LongTimeLurker

The Highland boundary fault runs from Helensburgh to Stonehaven at the point where the mountains start. Keep everything SE of that in the LL catchment and you will wind up with very few edge cases because a large chunk of the country immediately to the NW of the HBF is very sparsely populated. The SFL traditionally covered the SE of the HBF area plus Aberdeen with the Highland League catering to the Moray Firth coast. Scotland's geography dictated that split.

The Grampian mountains make road travel as the crow flies from Dundee to Elgin impossible. That's the natural break point in terms of Scottish geography that funnels major transport links on an east to west axis along the Moray Firth, which is why the Angus clubs wound up in the SFL or local juniors back in the day rather than the Highland League. When the Club 42 boundary was agreed odds on nobody in Highland League circles stopped to think even for a moment whether they actually wanted Lochee United or Broughty Athletic as possible future members, because all they were thinking about was how to reorganize the senior grade that had no non-league teams on the east coast between Cove and Burntisland. The juniors were never expected to crash the party. Club 42 was also probably expected to win nine times out of ten, so they probably weren't seriously expecting to have an Angus club relegated from the SPFL any time soon. The pyramid concept wasn't being taken seriously in progression terms and was just something they had to sign up to to keep Stewart Regan happy, who in turn was a puppet on a string in SFA Board terms for Alan McRae of Cove Rangers, the only HL club that actually wanted to move into the national league level.

Think 1:2:2 would probably be the better way to go, but the bottom line is that with sensible regionalisation Whitburn don't have to be going to Dundee and Angus on a regular basis in an EoS context. There's no indication that the Highland League actually want Tayside and they will need to sign off on any tier 6 feeder in pro/rel terms. Meanwhile, Luncarty got in despite being north of the Club 42 line. As things stand at the moment, the EoS is the only way into the pyramid for non-licensed Tayside junior clubs subject , of course, to the approval of the existing membership.

The wee village in Ayrshire strikes again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow,_East_Ayrshire In a similar vein, I used to be able to confuse Canadians when working there by telling them how I was able to take a bus rather than a plane to California in Scotland.

...and they would have got away with it, if it hadn't been for those pesky kids fae Kelty. Gordon Smith wanted the juniors in but nobody else appears to have been taking that possibility seriously at the time, especially Tom Johnston and the SJFA with all the £150k toilet block patter before some of the less cerebral pyramidistas stick their oar in. The pyramid working group mainly revolved around Cove Rangers and Spartans having a way in and maybe losing East Stirlingshire along the way, and Cove Rangers had someone positioned on the inside pulling the strings on the SFA Board so the opportunity provided by the SPFL merger talks could be exploited from a pyramid standpoint. When they signed off on the new arrangements, there was clearly no expectation amongst SPFL clubs that Club 42 would wind up getting relegated more often than not as now appears likely over the next decade or so. A few years on and clubs as big as Clyde and Stirling Albion have been very much part of the mix and most recently Cove Rangers annihilated Berwick Rangers over two legs. Brechin City have belatedly woken up to the dangers posed by the new reality and now have someone on the SPFL Board pulling the strings where the boundary line is concerned, so that away games in Wick won't feature in their future (especially those on a wet windy Tuesday night in February before we get the usual patter in that regard). There was no way the LL were going to sign off on a boundary shift at this season's AGM after what happened to Kelty Hearts and Brora Rangers on the promotion playoff, but the Angus clubs are unlikely to let the matter rest. It will be interesting to see what threats/inducements will be made/offered to get the LL to sign off on a boundary shift over the next year or so.

The East Region Tayside League never rates a mention when this topic gets discussed in Highland League circles and the Highland League has to sign off on the pro/rel arrangements for any tier 6 feeder. Meanwhile in contrast, Luncarty were voted into the EoS despite being north of the Club 42 line of latitude for registered home ground locations, and according to patriot this was justified by stating that there are no geographical restrictions in the EoS constitution on who can apply with the decision being made by the existing membership. If EoS clubs can handle travelling to Luncarty or St Andrews, Dundee or even Forfar isn't drastically further.

It's completely dead in the water now and whether you like it or not Tayside is highly likely to be heading into the LL catchment regardless of what gets posted on here. That leaves the HL catchment seriously underpopulated relative to the LL, so some relatively small clubs are going to be able to be tier 5 there with a much easier path to the SPFL. The WoS catchment is likely to be stronger than the EoS because the Glasgow area is where most of the population is in the central belt, so after a decade or so once the LL starts to reflect where the strength lies, the east is probably going to wind up being under-represented at tier 5. Clubs like Blackburn, Musselburgh, Camelon and Dunipace who had supporters and/or officials on here spewing venom at anyone talking up Option Z are unlikely to ever get a look in in that regard. The machinations of Tom Johnston will soon be a distant memory, but a lot of people weren't thinking two or three steps ahead like you need to do to be successful in life.

That would go down like a lead balloon in Bo'ness. No derby with Lithgae Rose unless they both get into the SPFL and in with Dundee despite being much closer to Edinburgh and having an EH postcode. If Dumfries to Oban and Aberdeen to Wick are viewed as doable scenarios, then Hawick to Forfar should be as well. Think three way would be the sensible way to go at tier 5 and the Option Z scenario would have had a lot going for it if the LL had been willing to split. Ironically some of the people who were seething about it the most on here at the time support clubs that are unlikely to ever make it past tier 6 as things are currently configured but would have been in with a shout of tier 5 and being one promotion away from the SPFL under Option Z. Tom Johnston rant seethe SJFA splutter....

Because of where the Club 42 boundary was drawn some traditional Tayside clubs (Jeanfield Swifts, Kinnoull and now Luncarty) are already in the EoS. It's difficult to have a stable league with what's left because there aren't enough clubs for two sensibly sized divisions and the range of playing standards is huge. What's left is unlikely to be stable for long in other words as is also the case with the south section of the east region in West Lothian. If the EoS membership is willing to vote more Tayside clubs in at a regionalised tier 8, that's the probable destination regardless of what some people are still posting on here about the Highland League. Floodlights should solve some of the issues that there used to be in the juniors with midweek games.

The logistics surrounding midweek games in Forfar with early kickoffs due to the absence of floodlights did not go down well with clubs south of the Forth in the old east region setup. There's a reason why a lot of people in east nonleague circles were very keen to latch onto the Club 42 boundary as being some rigidly carved in stone edict from the SFA that also applied to the EoS as well, so they could ditch Tayside. By all accounts this was still happening at a meeting of EoS and LL clubs related to SJFA pyramid entry a little over a year ago when SFA officeholders were trying to push the idea that a 16 club east region superleague that would have included a lot of Tayside clubs could be an LL feeder alongside the EoS, the west superleague and the SoS. Many of the usual suspects on here were ridiculing the SFA officeholders involved for supposedly not knowing their own rules and having to have it explained to them at this meeting. In reality, they should have been taking it as a signal that the Club 42 boundary wasn't anything like as rigid as they liked to think. Judging from patriot's posts the people that matter in blazer terms in the EoS did grasp that and subsequently changed tack.

An EoS officeholder was quoted on the BBC website about receiving inquiries from the west and north of the Tay that made it sound like those areas were outside the EoS catchment. Carnoustie Panmure talked about being in limbo where the pyramid was concerned at that point. It suits the EoS to pretend that the Club 42 boundary was never an issue because they don't need to let anybody in at tier 6 that way at the expense of existing members and it also kills off any possible need for future PWG meetings.

^^^I have no idea what this lunatic is gibbering about.

Even 500k on players would start to raise questions as to why there is no full-time training.

The reasonable argument for Tayside going north is the need for some semblance of balance in the tier 5 feeder catchments in population terms. Arguments revolving around ease of travel are definitely bogus. As things stand the HL are not including Tayside in its working party on tier 6 feeders, Brechin City and the other Angus SPFL clubs are pushing for a boundary shift for Club 42, and the Luncarty precedent shows that boundary has no relevance where EoS entry is concerned. It's obvious which way the wind is blowing.

In the English nonleague pyramid there are Steps 1-6 comprising leagues that affiliate directly with the FA in a similar sort of way to our senior grade with the FA Trophy (Steps 1-4) and FA Vase (Steps 5 and 6) as national cups. Everything below that is amateur level leagues run locally by county FAs in a manner comparable in some ways to what happens in our amateur grade. There is no automatic progression from the top of the county level into Step 6. It is done by application.

By all accounts it's only a matter of time, if for no other reason than because they want shot of Banks o' Dee. There is no EoS equivalent in Aberdeenshire so there are no crazy junior vs senior blazer politics involved over who gets to be the tier 6 feeder. There's a good chance the north region will be able to hook up to the HL as is.

^^^this deranged psycho stalker is so bigoted that he stopped supporting the Kelty Hearts first team when Barry Ferguson became the manager.

The Tayside clubs are not being included in the HL tier 6 feeder discussions and an EoS officeholder was on record in the media two years ago making it sound like they were outside the LL/EoS catchment. If they ever got confirmation of that in writing, they would have a case for demanding tier 6 entry in a Midlands League format. Judging from patriot's posts the EoS is adopting the posture that Tayside clubs could always have applied in the same manner Luncarty did this year, because there is no Tay Bridge boundary in the EoS constitution. If so, they will almost certainly be expected to start at the bottom.

My money's on Olek, Szgula and Strazlkowski.

Given he is from Lochee and started his political career as a councillor in Dundee he used to talk about being a Dundee United supporter and being at Muirton when Dundee won the league title in the early 60s, so suddenly turning into a Celtic fan was transparently obvious opportunism on his part.

Think he was called Liddle.

Former Scotland U-21 international Rikki Ferguson in case anyone was wondering. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rikki_Ferguson Very much a fixture in the Accies team until John Lambie decided he wasn't quite up to playing in the premier league and brought in Dave McKellar.

Says the nutter who regularly goes on red dotting frenzies. Time to put you on ignore.

Comic stuff. Highlighting the ongoing issue with Traffordab and the various mugs on here who are still foolishly taking his bait has nothing whatsoever to do with the strawman argument of the stalker from Kelty on whether all use of this board is a waste of time. I wasn't suggesting that for a second.

Doubt most people are even aware. The main problem football has in the RoI is that GAA is still favoured by the powers that be. Think the Dutch parallel is more interesting. Most of their largest part-time clubs don't want to be promoted to the fully professional second tier for big fish small pond Talbot type reasons and managed to get the moves to have progression from the third to second tier there to form a complete pyramid suspended. At least we finally appear to have moved beyond that mentality.