainly coming out now. If would be nice, although well-nigh impossible, if people could think of the future of the game in this country, for the good of the game. Instead we have petty squabbles developing all over. Name-calling and protectionism are of no help.

Whilst I agree with the latter part of your post, I have to take issue with the accusation of 'snobbery' from fans of 'bigger' clubs. I can only fully speak for myself but I and every other Bo'ness fan I have spoken to wants change. Naturally we want the best deal we can get but there is a realisation that due to our committees short-sightedness we may have missed the boat as it left the harbour and now have to catch up on a wee tug boat.

The natural preference for most clubs would be to have access to a League in their geographical area. This is where the SFA have to step in and create a pathway for clubs north of the Tay to be able to ultimately get into the Highland League. After all, you wouldn't expect to see Torquay United in the Northern Premier League, so why would Carnoustie (for example) be suitable to join the EOS. I'm sure all of this has been done to death but now clubs are waking up and smelling the coffee.

Are the catchment area's rigid? Not entirely, certainly in the past and of course Clydebank were interested earlier this season

A **** sight nicer than TJ's SJFA.

Although it would affect my club adversely, I agree with you. The ones who made the deadline should start in a higher place than those now applying in panic. However, let's face it, the EOS would desperately like to have a league with Bonnyrigg, Bo'ness & Linlithgow in it, a huge feather in their cap and so will accommodate accordingly.

The majority of the committee at our club were against moving, citing one main reason. They did not want to lose the gate money from a game with their foes over the flints. If Linlithgow choose to go, our committee no longer have that excuse to fall back on (not that I felt it held any substance). They are probably talking to each other more than you realise, because yes, if one goes so will the other. The danger being that they will wait for each other and end up doing nothing. Events over the last few days have probably tipped the balance. Nearly every centrally based Superleague side is now/have conducted meetings. It's a shame that panic has caused clubs to sit up and take notice but the ends justify the means.

Quite right to wait until it's official but it does appear that the remaining clubs in the East superleague south of Perth are coming to their senses and know they cannot sit on their hands.

Attention all those who trusted in TJ & co. I will not mock you, you believed their lies but now is the time to get the fcuk away from these snakes, or you will be dead within a decade.

Accidentally red-dotted you there but gave you a green to counter. You are spot on about the blazers holding on to power but I think you are wrong regarding an entire integration. TJ & co have missed the boat on East clubs, now too fractured to move together. He and his cronies have always been more concerned with the west anyway, so there he still sees a chance to do some dealing that keeps him in a position of power. All I would ever say to other fans is 'would you buy a used car from him?'

I've been a supporter of the pyramid for a long time now but once my club had let 31/03 pass and made it clear they weren't for moving because TJ would save the day, my heart fell. Now it would appear some sense has prevailed. They may, perhaps, have finally seen through the charlatan's cloak and found nothing there but a desperate, clinging desire for self-preservation. I hope that Bo'ness fans come out and discuss issues, for and against but I, of course, hope they see that change is needed. If we are really lucky, an application would be accepted, although we scarcely deserve to be on an even footing with those who have already committed themselves.

Really? With it being a 'Senior' league, that comes as a surprise.

How many junior clubs will be caught out this year if they sign a player from one of those moving to the EoS?

One of the major failings of the current set-up is it hasn't learned any recent football lessons. Making clubs over-reach themselves is stupid and you must never force them to become less competitive just to avoid a promotion that may financially cripple them.

Not a hope in hell it's Bo'ness. The majority of the committee are not for moving and trust TJ implicitly.

This fact alone should act as a wake-up call to those trusting in TJ & his SJFA. I really cannot see the sense in paying a TV company money to show a game, when it will undoubtedly lead to fewer bodies through the gate. if it was with the intent to attract a sponsor, it may make sense but they've failed miserably on that score. Many die-hard junior fans see the clubs leaving as traitors to the grade or lemmings jumping over the cliff but the alternative for most is to wither and die, gradually, whilst the rest of the non-league scene prospers.

They may not have made an official notification but Camelon seem to be preparing for a different level if their pie hut prices are anything to go by!

The list above is what leaves me shaking my head in bewilderment at my clubs decision to stay put for the over-riding reason of a gate against lithgae. They seem to have forgotten that any money made from that will be eaten up by the trips next year to Broughty, Carnoustie, Lochee, Forfar (who are unlikely to be relegated & Tayport (who will likely go up to make the numbers). That is without cup draws, which are now even more likely to include trips north. We had 3 this season, 2 in Dundee & 1 in Brechin. Maybe we should advocate a Tayside League and join that, as that seems to be the way we are heading.

Am I missing something here? Looks to me you have just defined a 'thinly veiled threat'.

19 days late in catching us with that one.

I keep hearing this type of thing from Junior fans - why should junior clubs who have up til now (and in some cases continue) showed no interest in joining the pyramid be slotted in at a higher level? After Rangers demise, the new club rightly ended up in the bottom tier. Some folk tried to slot them in higher up and it was correctly rejected. When Juventus were relegated during Calciopoli, did they automatically get a European place after winning Serie B because they were a bit club? When Wimbledon became MK Dons and AFC Wimbledon was founded, they started in the lowest level with a space. They were a much bigger club than those in that league and they went on to have many successive promotions. Teams find their natural level by winning leagues or being relegated. To suggest that teams should bypass normal sporting convention because currently they are a big fish in a small pond is arrogance in the extreme IMO. I have to agree with you. My club had a chance which it has now wasted. In any future agreement it would be wrong for us to vault over others who had the balls to make the change when the chance was there.

Unfair to blame whole committee. There are some who wanted to move, not just Derek.