Flybhoy

The old main stand at Brockville. Sat in it once, my uncle who passed away recently was a scout for Falkirk and took 14 year old me to a midweek game against Morton the home side won 2-1 in September 1990, been to Brockville many other times watching both Stirling Albion and Celtic as well as a few Falkirk games as a neutral but always on the terracing.

1988 Scottish Cup final Tommy Burns, Billy McKinlay who like his team mate Kevin Gallagher was constantly linked with Celtic in that era but never came to anything, Paul McStay and a blurry Frank McAvennie in the background who's two goals would win the cup on a baking hot day at Hampden. Eerily similar to the final three years earlier, Dundee United took the lead early in the second half, Celtic equalise with about 15 minutes left and scored the winner with a couple of minutes left, that final and the 1-0 win against Rangers the following year were both played in blazing early summer sunshine.

Rangers v Morton at Ibrox in the early 70s, back in the day when fixtures like this and Celtic v Hibernian didn't necessitate change strips.

In the North of Ireland, peace was achieved only by an extended period of dialogue, by having the right people in place, who were all motivated towards the same goal, and who had the vision, intelligence, instincts, decency, leadership & backing/power to make it happen. Even then, it was near impossible, with painful concessions made. I see none of that in Gaza/Israel. Not a single sign of the motivation. No commonality. No shared goal. No leadership. In fact, very much the wrong leadership. As it stands, there isn’t even a desire for talks. On the Israeli side anyway. They’re like the Thatcher government, but with an extremist agenda & goal of ethnic cleansing. They hold the cards in respect of initiating dialogue & seeking compromise, or solutions. Problem being, they’re at the table with loaded six guns and the prospect of taking the whole pot if they just open fire on the other players, who have only rocks to throw. This will be close to a genocide. It will be done in full view, and with the near full support, of the international community. By the time the horror becomes unavoidable from a PR perspective, and Israel has to back off a bit, it will be irreversible & unimaginable carnage. You hear pro Palestinian commentators talking about an apartheid state. The effect of this will be in full view. The Zionists see the people of Gaza as lesser beings. They do not, in any way, hold their lives equal. This will be a targeted ethnic cleansing of the untermensch. The irony of this is lost only on the extremist Zionists currently in power in Israel, & their fanatical supporters. The rest of us can see it as the abused growing up to become the abuser. If only there weren’t hundreds of thousands of lives at stake it would be a bit sad. This however, is going to be an unjustifiable war crime, for which current apologists will still be seeking redemption until they die. An indelible stain. Blair’s Iraq war.

Rise of the Footsoldier, Origins. The Tony Tucker story. 6/10 Does what it says on the tin, don't expect too much in the way Oscar winning method acting or deep human interest stories Just yet another episode of this overdrawn franchise depicting another chapter of Essex gangsters and drug dealers robbing, torturing and killing one another with some obviously grossly exaggerated violence and made up scenes with some cheesy dialogue inserted in amongst it all to lighten the load. Given it's principle characters were killed in real life and in the first movie they are now making umpteen prequels to cash in on it, frankly they have ripped the arse out it but, strangely still a mildly enjoyable hour and a half with a cracking 80's soundtrack, some proper gorey/comedy violence and a sprinkling of foxy young ladies , its target audience is obvious, read online there is another one just released, assuming the next prequel will have Tucker, Tate and Rolf robbing other kids dinner money in the playground with a Stanley knife. Okay for that kind of thing if a bit predictable.

The old main stand at Hampden in the late 1980's.

Why is it such a bugbear that some people might enjoy a drink or two at football, just because it's a lunchtime kick off and local then it's 'not necessary', last time I checked we live in a society where it's perfectly legal to enjoy a drink whenever an individual chooses, despite the SNP cult doing their best to vilanise people drinking alcohol and football fans in general, I have a drink at most weekend games regardless of the venue or kick off time, I don't usually bother midweek games but, point is its my perogative to choose if and when and where I have a drink, doesn't make me an alcoholic or a violent thug.

I'm divorced but my ex wife is fine as are my grown up children thanks for your concern.

Aye because Celtic and Rangers fans are the only support to partake in a drink at the football, it's also against the law to drink alcohol on a supporters bus going to games, I do that as well, get it right up you.

I'd like to apologise to anyone who's life or, safety in general I have endangered with my disgusting behaviour of sipping out a hip flask at the football.

Absolute fucking state of this

I had my ticket checked twice ,by police at the top of the road before you turn right down the wee hill to the Motorola stand, just a brief glance at it in fairness but it was taken from me and checked by a steward at the temporary fencing that is always in place at the bottom of the hill just before the concourse/turnstiles under the stand, I was also patted down at the same bit by a policeman, thankfully my hip flask tucked down the front of my jeans went undetected This is pretty much standard for every time I visit Fir Park, can't comment on the validity of the claims of guys opening fire exits to let ticketless mates in but, from what I know of the set up and protocol at Motherwell and away games in general, large amounts of ticketless fans would only gain access to such an area if they were extremely early and caught the authorities out by trying this before cordons and gates etc were set up? One thing I have noticed though is there definitely seems to be a noticeable element of it at European away games, it was extremely noticeable at Feyenoord the other week, not the first time I've witnessed such scenes in Europe, in principle I don't have a problem with individuals chancing there arm at turnstiles to try and get in but not to the extent they are being aggressive to fellow fans demanding they let them double up or pass their tickets back through to them and being confrontational and aggressive to people refusing to do so, not to mention similar aggressive behaviour towards police and stewards when caught out which antaganises attitudes by them to the entire away support on a whole, its very prevalent at European aways but I haven't personally witnessed it much in Scotland bar the odd one or two trying to bump in.

It won't be, he in the midst of a title race in a season that ends in December, plus he will want, even in January some set of funds provided to bring players in to replace the absolute shite Beale spunked all his transfer kitty on in the summer, with no CL revenue that will thin on the ground.

He's certainly a character is Burridge to be fair, a tee totaler who's never touched a drop in his life, mad into his fitness routines and extreme diets and unusual training methods, remember reading when he was at Hibs a few years earlier he would regularly train with three or four goalkeeper jerseys on whilst diving about the place so he would be more lightweight and free moving during games...... no me neither His Wikipedia page is wild, played for something like 30 odd clubs up until he was about 50. I too was at that 7-0 game from 1996, pretty sure Alex Bone grabbed three or four, my only abiding memory of Gary McGroty, apart from being pretty pish (he never scored for the Albion) was ex St Mirren team mate Jim Dick jibing him one day at Forthbank when he wasn't stripped with... "No even getting a game for a pub team these days wee man?" Dick got pelters every time he played against Stirling Albion the rest of his career... Dick by name........

Wow, never seen this before, that third goal is absolutely sensational

So sad to hear this, I'm just about old enough to remember him in his pomp, one of a few players from that mid 80's era like Mark McGhee, Joe Miller and Kevin Gallagher who were Celtic fans growing up but seemed to always score against us, did Frank not have to retire in his late 20's with back problems similar Eric Black? The one bizarre memory I have of Frank is a game I didn't even see, he scored all four goals against Celtic in a 4-1 humping at Pittodrie, a week after a 3-0 skelping at Ibrox in November 1985, there was a TV blackout that season with zero football highlights anywhere in the UK from roughly September to March and I seem to recall McDougall scores a rake of goals that season but mostly never seen, think he had a similar prolific record against Rangers too? Alex Ferguson spoke very highly of him as one of the best strikers he had at Pittodrie which is some accolade from that era. So sad to hear this, RIP.

Since Covid I've missed about 4 or 5 games, home and away including Europe, and a couple of them have been lockouts at Ibrox for Celtic fans Not looking promising for Tynecastle in a few weeks mind you.

If things carry on like this for Hearts that season ticket waiting list will drop below 3 million before too long

Dons fans threw some pyro over the away section gate into the home fans.

Aberdeen will probably still get a tanking here but the absolute scenes in the away end when they equalised just now in Frankfurt looked sensational, goal celebrations when you score away in Europe are on a different level.

Aye, diagonally across the street from it, the one with the sofas on street underneath the wee canopy. We had spent, between the half dozen of us, over €200 in the place over the course of a few hours, I popped across the street for a snack for a few of us and got a portion of hot wings from the Chicken place, cue the manageress coming out when she saw us eating them saying this was not permissable as they serve food and customers aren't permitted to eat their own food, she promptly lifted them off the table and launched them in the bin, suffice to say the torn faced cow was informed she had just chased away customers who had spent a lot of money in her bar and would likely have spent more had it not been for her snarling fucking attitude.

Flew back from Rotterdam today, was via London City Airport with a one hour stopover between flights, got chatting to a few Aberdeen fans waiting on their flight to Frankfurt from there and to say they weren't confident was putting it mildly. Bizarre how Barry Robson had such a great run since taking over from Goodwin that, many people agreed it was the right choice to give him the job full time but, things have quickly soured. I was at the League Cup tie against Stirling Albion where I thought Aberdeen were rotten truth be told.

Your team literally have the record for the worst ever performance by any side in the group stages so I'd sit this one out if I were you.

A smoke bomb temporarily halts play between Celtic and Hearts in 1987, a rare occurrence then pyro at games but now happens at games umpteen times each week at matches at all levels. This was a pivotal result for Celtic on the way to a centenary season double, Hearts, whom many people probably won't remember finished second behind Celtic, splitting the 'Old Firm', were leading 2-0 with ten minutes to go at Celtic Park that day, a penalty by Andy Walker and a bullet finish from the maestro Paul McStay in the closing minutes meant this was most definitely a point gained, I remember it specifically as the date, 12th December 1987 was my 11th birthday.