Craig fae the Vale

To further your point, I get along to 4 or 5 Sons games a season on average, and a ticket to the final is top of my priority list right now. My wife, who usually only tags along to women's football says she's coming too, and my brother, who hasn't been to a game since the playoff finals against Airdrie has asked me to keep him posted on ticket details. I'm sure there'll be plenty of folk in a similar situation too

While he's mentioned not wanting to move his family etc, you've got to imagine Kraft has promised him something. Really tough position for the Colts with all the top candidates gone

Think I'm gonna head along to Paisley Pirates v North Ayrshire Wild on Sunday at Braehead, as the wife and I have been missing the hockey, but can't justify Clan prices for the quality on show this season. Anyone been to a Pirates game? Is it weird with the arena being mostly empty?

I'd imagine the extra support Clydebank would bring would be a big positive in the EoS teams accepting them, they look like a fairly attractive prospect for the league especially for the Lothian clubs. However I was at Holm Park on Saturday and while I know there's work planned/started, it looks more than a year away from being granted a license, so I'd not be surprised if they hold off on applying for a year

I went to BSC Glasgow v LTHV at Scotstoun last night (would have been at Cumbernauld watching the Welfare if I'd realised that's where the game was. Thought it was at Lasswade until I saw Broadwood on Twitter 2 minutes before kick off!) Really good competitive 1-1 draw, both sides had chances to win. I'll be back at Scotstoun for BSC v Whitehill in 2 weeks.

Magic, cheers.

Surprised they've only gone for 3 games this year. Were ticket sales slower on the uptake last year, or could they not find more than 3 teams willing to give up a home game?

If love to see a West senior league come in at Tier 6, but it would need serious uptake from at least some of the top junior clubs to be taken seriously in any way. I'm pretty sure it will happen eventually, but don't see it any time soon. In my opinion, the best solution would be to allow junior clubs to get licensed if they want to, and have a 4 way playoff between EoS, SoS, East and West Junior winners (if licensed) for 'LL promotion spots. It's not perfect but would seem like a reasonable stepping stone to full integration. Still don't see it happening any time in the next few years mind

Just a couple of wee questions, I'm probably going to pop along to the under 20s game against LTHV tonight. So am I right in thinking it's at one of the back pitches at Scotstoun Stadium complex? Only ever been to the stadium for Warriors and athletics, so never parked anywhere near it, but I'd also imagine I'll have no issues tonight?

While annoying, it's in the Lomond Auditorium bit of the SECC and there's not a bad seat in there

Every now and then the juniors get advance fixtures posted Mantis! I was stunned to find 2 months worth

Greenock are at home that day against Glasgow Perthshire.

To be fair the East and West Superleague champions playing off with EoSL and SoSL champions to get into the LL (and by extension be able to become licensed if the hit the critera) seems like a reasonable compromise and the best way to at least start discussions on a pyramid in the short to medium term

Interesting perhaps to note that in women's football, the SWFL First Division (tier 3) is split into North/South. Last season had teams from Falkirk, Stirling and Dunfermline in the North section. Obviously a lot less clubs to deal with but in their case the league's seem to be allocated based on the amount of clubs at the level and getting somewhat similarly sized divisions within the same tier.

Fair enough, I can't do heavily peated whiskies at all, and Ardbeg and Laphroaig are certainly too much for my tastes. On a different note, what's anyone's thoughts on Glengoyne? My pal got a bottle of their 10 for Christmas, he doesn't drink whisky and has offered it to me. It's one I've never tried despite the distillery being about 20 minutes away from my house.

There's no real need for everything to be under one governing body to be integrated. They pyramid works in England with multiple bodies controlling the leagues, and as you get further down the pyramid, the regionalised leagues are independently run, while still being completely integrated. The FA officially oversees everything, but as far as I'm aware, they have no real input when it comes to the United Counties League or the Anglian Combination.

If Ardbeg was too much for him, Laphroaig is a terrible suggestion haha. I'm not really into a peated whisky, but Oban 12 is lightly peated and absolutely fantastic. Their Little Bay NAS edition is really nice as well, and I'll second/third the recommendation for Talisker 10. Probably the peatiest whisky I enjoy.

Give the Solera about 20 minutes after opening it. I was distinctly unimpressed at first and was ready to write it off. But since I'd opened it I decided to keep going with it and found it really quite pleasant.

It's barely any bigger than Scotstoun though

When I did the your of Oban distillery in the summer they said that their NAS bottlings are geared more towards the American market who don't care so much about the age of the whisky. Auchentoshan said something similar at a tasting I did there. So I imagine that it's the case with most, and that traditional aged bottles won't be going anywhere

HJ, I had a feeling you'd be the one with the answers. So Yeah, it's just a weird anomaly. Will be interesting if any of the club's ever feel like going for a licence.

I didn't actually consciously realise that it's actually a quarter of the league that have no floodlights, although as far as I'm aware Selkirk have plans to put them in.

Yeah, I thought that the SFA affiliation would stop them entering. It's such a strange, anomalistic league in so many respects. I have wondered if the SFA might eventually offer a Scottish Cup prelim entry to the winner, similar to the places granted to the Junior champions and Amateur Cup winners, as it seems like the only non welfare league that has no access (again barring Golspie)

This may be more for the infowire section, but I don't want to start a new thread in there if it's an easy answer. With the NCL being an SFA affiliated league rather than SAFA, I assume the clubs aren't eligible to enter the Amateur Cup? But unless they're licensed, there's also no route into the Scottish Cup. And with the NCL not being part of the pyramid, does that mean that any of the clubs who could potentially want to become licensed would be precluded from doing so? It just seems a bit odd to me that teams from an SFA affiliated league, with the exception of Golspie, seem to be isolated from any type of national cup participation

Far too easy it would seem. Correct!