GordonS

Kirkintilloch Rob Roy 0-2 Auchinleck Talbot, WoSFL Premier League @ Duncansfield Park, Kilsyth. I couldn't find out why the game was at Kilsyth Rangers' ground rather that Guy's Meadow as usual. Talbot started the evening 11 points behind top-of-the-table Beith, with 3 games in hand and 6 games remaining. Hard to see them winning all of them as it's a pretty tough set of fixtures to jam into 13 days and they really needed to beat the side second-from-bottom and 6 points from safety. They got their business done early and without fuss, two first-half goals killing the tie despite a spirited effort from the "home" side. Talbot were never in real trouble but don't look like a side about to get the results they'll need to win this league. We'll see. Last time I was here it was for a pre-season friendly in hot weather; still needed The Big Coat tonight. A traditional old Junior ground with loads of good terracing, a big old shed and no seats. Love it.

Ah that's a shame. I'd hoped that, being quite far from other centres of population, there might be supportive and locally-owned agricultural services companies, engineering firms, transport, financial services, that kind of thing. If you do come down that'll mean EK aren't in the league and there will be a lot of clubs around the same level. At least half the league could start the season with a hope of winning it.

Only bit in there I'd take issue with is the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act. It passed in the Scottish Parliament on 11 March 2021 - before the last Scottish Parliament election. Nobody had much of a problem with it then. It's only with it coming into force this month that it's been scooped into the whole culture war bullsh*t by UK and international media.

A classic late bolter. Clarke gave him 7 caps early in his stint, 6 of them starts, before the injury nightmare started. Didn't play him against Russia or Belgium so maybe he doesn't see him as a guy for the tough opponents. Forrest started away against the Netherland in the pre-Euro 2020/1 friendly and came off the bench against Luxembourg. He was in the Euro squad but only got 11 minutes as a sub against Czechia - again, maybe Clarke sees him as a guy to unlock the defences of weaker teams. If Armstrong doesn't make it he'd have to be a strong contender, assuming he maintains fitness and form to the end of the season.

Do Stranraer have much in the way of commercial income? I'm guessing that as the main town for quite a large area there must be a fair number of genuinely local businesses that would be interested in supporting their local club. If average attendances on their own are a sign of the club's financial strength then you're right, you wouldn't only struggle to compete with other Lowland League clubs, you'd be up against West of Scotland clubs too.

In reality they focus on both. The media only covers one. Like, did you know that in July last year the SNP made it a requirement that any employer getting a grant from the Scottish Government or an agency had to pay every worker the real living wage? That's £4 billion spending every year. It's already had an impact on low pay and Scotland has the lowest proportion of workers under the real living wage in the UK, with the number falling sharply. Similar things have happened in health, justice, procurement, social care and no doubt other areas that I don't know about. The media do an unimaginably awful job telling us what our parliament and government actually do every day and there's not one of us has a genuine picture of it.

You're entitled to that opinion but I think you're completely wrong, and I think upcoming elections are going to prove that. People said *exactly* the same about monkeys in red rosettes, right up until they went down to 1 MP.

I think we've forgotten that this is what happens to parties that have been in power too long. Leaders can only ever be forged in opposition. In government everyone that comes through the party has the support of a big infrastructure and then as Ministers they have the civil servants doing everything for them. They lack agency. They have to follow the party line and the communications plans - and the kind of people who take that route are happy to do it. Usually they've never had a job in the real world. As the leaders that got them to the top fall away, those left behind lack the skills and experience needed to replace them - and tougher still, to renew the party while it's in office. The other thing that happens is you accumulate war wounds and those only heal in opposition. Ideological differences become insurmountable and you can no longer maintain a coalition wide enough to present a united front to the electorate and to keep enough voters on board. You also become bogged down by the weight of your mistakes, which are inevitable for anyone running anything this big. In a normal country the SNP would have lost an election years ago and gone through this cycle but the opposition haven't been up to the job of taking them down, for many reasons. Those fretting about seeing independence - maybe you will, maybe you won't. But these movements always come and go in waves and you just have to work so that each wave is bigger than the last.

That's because they know he'll never run. He's said before that he wouldn't put his family through that.

And apart from anything else, why TF is anyone singing about political violence in Northern Ireland at a football game in Scotland? If it's so important to you, go and sing about it over there. Leave the rest of us in peace.

Fine, then we'll sentence UVF supporters to 6 months and sentence you to 3 months. Feel better? You don't get to deploy "the other side are worse" arguments when you're planting bombs in shopping centres. You're all the baddies.

Yes. Murdering innocent people to try to make it happen is objectively a very bad thing that no-one with so much as a shred of basic human decency could ever support. Tolerance for that view is beneath contempt.

Fun fact: every time Celtic fans sing in support of the IRA they're breaching section 12(1A) of the Terrorism Act 2000. Not that there's the tiniest chance of Police Scotland or COPFS ever doing anything about it, of course.

Now that I think about it I might have talked to him at Loch Ness v Fort William in April last year, when Loch Ness won the league. Small world.

The Dogs of the Pyramid would make a great Twitter account. The only place I've ever seen that bans dogs is Sunnybank - they also ban ball games - and I'll always judge them harshly for that. For me the four signs inside the ground of a great non-league club that's an important part of its community are dogs, kids playing football, bikes and prams.

I was down that way yesterday, for the ferry to Belfast to watch the rugby. I love that road and part of the world and would rather have another reason to go there once a year than to East Kilbride, Hamilton or Midlothian. Accommodation is pretty cheap in Galloway and the southernmost part of Ayrshire, it's a great area for a long weekend with family.

You're not applying the League Cup Precedent, which says that whenever there's a vacancy in a competition the answer is Cowdenbeath. It's not the worst idea, it saves time on arguments.

FTFY

I don't know how that would be Sky Sports serving Scottish football better, but ok.

Presumably he'll get the Dundee-Celtic game. Alas.

The only alternatives to that were show none of it on Main Event in the first place, as the games overlap, or to cut away at a less obvious point. It's still on Football.

Sure but that was a one-off, a big send-off for the World Cup and our first game at Hampden in a long time. Our previous home match was as glamorous as it gets, against the USA, and we got 3,790. The last competitive game, in the penultimate World Cup qualifier and a critical tie against Switzerland that we won, attracted only 4,098. If we'd had a good World Cup instead of doing a Scotland I'm sure attendances would have been better immediately after, though. A lack of feelgood and then Covid have been very damaging. But there are underlying factors too. Looking at the figures it's really bad. We got two 10ks in the World Cup play-offs, down to 7k in the first Nations League game and 5k in the second. We got 15k v England but in better circumstances I'm sure it would have been more than double - it should have beat our attendance record - and then just 3k in our first Euro qualifier. That's back to the crowds we were getting at Tynecastle. As I say, underlying factors, but a good start would be sacking the managers.

1) Buckie get removed from the play-offs 2) EK beat Club 42 3) EK are excluded from entry to the SPFL because it is found that their doctor is actually a vet or their diversity plan is antisemitic or something. 4) Applying the League Cup Precedent, Cowdenbeath are invited to take the SPFL place - which was the plan aaaaall along. This is actually less mental than some of the stuff on the conspiracy theories thread.

For all those obsessing over the fates of bald managers: