Pie Of The Month

A heads up for anyone getting cross-border trains to Germany regarding seat reservations.

Bannigan pre-injury is so far ahead of Docherty he'd need to have spent the last few seasons actively scoring own goals against us in order to bring him down to a level where this is even a debate.

Would quite like to watch a Championship game not involving us without a mention of Dingwall thanks very much.

I'm not sure how anyone who seen both could have Docherty over 2013-early 2016 Premiership Bannigan never mind any of the other midfield options already mentioned.

The exact same thing happened to me last summer in Germany @Billy Jean King and I couldn't figure it out but I got both trains on my booking just fine. Assumed it's an automated thing that happens if either train changes at all even if it's something that doesn't impact your part of the journey.

It's not something he's done in a while but there's been a couple of windows where one of the two hasn't been available. He started both against Ukraine in the playoff, away to Austria, at home to Israel and 2 of the 3 games at the last Euros so it's clearly something that's in Clarke's thoughts when it comes to a certain type of big game.

There's 4 groups in League C but only 2 in League D so originally the 4 teams that finished bottom of their groups in League C should have had play-offs with the 2 losers getting relegated and replaced by the 2 League D group winners. Due to Russia being in League B when the 22/23 draw was made but now being punted out they only needed 1 team to be relegated from League C to ensure both Leagues B and C had 16 teams so the 2 worst placed teams from League C Gibraltar and Lithuania are having a play-off with the winner staying up and the loser being relegated.

They have up until 120 days before to announce but a lot of FAs ignore the rule. Croatia is anyone's guess, of their last 10 competitive games 2 have been Zagreb, 3 Osijek, 4 Split and 1 Rijeka. The stadium in Zagreb was damaged back in 2020 by an earthquake but their last competitive match was there so I'm not sure if that means they've sorted it out as the majority of their games were played in Zagreb before that. Portugal is about 90% going to be in Lisbon or Porto based on their recent competitive games but they do like to move the occasional game and played Spain in Braga.

I suspect the new system will mean the favourite seat is gone anyway or at least will need to be set up again.

SSC tweeted they are launching a new ticket system for 2024 which is why it's been down for a while. Launching it when the first thing on sale is the 5 match package seems ambitious for the SFA.

£125 East/West and £150 North/South for the 2023 package which was 4 competitive games plus England so it's went up £25 and 2 of the 5 are friendlies.

https://www.scottishfa.co.uk/news/ticket-information-announced-for-scotland-men-s-2024-fixtures/?rid=13925 5 match package on sale for members Tuesday 27th February, single tickets 4th March then public sale from 7th March. £150 for West/East, £175 for North/South for the package.

Saturday-Tuesday with easyjet was £120 this morning. Porto route was cheap too Friday-Monday but it's more of a risk as the flight home is early morning so if the game is Lisbon you're a bit snookered.

Portugal booked, will worry about the other 2 nearer the time.

05/09 - Poland (h) 08/09 - Portugal (a) 12/10 - Croatia (a) 15/10 - Portugal (h) 15/11 - Croatia (h) 18/11 - Poland (a)

Wales have posted their fixtures already so imagine the rest will follow soon.

Hoping Portugal away isn't in September when it's still the English school holidays, other than that will take anything.

League A Group 1 - Croatia, Portugal, Poland, Scotland Group 2 - Italy, Belgium, France, Israel Group 3 - Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, Bosnia-Herzegovina Group 4 - Spain, Denmark, Switzerland, Serbia

Group 1 - Croatia, Portugal, Poland, Scotland Take that

League B Group 1 - Czechia, Ukraine, Albania, Georgia Group 2 - England , Finland, Ireland, Greece Group 3 - Austria, Norway, Slovenia, Kazakhstan Group 4 - Wales, Iceland, Montenegro, Turkey Thank Christ Wales got Turkey or they'd have got another jammy group.

League C Group 1 - Sweden, Azerbaijan, Slovakia, Estonia, Group 2 - Romania, Kosovo, Cyprus, Lithuania/Gibraltar Group 3 - Luxembourg, Bulgaria, N. Ireland, Belarus Group 4- Armenia, Faroe Islands, N. Macedonia, Latvia League D Group 1 - Lithuania/Gibraltar, San Marino, Liechtenstein Group 2 - Moldova, Malta, Andorra

https://www.uefa.com/uefanationsleague/draws/ Live here or on viaplay.

Slightly less mention of this than normal due to the fact we've got a Euros in Germany to win but the draw is on Thursday and we're League A for the first time so thought it was worth a thread. Draw is on Thursday at 5pm UK time and live on UEFA.com. Format has changed this year with top 2 from the group going into the Nations League quarter finals, 3rd going into a playoff with 2nd placed teams from League B for promotion/relegation and 4th being relegated. Italy, Hungary and Poland for me please.

https://int.bahn.de/en Select 'Book seat only' You'll get a seat reservation for 4.90 euro. To use ICE trains you don't need a seat reservation unless it's some condition of your Eurostar ticket but I imagine most trains from Stuttgart the day after the game will be mobbed so it might be worth it.

Both are in the VRS network so will be covered.