Gordon EF

I don't like when we stray away from the traditional kit for too long but I like the odd different looking kit from time time. It is mad but the tartan kit is growing on me.

OK the answer to that is it has no future, close the thread please.

Aye, the middle 70 minutes were a rough spell for Stranraer.

Jesus Christ. f**k off eh?

No and they'd generally don't play for Scotland either. The question is about whether a regionalised tier 3 would make the national team more competitive. If you want to know whether supporters want regionalised tier 3, I suggest you start a poll. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't like the results.

Well, it's not that I'd particularly like to reduce the SPFL numbers but to me, that's the league structure that would make the most sense.

I'm not against change at all. I'm very pro pyramid and would personally like to see us go 12-12-16 with LL and HL league structures starting at tier 4. But the reality is that's not going to make Scotland suddenly start producing world class players.

You are being far too simplistic though. It's utterly moronic to say that we should copy one aspect of the Welsh league system because their national team have had more recent success than ours when, as has already been pointed out, not one player who plays for the national team has ever played in the Welsh league, never mind the regional tiers. We're talking about the semi-professional / amateur game here. No footballing authority with a shred of intelligence thinks that the structure of it's semi-professional leagues is what the success of the national team hangs on. There are currently only five L1/2 clubs outwith the arc of central Scotland that goes from Dunbartonshire, through Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Central Scotland, Edinburgh, Fife and Angus. This is a relatively small geographical area. Certainly smaller than many of the areas covering regional leagues in other countries. Regionalising tiers 3 and 4 wouldn't cut down the travelling time and cost of a lot of these clubs because they're already staying within central Scotland for most away games. I think East Fife, for example, would actually travel further if they were in a regionalised tier 3 'North' compared to the current L1. The clubs who'd see significant travel reduction would really only be Peterhead, Elgin, Cove, Stranraer and Annan. Most Stranraer players are Glasgow based so let's take them out and assume the other four use primarily locally based players. Do you realise how utterly insane it sounds to say that saving Peterhead, Elgin City, Cove Rangers and Annan Athletic an average of around 5 long away journeys per year might lead to Scotland qualifying for a World Cup they otherwise wouldn't have gotten to? Yes, looking at what successful countries / people / organisations do and trying to emulate it is a good idea. But people who do that successfully need to evaluate what others do and put thought into how they can adapt that for themselves. What you're saying is the equivalent of saying "Well Donald Trump is rich and has an orange face. Coincidence? Maybe if I tan the f**k out of my face, I'd be rich too"

In terms of analysis, that is really painful reading. What you'd really need to do is look at all countries, label them by where their league structure brings in regionalisation and then compare how those countries perform, controlling for other factors. Unless you do that, any conclusions you draw are utterly worthless. How many players from the countries you mentioned ever played in their pyramid structures, out of interest?

What could be a coincidence? The fact that you can name four countries who've recently qualified for tournaments that regionalise below tier 2 isn't a coincidence at all. In the same way that I could name four South American countries that have qualified for recent world cups isn't a coincidence.

Crazy 78th minute aside, that was a very comfortable win and a really good performance. A big three points as well to put the gap with Montrose to 4 points. That said, Stranraer were surprisingly poor. After their run of draws I was expecting a tougher game.

Jesus Fucking Christ I wonder if any countries who qualified don't regionalise outside the top 22 clubs? Could it be that it makes no fucking difference at all?

Refusing to join the EoSFL next season to remain junior would be a pretty astonishing act of self-harm for any current ESJFL member south of the Tay. It's a bit like choosing to stay on the Titanic because you don't like the colour of the lifeboats.

If we'd gone 12-12 > 8-8-8 with Leagues 1 and 2 turned into regional creches for the old firm, I'm sure all current Scotland players would be about 15% better and we'd be getting ready to tear up the Euros this summer though, let's admit it. Clubs like Stranraer should really be taking a long hard look at themselves.

Easy to say things aren't great. Any idiot could do that. The ideas he came up with years ago were fuckin's shite though tbf.

Aye but almost all of us are making it through the winters..... so there's that.

You'd hope not because then all of the revenue from home games would simply be lost to all your away games, no matter how many games you played over a season.

Binary outcomes are not neccesarily equally probable.

Yeah. No complaints. First half was mostly as the previous two games went. Neither team looking capable of creating too much or enjoying prolonged periods of pressure other than the odd chance. Second half we weren't at the races. Far to many stray passes from our own half meant we were allowing Falkirk to put too much pressure on us and the goals had an air of inevitability about them. Still, we're fighting for the play-offs now and it's more important to make sure we put away the teams in the bottom half of the league as ruthlessly as Montrose seem to to be doing. Starting next week against the draw specialists.

Interesting, seeing as we all know what a vivid imaginaton you have...

That plinth has been the most entertaining aspect of the meetings between the sides so far. Really gives the game the "Champions League" feel.

I would agree. But simply saying well the Highlands can have North of Scotland league so since there are four points of the compass, the Lowlands must have an East, a West, and a South isn't taking a Scotland wide approach at all. There's a very simple reason why a D&G league should not be on equal footing as a league that covers Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, etc. It would be extremely lopsided. The current SoSFL dimply does not have the depth to be anywhere near an equal to a WoSFL. Incorporating the SoSFL as part of the WoS setup gives D&B teams exactly the same opportunities as clubs from Ayrshire whilst still providing a more geographically restricted league for those clubs who want a league to play in without the travelling involved in getting swallowed up and dissapearing into the West.

I've never said the current SoSFL region shouldn't continue as a seperate geographical entity. The four ponts of a compass argument isn't 'simple', it's just completely irrelevant. The regional divisions should absolutely be made with clubs best interests in mind. If we were starting from scratch, there is no way someone would design the structure below the Lowland League into East, West and 'Dumfries & Galloway' on equal footing. It's not simple at all. What the Highland League decide to do is largely irrelvant. I'm all for keeing the SoSFL as it is at tier 6 at the moment if it works for the clubs. I would probably move it down to tier 7 and let it become a southern feeder to the WoSFL Premier. That allows D&G clubs who want to remain playing locally to do so and allow the more ambitious clubs to participate in the WoSFL set up.

There's no problem with it. It was more the fact that you think there being four points of a compass is a good argument for having it.

Some of the west juniors might find it difficult to meet the licensing standards of the SoSL league. I'm thinking about the haybale permieter and number of spectators per Tory placards rules.