GordonS

I suppose the thing to compare it to is touches in the opponents' box, you'd think you'd get penalties roughly in proportion to that. I don't know where to find those stats though.

If a Lowland area team comes down - Clyde, Stranraer or Bonnyrigg, the only sides that can finish bottom - but EK don't go up, then there would be 19 clubs in the LL, so they would relegate 2 clubs instead of 1. In short, if Buckie win the play-offs, Gretna get relegated.

They've scored 12 - they're been awarded 15 and missed 3 of them. Also 2 in the Scottish Cup and 2 in the League Cup for a total of 19 in 41 domestic matches. Almost 1 every other game. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/jumplist/elfmeterschuetzen/verein/124/saison_id/2023

I hope it gets abandoned late in the second half due to a waterlogged pitch with Rangers leading comfortably and Celtic down to 9 men, and Celtic win the rearranged game.

I knew someone would pretend they thought that wasn't a joke, not to be taken literally even though it's obvious to absolutely everyone and yep, there it is. For future reference, when someone actually wants you to die they tend not to communicate it by means of a cartoon meme.

Yep, that's part of the reason why it's a trapdoor to hell.

Thank you for bringing this into our lives. It was genuinely more entertaining than the Rangers-Hearts game.

ohpleaseohpleaseohplease

If you've never been, I'd recommend a trip to the Showfield for Nairn St Ninian v Stonehaven. A lovely place to watch a game of football at that time of year. ETA There's a small chance that Downfield v Dundee Violet could be a league decider too.

Who's the Hearts f*ckwit that wandered into midfield and gave the ball away?

Sunday. That's what he said. He said they should have reversed the order of the semi finals because the other one didn't have a team that were due to play midweek. It's fair enough. The reason he's so angry isn't about this game, it's because he and other managers have been asking for improvements to the calendar regularly for years and nothing changes. It's not good for players or fans.

Watched Glasgow, Edinburgh and Scotland women's matches this weekend and the best was the game in Parma. A pot-boiler between two very evenly-matched sides decided by a couple of moments of brilliance and with a nail-biting finale. That's the first time Scotland have ever won in Italy in the 6 Nations. Scotland go to Belfast next Saturday where a win would give them a first 3rd-place finish since 2005, a spot in WXV1 and, best of all, qualify them for the World Cup in England next year. They'll be without Chloe Rollie who was fantastic in this match, but she got bunkered for a dangerous clear-out in the last minute and it's been upgraded to a red. To say Scotland had a better day than Ireland today might be a slight understatement...

I assume you know the plan is to demolish it, and that Valencia have a half-built shell of a ground that's been mouldering away for 15 years which they intend to complete? World Cup candidacy put the wind back into the sails of the project but Peter Lim doesn't appear to be rich enough to get it done. https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/valencia-nou-mestalla-66-005.508609/page-72?nested_view=1&sortby=oldest#replies

Sure but that would likely happen to whoever comes down.

The SPFL Four have finished this season in the bottom half of the Lowland League, behind Cumbernauld Colts, Civil Service Strollers, the two B teams and the three ex-Juniors. Edinburgh Uni will be going down, maybe Gretna too. At some point Beith will stop c*ck-blocking the WoS and then the likes of Clydebank, Talbot and Pollok will come up. The league gets tougher every year and even if you win it you only get a play-off for a play-off. Albion Rovers nearly survived last season, they got 39 points, and they've just finished 9th.

The team in 9th had the best defence and the teams in 1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th and 12th all conceded exactly the same number of goals (43). Tranent can join them if they concede one in their final game. And it's the same number of goals that the team with the best defence scored. Coincidence? Yes.

Whoever missed out was always going to have a lot of games they could point to where they 'blew' it. If Buckie hadn't made it today they would have remembered those three Saturdays when they couldn't beat lowly-placed team after good mid-week results. Brechin will point to their losses to their two main challengers and their general inability to beat better teams. Fraserburgh can blame their weaker start to the season - they were 10 points behind Brechin and had played a game more as recently as mid-February. In the end it was a cracking run-in and brought a lot of well-deserved attention to the Highland League.

Worth saying, their financial issues stem from apparently lying about their accounts to hide the fact Roman Abramovich has poured more than €100 million into the club. KNVB had investigated twice before and not found anything untoward, but leaked documents in the Oligarch papers researched by The Guardian and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism sealed Vitesse's fate. KNVB and the Dutch government are still investigating and Vitesse aren't out of the woods yet. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/apr/19/vitesse-arnhem-relegated-from-eredivisie-after-18-point-deduction

That's your opinion. It's not a fact, or the same for everyone else. To me the entire point is to enjoy it. I'll never understand the puce-faced stroke-dodgers screaming abuse every weekend. I can't understand what they're getting from the experience. I make more than my share of noise but there are some folk whose entire football life seems to be anger and frustration. With respect that's batshit mental. I want my club to win every game I go to, but I know they'll never reach the ranks of full-time professional football and that's fine with me. You don't get to decide what makes someone a fan and what doesn't. I suspect I'm pretty typical of a fan of a non-league club. And are you seriously telling me you'd prefer your club to reach the level where they're charging over £60 a game, a quarter of the ground is occupied by tourists and the whole thing is arranged for TV than be where they are now? Everyone has their line. I didn't say anything specifically about L2. Though FWIW I don't fancy paying £18 to sit in a one-stand ground and watch the likes of East Fife or playing the same clubs 4 times a season. Each to their own though, that's the point.

I'd be fine with that. If I wanted to support a 'big' club, I'd be supporting a 'big' club. Following a football club isn't the same thing from Celtic to Saltcoats Victoria, they're materially different ways to spend your time. I'll accept it for internationals because they're infrequent but for all the many other games I go to, I don't want to have to sit in one seat for the whole game - or so much worse, for the whole season. I love sitting on a grassy banking on a fine summer evening while I watch a game, and move round to catch (or dodge) the sun. I don't want to be segregated from the opposition fans. I don't want a police presence and a load of commercial stewards, it just creates a hostile vibe. I want to be able to go to a game with a bottle of juice and not get treated like a criminal for it. I don't want my bag searched - or banned from bringing one, making long-distance trips by public transport a pain. I don't want to pay £4.50 for a deeply sh*t mass-produced pie and another £3 for watered-down postmix juice in a paper cup. And I sure as hell don't want to be paying well over £20 to watch a game. For me, the things that come with the top end of the game make it not worth it. Each to their own, everyone's different and I'm not remotely judging people who are happy to take those things as part of following their team. But it's not for everyone and it's really, really unfair and mistaken to be judgmental or critical about that.

I didn't know if it was like the House of Commons where you can only refer to the House of Lords as "the other place".

First they came for the Jews...

Supporting a big fish in a small pond has its own appeal. Let's be honest, it's half the appeal of the OF. In this context, you see your team win more matches and trophies, and in contention for others. You'll almost never spend season after season grimly battling relegation and rarely seeing your team win or even score. You don't lose your Saturdays to travel, at a substantial cost too. You don't play the same teams 4 times a season. You don't pay higher ticket prices. The appeal of non-league football is that it's not like the higher levels.

Those Nat 5s are murder, eh?

Yeah, I agree. I think 34 is the right number of games for the lowest tier with a requirement for floodlights, bridging between the three regional leagues and the SPFL. I'd rather play 30 than play the B teams though. And 18 teams with one-third of a promotion place and 0-2 relegation places gives a pretty stale mid-table.