GordonS

They were in, then they were out. That's all.

I don't engage with you much bud, and this kind of thing is why. Neither team changed their mind. You've just either got the wrong end of the stick somewhere, or you're making things up.

The difference is the west is far far stronger league ands better supported. Just look hope close all west leagues wete this season. The product is strong. Transfer it to a newco league as whole you may get a few raised eyebrows and backing. It's not that much better supported. The main difference between east and west in what's going on right now is that there's no rival senior league in the west. If that changes, and it lures Clydebank, then maybe the Buffs, then Maryhill, then Pollok... it could well start a stampede as happened in the east.

Who changed their mind, other than from wanting to stay Junior to wanting to leave?

Until a few months ago I'd have said the same about Linlithgow Rose, Bo'ness, Bonnyrigg, Penicuik... Things change fast when clubs fear getting left behind.

Tbh I think it's ridiculous to rank a club like Linfield, who qualify every year from a really poor league, higher than a club that's broken through in a much more difficult league - like, as you say, Burnley, who've shown their quality in making a qualifying spot in the EPL. The entire purpose of ranking is to work out which teams are likely better than other teams. Incorporating something to reflect the quality of the league they're from is obviously going to lead to a more accurate ranking. Linfield aren't better than Burnley. I'd prefer binning seeding altogether and apart from a preliminary round or two for the minnows, have everyone in together in the luck of the draw. But if they're going to have seeding then they're as well trying to have ranking as accurate as possible.

Nah, I actually quite like her!

I was indeed there, and I was at Nardini's beforehand too! I might give that a go, I just use a spreadsheet. I count some grounds that others might not - Oriam indoor and Oriam outdoor separately, for instance, plus former grounds like Spartan's old City Park, so even though I've put my grounds on footballgroundmap.co.uk it's missing a few. I only started when I was bored in a meeting at work and idly dooded a map of Scotland with dots for the football grounds I'd been to. I was really surprised to see I only had 7 league grounds left, and had been to a bunch of others. It's a dangerous habit once it get a hold but I really like going to parts of the country I otherwise probably would never have seen.

Agreed.

I don't know if this is typical, but... Each time fixtures are published for male and female competitive internationals, or for the early rounds of the Scottish Cup, I stick them on the calendar, so that the missus knows when I'm going to be busy, the same way she puts her stuff on the calendar. I'd like to stick the bigger Linlithgow Rose matches on (it would be selfish to claim every single match), but I can generally only do that for the opening weeks of the season. A full season fixture list will let me put in the derbies and a few others that I'm keen to get to, especially away matches at grounds I've not been to before. Lack of a fixture list has always been an utter embarrassment and the single worst thing about the Juniors.

FWIW, I much, much prefer non-league to L1 or L2, and even I think Linlithgow Rose have to make the leap. We're into change or die territory now. This attitude has always pissed me off. The SFA is the governing body of Scottish football, not the Scottish league system. Being in or outside the league pyramid is utterly irrelevant to whether a club should be in the Scottish Cup. The Scottish Cup ought to be open to any club that can get a licence for their ground, and involvement in the pyramid should have nothing to do with it. Naw, this is the best licence: https://www.westlothian.gov.uk/article/3009/Sex-Shop-Licence Genuine question - why do sheep move in flocks? Is it because they are stupid? Or is it because there is safety in numbers, there is strength in being together, and being isolated is incredibly dangerous? The value of novelty and rejuvenation shouldn't be underestimated. It's what, 17 years since the formation of the Superleague, and things have become stagnant. The change itself will whet a lot of appetites.

You're absolutely right and any claims to greater excitement in the Juniors are clearly, clearly rubbish. However, there were far more fans at the Junior Cup final that at any of the matches you mentioned, even to the top of L1, and that was a relatively low cup final attendance. And correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think the town of any of the winners of those matches would have seen an open-top bus tour, or any of the excitement that winning the Junior Cup brings. I've seen the Junior Cup come to Linlithgow three times and there's nothing remotely like it below winning the Scottish Challenge Cup. Open top bus, three times round the cross, party along the High Street all evening in front of shop windows all decorated for the game. Honestly, it's wonderful. I'll really, really miss the Junior Cup and the answer isn't to sneer about those who love it; the answer is surely to work to open it up to all non-league seniors too. I would do this or something similar too, with pots effectively like seeding, but then rather than a draw I would place them by geography. That way you still get a completely balanced draw, but you also maximise derbies and minimise travel. Just a suggestion and, presuming tomorrow goes well for us, I'll thankfully take what we're given.

Last season Largs Thistle's last match of the season, at home v Talbot so it could have been an occasion for them, was played TWO MONTHS after their penultimate game. A couple of scheduled free weekends is nothing.

You're ahead of me, but in the last few weeks I've been at Clydebank, Bonnyrigg, Sauchie, Tranent, Hurlford and Arthurlie for midweek matches, only one of which I'd been to before. My home page might as well be https://scottishfootballfixtures.wordpress.com

I love the fixture pile-up at the end of the season. I don't like taking too much time away from family stuff at the weekends, but evenings are much easier, and I enjoy little more than visiting a new ground somewhere and watching a game in the gloaming. It's a ridiculous mess caused by shambolic disorganisation that is unfair on players and damages sporting integrity, of course, it just works out well for me.

Thankfully I don't think the EoS will take a self-defeating, juvenile "hell mend ye" attitude.

I would dearly, dearly love to see the Junior Cup saved by opening it up to everyone below tier 4, but I honestly don't believe the SJFA would consider it. EK v Spartans in the final of their cup? They'd never let it happen. And so, they'll kill it instead. Not in the circumstances that have unfolded, no. One of the major arguments being used among the Juniors to get them stay was that not all of those applying will be accepted. Only when the EoSFL AGM takes place will that myth be laid to rest. Some are also pinning their hopes on Linlithgow Rose staying. When both of those candles go out, so does the last reason to believe the SJFA bollocks, and a few more clubs might decide the game is up and want to come over. So I think a short, final period for applications after the AGM, with a special meeting at the end to decide on the applications and the format, could be really valuable. It's better to try to get everything done this summer rather than have other Juniors limping in next year. Are you saying this from direct knowledge or, as I suspect, are you expressing your opinion as a fact?

Each club will only be idle two weekends out of 26. That's hardly the end of the world. If they need to fill it, perhaps clubs in different conferences could choose to be paired and play each other on those dates - Rose and Bo'ness could play home and away for the Flints Cup or something.

We were all at the party together, it was good but not what it used to be and many had been a bit fed up with the playlist and stuff for ages. Just the same old stuff and you never knew when you're next shot at DJing was until the last minute. Then one of the hippest girls went along the street to a smaller but cooler party. Then a more ordinary fella went, but another top lad said he was going too. Suddenly the party didn't seem so much fun any more and everyone was looking around to see if others are going. A few boys and girls whispering in a corner quietly text their friends to see if they can come to the new party as well and get told "hey, come on in, the more the merrier, we've got a full playlist and a room for under 20s", and the old party looks a bit, well, shit. But some folk can't go to the new party cos it's too far to get back. They've got to stay and watch the cerry oot and stuff and out of nowhere people are jumping over sofas and knocking over lamps to get the hell outta there and they're like "guys, c'mon, we've been at this party for ages together, what are we supposed to do now?" And I'll be standing there at Forfar West End tomorrow (childcare permitting) thinking "emmmm, sorry about that. We'll send you a postcard from Tweedmouth."

This. A million times this. You come across people saying, "Aye, I've been like that man and boy" and you think, did you never actually stop and wonder whether that's a good thing? One of the great tragedies of our public life that we don't allow our legislators and leaders to ever change their opinion on anything. I get where you're going, but... this is pure pish. The Junior Cup finals of the 1980s were magnificent, even into the 90s and carnage of Bo'ness at Ibrox. It's still the case today that the highest standard of non-league football today in Scotland is in the WR Superleague. Whether that will continue for long is another question, but the contention that Junior football "died" 5 years ago, never mind 50 years ago, is just completely ignorant.

Kelty?

What team do you support?

Go on, I'll take September. I've watched a few stadiums go up and they're always closer to ready than they look. The Wanda Metropolitano was a concrete shell about two weeks before its first match.

It looks to me like both side stands are lower than the end stands - no? That terrace running the length of the pitch looks great.

Maybe because it means voting for relegation? There's a fair chance an HL trapdoor would finish Fort William for good, and there are a handful of clubs who would have great reason to fear it. When the LL was set up, the clubs came from two divisions to form it, with the knowledge that relegation would only mean returning to them, so relegation was nowhere near as frightening.