LongTimeLurker

Probably just saw an opportunity to remind people he is stiil alive. MHRA now have all the data they requested from OxfordAZ, so looking good for approval by Monday. If that happens the rate of vaccination will ramp up considerably.

A Dundee club needs to put an application in to find out for sure what would actually happen if the EoS membership ever voted on it. They are only two or three miles over the boundary from Tayport so Luncarty (a few hundred yards north of the line of latitude in the Perth area) isn't necessarily as unique in logistical terms as is being implied above. If Jeanfield in Perth isn't an issue, it is difficult to see from a map of Scotland why Downfield in Dundee would be mission impossible for anyone:

Guess Austin MacPhee has more time on his hands again these days for his "AM Soccer Club". They were said to be interested in doing a Broomhill Sports Club type application where the LL was concerned at one point and are now very much involved with Cupar Hearts. http://cupar-hearts.co.uk/category/season-2019-2020/

To expand on that a bit. The handling of Luncarty's application earlier this year made it clear that east north clubs north of the boundary were going to be treated the same way as east south clubs. Welcome in at the bottom tier if the existing member clubs in the EoS say aye rather than naw at the AGM, so there's nothing to negotiate about from an EoS standpoint. That's the potential way in for all remaining east region clubs. If people want a standalone Tayside league to carry on into the future they may wind up waiting a very long time to get into the pyramid, because there is no indication that the HL actually wants them and the HL would have to sign off on it.

It's not so much transmission of the vaccine that's the key on being able to normalise society, although there is evidence that the OxfordAZ vaccine helps in that regard. Nobody in the OxfordAZ study who got the vaccine rather than the placebo developed symptoms severe enough to require hospitalisation. If it prevents severe symptoms job done.

It starts working after the first one. The second one is only a booster to make it work even better. Tory Blur has been quite vocal on this topic today:

Meanwhile we await the MHRA approval of the OxfordAZ vaccine (Daily Telegraph has reported Dec 28th as the probable date) and the possibility it opens up of getting all high risk people vaccinated within a timescale of weeks.

Better to be drunk than old

Tayport should have listened to superbigal two years ago. This was always only to go one way in the east once it became clear the EoS could use the playoff format changes rule to block east region entry. There is zero chance all of the SFA, LL, WoS, EoS and SoS will sign off on a fourth ML feeder at tier 6 so even suggesting it is basically delusional at this point. Looks like Tayport realise that and accept that tier 8 EoS is their only way in now.

The solution is only there if the HL and north region want to accomodate them. All the evidence points to it not even being on their radar. The Midlands League proposal points to tier 6 entry being a higher priority for your friend from Lochee than a trip to the Lothians. A lot of what patriot1 has been posting post-Luncarty entry points to the EoS posture being maybe on Tayside clubs if the members say OK when it goes to a vote at the AGM but only at tier 8 or whatever the bottom tier winds up being when the application finally arrives.

Part of the problem here is Brechin City and the other Angus SPFL clubs are not accepting the boundary either, so it's more than just Lochee United & Co that are resisting being in the HL catchment. If they have the SPFL in their corner on that and the SFA are not hugely fussed either way, that gives the HL a solid basis for not including Tayside in their tier 6 negotiations. If the EoS membership rejects any future north of the boundary applications now Luncarty are on board that probably leaves the east region north in limbo for a few seasons, if the LL don't accept a rule change on the Club 42 playoff. Having that as the probable outcome will be a big part of why Tayport don't want to hang around with the Dundee clubs any longer. Along with likely not being keen on the drastic mismatches in playing standards involved with being part of the new single division format.

In the podcast Baikie specifically mentions that the HL "dinnae want them" where the Dundee clubs are concerned. The only place where it gets talked about as a serious option is on here. The Tayside clubs are not part of the HL's tier 6 feeder negotiations so do not have integration with the North Juniors / HL available as an option.

Mentions being south of the dividing line That the HL and EoS "dinnae want them" where the Dundee clubs are concerned that are north of the dividing line Says he is not up to date on how the Midlands League proposal is going Stayed out of a sense of loyalty to the old Tayside region and wanting clubs to move as a block, but Tayport as a club now need to move to the EoS if that doesn't happen.

No chance the WoS would agree to that last bit if there is still only going to be one playoff decided promotion place to the LL and highly doubtful that the EoS would, so that's probably as good as saying that Tayport will be in the EoS next season. Guess tier 8 entry is an easier pill for Tayport to swallow given they are south of the Club 42 boundary, which may or may not have been an obstacle previously for others in the east region north (Scone Thistle excepted).

The compensation coming the way of the bottom dwellers probably gives them a financial boost compared to non-pandemic conditions, so would have been ludicrous to do otherwise. Agree this issue is probably no more than a temporary (five to ten years tops) irritant until we get to a point where most LL clubs are likely to want relegation to be easier to bounce back from than it is now in case it ever happens to them. If there's one thing we learned from the reconstruction talks after the SPFL's 2019-20 season ended abruptly, it is that getting any package of reconstruction changes through the SPFL's voting system is close to impossible. In some glass half empty sort of ways that was a good thing as it meant that the League Two clubs were thwarted in their attempts to close the trapdoor, but the flipside in glass half full sort of ways is that the playoff format is probably going to be around for the forseeable future.

Probably couldn't believe their luck when they heard BJ talking it up in his live announcement.

Why do we need all these league bodies anyway? They are not going to easily agree on something logical on promotion and relegation or on the long term status of the SoS when they are guided by selfish self-interest agendas. Once the SJFA is out of the picture where leagues are concerned when what's left of the east region south joins the EoS everything semi-pro in the LL catchment (Tayside is complicated but let's ignore that angle for now) will be in the same grade. At that point in this era of the internet it could all easily be streamlined and run by one organisation with an SFA committee deciding the overall structure like the FA does with the NLS or whatever it is called in England.

There wouldn't need to be to be able to identify that there was a significant issue. If training sessions and games resulted in easy transmission between players and coaching staff then given the current level of prevalence of COVID there should be postponements happening regularly as entire teams become symptomatic and cluster effects of cases elsewhere in workplaces and schools that could easily be traced back to a WoS team as the "spreader event". That has not been happening, because football happens outdoors and is inherently low risk if sensible precautions are taken. Worry about things like secondary schools and workplaces that are being kept open indoors for reasons of economic expediency through all of this because that's a much more likely avenue for community spread.

Understandable with The Sun that were would still be a "Hop off Delors" approach. In the context of the BBC, not so much.

What planet are London media outlet people on when they frame stories as the EU will need to budge or it will be No deal? The UK is the smaller economy involved with more to lose, and it's quite possible that at least some EU leaders actually want a No Deal Brexit to severely mess up the UK pour discourager les autres.

Tier 6 is coming in the HL catchment with the NCL and north region already lined up as the feeders (they don't seem to want Tayside, so still some blazer politics to unfold in that context) and negotiations are far advanced by all accounts. Fort William's days at tier 5 are numbered.

For a few more seasons we are still going to have a clique of former pre-2013 EoS premier clubs and assorted boys clubs that got in early viewing the LL as their fiefdom (even after they get relegated in Whitehill Welfare's case apparently) . They still have the numbers needed to prevent more ventilation at the bottom at this point and there has been every indication that they will do so as long as they can. Give it a few more years of pro-rel though and the reality that the pyramid belongs equally to all the clubs involved in it (yes, even Whitburn when they finally join next season) will start to prevail. A solid majority of south pyramid clubs will be ex-SJFA, so they will have the ability to retrofit the pyramid more in line with their way of doing things only minus Tom Johnston and with floodlights and fixture lists this time, if that turns out to be what they want to do. I strongly suspect/hope that having both the EoS and WoS winners automatically promoted every season (if they can deal with the SoS champion in a two from three playoff format, probably with two more places potentially up for grabs after that for the second placed EoS and WoS teams, SoS champion and fourth bottom LL team) and merging the SCC and SJC to keep the tradition of having a national nonleague cup going will be high on the agenda in the years ahead.

Space cadet was 80s slang for someone viewed as being "away with the fairies" in older Scots idiom terms. Don't think there always has to be drugs involved. More to do with being in your own little dream world and not fully in touch with reality.

...the only way out has always been herd immunity and overly drastic lockdowns merely served to prolong the pain on that in the absence of effective pharmaceutical intervention. As long as the vaccines that have been or soon will be approved for use are still effective against this (conveniently just in time for reversing Christmas relaxations and keeping the plebs indoors for a no deal Brexit) variant that's not that far off. Keep the heid and resist falling into mass hysteria.

Hopefully the numbers tip soon on this issue and more of a junior superleague approach will be introduced on pro-rel to keep things fresh with plenty of mobility between tiers. Could be another few years though. Problem is the bottom half of the LL right now know they will almost certainly follow the Preston Athletic, Hawick RA and Whitehill Welfare trajectory and never get close to the LL again so will cling desperately to tier 5 status as long as they can. Attitudes will only shift when there are enough clubs that want to make sure that if they have a bad season and get relegated that it's easy for them to quickly bounce back.