Am Featha Taigh Nan Clach

I'd love a skive but neither of us earn anywhere near enough for either of us to do it. Even with no childcare costs, our outgoings for everything would be exactly one of our wages. My wife has two friends who are both university educated but don't work. Both have 2 children and they are all free nursery/school age. Their respective husbands both earn good money but it's 'only' circa £60,000 - £70,000. I'd be frankly furious if I were either of the husbands. Knocking your pan in earning a good wage but not even able to enjoy a particularly luxurious lifestyle.

1. Dumbarton Up top due to the pretty much full squad. Very good keeper, defence and midfield but perhaps a lack of firepower. 2. Stenhousemuir Almost exactly the same as Dumbarton. Perhaps a few more unknowns. James Berry, Ross Taylor etc 3. Spartans I think they'll be big, strong and well drilled. Like Bonnnyrigg last year, only fit. Few good signings too. 4. Forfar Very similar to Dumbarton/Stenhousemuir. 5. Peterhead I think they've chucked enough money at it to be reasonable. Shanks and Duthie should do well. 6. Stranraer Retained much of last year's team and Orr/Armour is a decent front partnership. 7. Bonnyrigg Better than last season but can't fully trust a manager who allowed to start last season so unfit. 8. East Fife I have them much lower than most others. Last season I don't think they had much about them and was surprised they got playoffs. Losing 3 key players through selling/loan expiry/injury will hurt. Austin could be excellent but Philp is a plodder. 9. Clyde Jobbers from last sesson. Ross Forbes. Untested manager. 10. Elgin Does anything need said?

1. Dumbarton 2. Stenhousemuir 3. Spartans 4. Forfar 5. Peterhead 6. Stranraer 7. Bonnyrigg 8. East Fife 9. Clyde 10. Elgin

It's a year to the day since last season's prediction topic was started so what better day to start this? Please list the teams in order from 1-10. Explanations/rationale encouraged. Will fans take the hump when someone predicts their team to finish in a lowly position? Will someone post 'can't believe someone has started this already'. Teams haven't completed their squads!' with a cry laughing emoji? Will a team use posts from this thread on social media to mock people predicting them to finish 10th only to finish 10th and be relegated? We're about to find out!

What a pleasant surprise. A good weekend away will make up for the inevitable 6th place finish

The only way to stave off the immediate introduction of the Conference League was to vote for the admission of B teams into the Lowland League. If you'd been at the Cowdenbeath supporters' meeting you'd understand why.

We were also in for Nathan Austin and he chose East Fife. Players chose clubs for reasons other than money especially when there's not much difference in money.

We will be away to pot 2 and 4 teams

Crighton is a decent meat and potatoes defender. The main reason most fans were happy to see him go was that he was reputedly on a very high wage for his position the overall wagebill while turning in nothing more than average performances. A nice guy and excellent professional. I wish him well

Even if the bottom 2 L2 went down straight away and HL/LL Champions went up automatically, it would still be hard to get promoted. In my ideal scenario.... Tier 5 would be top 5 HL and top 5 LL teams, tier 6 would be 10-6 placed HL/LL teams and so on. There would then be the same promotion/relegation format as there currently is betwen L2 and L1. I absolutely hate regionalisation. It is at that point things start to feel very tinpot and takes away the joy of travelling around the whole country. It would obviously have to kick in at some point though. In England it (very roughly) kicks in around the zone where full time and part time meet which is quite a good idea. In Scotland there are so many part time clubs of a similar level I don't want a huge number of them stuck in a regionalised league.

I didn't say there weren't some decent teams. There are. It's just a horribly unappealing league which is why people are so terrified of ending up in it. If I could choose how reconstruction works, I'd have the current 10 team, L1/L2 structure playoffs structure going down to about tier 8. No regionalisation.

If the league below wasn't 1. Regionalised 2. Comprised of hamlets, universities and teams that have existed for 10 mins, no one would be particularly fussed about getting relegated.

Look guys, if you can't trust the decision making of the board members of a team 37 places and 3 leagues below where they were a decade ago, who can you trust?

Remember when Cowdenbeath voted for B teams because some blazer told told them the Conference was inevitable and their fans clapped like seals at the flawless logic. Yikes!

Stenhousemuir FC - Good guys

You can't sign Nathan Austin then plead poverty.

Fuck it. #thisisouryear

I'm almost certain u16 season tickets are free.

Some of the signings will work out well, some maybe won't but there are 2 things that have impressed me. 1. We have signed players who fulfil roles that we simply didn't have last season. A big striker (Aitken), a box to box midfielder (Berry) any right midfielder (Taylor), a creative central attacking midfielder (Kirkpatrick). 2. These players have been tartgetted early are are clearly the ones the manager wants. This means less scraping about last minute trying to find often inferior last cab off the rankers.

When is this 'fans consultation' on the Conference taking place?

As skeptical as I am about signing LL players, the reviews of James Berry seem universally very positive. We desperately need an all action box to box midfielder.

Go get the #thisisouryear hashtag

If he's a back up fine, if he's been signed as a first choice, it's a very poor signing.

This was not meant as a dig. I and many others have made claims about not going back until x, y, z has happened and then gone straight back. Supporting a rubbish team is a disease and there is no cure.