GordonS

I've only ever been for Linlithgow Rose games and I saw their Scottish Cup tie against Shortlees which, between the goons associated with the away side and anoraks like me, had a reasonable attendance. They deserve bigger crowds, they're a good team. If I was local I'd rather follow them than any of the other clubs in west and south Edinburgh.

If it had cover on the terrace opposite the stand it might be my favourite ground in non-league anywhere in the country. There are grounds with more history, atmosphere and romance, and much better places to reach by public transport. But as a place to sit or stand and watch a game with a crowd of a few hundred it's close to perfect.

Vale of Leithen have conceded more than 400 goals in the league in less than 3 seasons and have won 5 league games in 5 years. I hope they find their level soon because that doesn't look like fun.

Ellon United 1-1 Hermes, North Region SJFA Premier League. The Meadows is a very basic park, just a grass pitch at a leisure centre with only a catering portacabin marking it as an actual ground. The set-up is the kind of thing you see in healthy countries like the Netherlands, with multiple grass and artificial pitches for various sports all together. I've been here once before but only watched a first-half, from the car at the raised parking behind the far goal, before going to a game at Formartine. The sides were second and third in the table at kick-off, which sounds more exciting than it is; Culter are running away with the league and Ellon's position is a little false, as they're only a few points ahead of the teams behind them but have played as many 10 matches more. The first half was muscular and even, giving little indication of the madness to come. Hermes began to feel they were getting the rough edge of the referee, though I thought they were just the losers in a lot of marginal but fair calls. Then they started to lose their sh*t. One booking late in first half turned into another soon after half time, then another, then more, before the inevitable second booking around 65 minutes. At this point they lost the run of themselves. More bookings, a red for the manager, and a second double yellow with 10 minutes to go put them down to 9 men. They could and arguably should have lost more. With five minutes to go the inevitable happened and Ellon scored, in farcical circumstances. The keeper made a decent save but palmed the ball straight up in the air. You could see it was going to come down right on top of him, on his line. For reasons passing understanding he turned around and flapped the falling ball straight into his net. A goal to the good, two players and one manager up, 5 minutes left. Easy. Except in the last minute Ellon gave away a free kick out to their right. Wall lines up, keeper covers the far side. He got a very good view of the ball as it went in at his side, not too fast, at knee-height. A wild last couple of minutes saw no further goals. The home side left aggrieved at chucking away a winning position, the away side left aggrieved at their fictional perception of the refereeing.

I remember many of us thinking this could be the defining story of 2020. Well.

There it is. I'd been trying to think of one photo to define the Covid lockdowns and that's it.

Ah that would explain it, because I only see this:

I can't see a View on Map option - where is that?

Give it Angela Merkel to end of election.

This should be the beginning and end of the conversation on both of them. Regardless of their beliefs, Forbes and Swinney are bad at politics. Being a leader is very different from being a Minister. Forbes torpedoed her own campaign like she was channeling her inner Andrea Leadsom. Swinney was really poor as leader last time - he lead the worst election campaign the SNP have had in many decades - and has a remarkably good reputation for someone who doesn't have a single success to his name. He looks and sounds like someone you'd trust and he's a nice guy but he's a rotten leader.

I forgot about the dildos. It was the press conference that kept on giving.

First pic is the most accurate measurement of the cosmic background radiation, the first 'light' of the universe, taken from a satellite. Second is Trump's spokesman, Rudy Giuliani, during the world's most ridiculous press conference where he was contesting the result of the presidential election. It took place outside a landscaping business called Four Seasons, and the assumption is that someone meant to book the Four Seasons hotel and got things very wrong. Third is Judith Ralston and unless I'm missing something there's no context. Judith needs no context. Last one is Kenmuir Street in Glasgow when the Home Office tried to carry out a dawn raid on two Indian men and were obstructed all day, until they gave up trying. They weren't Muslim but in that area it didn't help that the raid was on Eid. With flights to Rwanda likely to restart there's speculation that there will be a resumption of dawn raid very soon.

That's what I would guess but it could be something else.