LongTimeLurker

If true, and associate members even still get the same cash handouts full members get it's a storm in a tea cup.

Do associate members still get into the Scottish Cup?

From Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom under what is effectively direct rule with a hard border potentially imminent, so all the murder and mayhem he helped unleash achieved what exactly?

That map shows why being in the EoS as opposed to a Tayside junior divison doesn't make a drastic difference in travel terms for a Perth team like Kinnoull.

Since then the SFA were told by the HL and NRSJFA that they weren't interested on working on the pyramid and the ERSJFA opted for a split division format for 2019-20 despite being told by the SFA that only a 16 club single division could be accepted at tier 6. Don't doubt that the WRSJFA still wants in but subsequent events suggest that it's not at all clear that the other two regions do and that makes the posture of keeping the SJFA intact on pyramid entry a non-starter even before issues like the Tayside boundary problem and EoS/LL opposition to a second east tier 6 feeder get added to the mix.

The main problem with shifting the boundary further north is there is already a very large population imbalance between the LL and HL catchments. It only takes one of the HL, LL, SPFL and SFA to be opposed for no change to be possible, so it's no sure thing that it can happen.

and the Highland League isn't really interested in the pyramid and hasn't made any concrete moves to have tier 6 feeders meaning the Tayside junior clubs are likely to be stuck in limbo in pyramid terms unless the boundary gets shifted up to around Montrose.

Could also be that you finished third last year and they are expecting you to do well again next season.

Did the ERSJFA not have a notice on their website advertising for new members and talking about tier 6 entry in 2019-20 even after it had become clear it wasn't happening? If they were doing that how can anyone reasonably complain about the EoS doing much the same and accepting a late applicant? Beyond that I would have thought it should have become clear to all by now after the board directive patter from Tom Johnston turned out to be unenforceable that Ian Maxwell doesn't actually have much in the way of power where the pyramid is concerned and that change has to happen by consensus rather than diktat from above. That puts the league that is already on board in the east in the driving seat in terms of leverage during negotiations, because they hold an effective veto over what happens while the SJFA does not because they didn't engage with the pro/rel process to and from the Lowland League when it started.

Was skeptical on that last bit but then I saw this tweet:

If he means joining the juniors the decisions won't be made until the ERSJFA and SJFA AGMs that haven't happened yet.

Think that's a stretch. What does it change other than having an 8 team rather than a 9 team north first division? If anything, it's probably easier to schedule the north divisions now.

Late 1800s I would imagine given there was a strong Perthshire league up until the late 1960s. Scone Thistle and Luncarty are the Last of the Mohicans for the juniors in the immediate Perth area. Bankfoot, Balbeggie and Perth Celtic have all fallen by the wayside in relatively recent times.

Sad to see Eyemouth go given they have a long history at this level and had a great Scottish cup run back in the 50s, but if having a Borders amateur team would be a better fit for the players locally there is no harm moving to a level where you can be competitive as is also the case with Selkirk, Duns and Kelso. Coldstream, Gala and Vale of Leithen seem to be able to hold their own in the EoS and LL and Berwick Rangers have a moutain to climb to return to the SPFL so there's probably always going to be Borders teams around at tier five and six sort of level. Glenrothes and then Kinnoull moving shows that there is probably going to be a slow death by a thousand cuts for the ERSJFA south of the Tay Bridge midpoint boundary as the years pass even if there is never another mass exodus. Guess they want to try to keep up with the Joneses where Jeanfield Swifts are concerned.

SFA have awarded them their licence? Guess the basis for confidence would be that they know a visit by licensing officers to check out the floodlights went well.

^^^all his recent posts appear to be about the inner workings of Midlothian or East Lothian clubs, so looks like he is likely to be in the loop on that.

Wonder what Peter Heatherston is up to these days. https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/hetherston-faces-action-over-jibes-at-female-ref-1-493563

There's no reason why it should be 17 teams next season. The LL Board provided the waiver for EoS clubs who get licensed after March 31st up until the SFA AGM and WW finished in a position that would have led to being relegated even if Selkirk had still been around. Things are following their normal course.

Coldstream would probably be in there as well.

The likes of Auchinleck Talbot, Irvine Meadow, Pollok and Clydebank would probably be featuring prominently at the moment if it had been done on a rational basis, so it's not like the Dutch Erste Divisie where there was a slow whittling down of numbers in a survival of the fittest sort of way from also having a professional level Tweede Divisie as three clubs in Utrecht amalgamated into one and the likes of Xerxes Rotterdam and Blau-Wit Amsterdam fell by the wayside, etc.

How did Hawick Royal Albert get on in the EoS last season? Even Preston weren't able to reach the new EoS premier. You are not comparing like with like because nothing as stringent as fully professional level licensing standards was being applied on LL entry and the wrong set of clubs got in if it were being done on any sort of rational basis. That doesn't mean that Bonnyrigg would be better than all LL clubs next season with a squad assembled with the EoS premier in mind given the presence of EK, Kelty, the Shire and Berwick who will all have large budgets to spend on players by the sounds of things, but there's still plenty of low hanging fruit waiting to be plucked by teams from below that want to progress.

Is there really going to be much of a gap in quality next season between most of the EoS premier and most of the LL? Cup games this past season suggest there won't be. Hope common sense has prevailed now that they have functioning floodlights..

Any risk of having Nigel Farage as PM would give most people who aren't completely obsessed by constitutional politics a reason to think very carefully about what to do next. That would be a case of having somebody like Donald Trump in control with none of the checks and balances of the American system.

They are a Stirlingshire club like Dunipace on the old county boundaries so maybe they could join the EoS. Clydebank were going to be accepted at one point. If clubs are adamant about staying with the juniors outside the pyramid then good luck to them. Maybe having a WoS league only for the clubs that want it is the better way to go.

Not according to what's on twitter: https://twitter.com/search?q=Linlithgow+Thistle