JamesM82

Looking at Fitba Stats, I think Hibs must have played three games on midweek afternoons during that period. 2-0 v Motherwell on 22 March 1995, 0-2 v Falkirk on 19 April and 1-1 v Celtic on 10 May. 6000 crowd for a Hibs - Celtic game! The derby on the Saturday before the Celtic game only had 7146. That would be about full capacity (!), because the East Terrace and the old main stand would only hold about 8,000 total, less a bit for segregation. http://www.fitbastats.com/hibs/team_results_season.php?from=18&competition=0&update=Update I think the last game before they flattened the end terracing was Rangers on 4 March.

I wonder what the old board would have done with the two ends if they had survived that season. Pretty sure that grounds had to be all-seater by 1994/95. Hibs put in bucket seats in the two ends because they were planning to move to a new ground (Straiton). That fell through and they were then left with a big rush job to build the two end stands in the spring / summer of 95. Meant they had to play one game (vs Falkirk?) on a midweek afternoon because there were no floodlights.

They signed better players during the last summer they were in the lower leagues (Tavernier and Foderingham are still two of their main players) than most of the overpriced junk they've signed since promotion to the top league. They've put far too much emphasis on signing "big name" players (Barton, Alves) with no consideration of how that affects the team structure or their other players, e.g. Bates getting cheesed off with being offered buttons while Alves / Cardoso are on big money. The comparison point for them should have been how Celtic went from being a pretty poor team in 94 to being competitive with Rangers by 96. Aye they spent some money on big-name foreign players (Thom, van Hooijdonk), but it was mostly signing lower profile / cost players who were good value (e.g. Jackie McNamara, Tosh McKinlay). That established them as clearly the second best team and they were able to kick on from there. To give a modern example, it's bizarre that Rangers aren't being linked with signing Dylan McGeouch. He's out of contract, won't cost a huge amount in wages and is clearly better than some of the rubbish they have in their midfield just now.

Bamba was unbelievably good in the first half of the 2009/10 season at centre-back, which allowed Yogi to play a very attacking lineup. Riordan and Zemmama wide, with Stokes and Nish or Benji up front. Not much tracking back going on there, so the defence had to be spot on. Bamba went off to the Africa Cup of Nations in January, and pretty much had his head up his arse after that.

I think he will get loaned out next season, assuming Laidlaw is fit and Bell leaves. Dabrowski would have to stay as second choice if Laidlaw is still crocked. .... Couple of points of interest in the English team of the year lists. Sol Bamba in the Championship team Luke Berry (failed transfer saga last summer) is in the League Two team https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43810017

Not in the opinion of the bigger English clubs or various Scotland managers, though.

You could do with Hearts pulling a Morten to close the goal difference gap.

U20s won 2-0 v Aberdeen and are now four points (and plenty of goal difference) clear at the top of their league. Dundee have to win both their remaining games, first one is this evening v Hearts.

Most of the players who left got better deals, but Wallace was happy to stay because he wouldn't have got a better contract elsewhere. Naismith is probably still earning more now, even though he's obviously a bit past his best, than Rangers (oldco or newco) have ever paid anybody. Gross of tax, at least.

You seriously think that Morton v Queens deserves the same coverage as an EPL game?

David Bates has signed a pre-contract with Hamburg.

Sounds like the IRA and "P. O'Neill". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4290212.stm

As much as folk moan about the matchday coverage, the weeknight "discussion" shows are brutal. Just bin those already and focus resources on the actual football.

£79, seems like a bargain. I wonder what a Lego Steve Fulton looks like?

They don't insist on it, but you get what you pay for. How much money do you think is spent on Sportsound, compared with Five Live's coverage of English football? The vast majority of folk who appear on Sportsound are not employed by the BBC. They just use folk who live locally and cover their (limited) expenses.

You may have noticed, but Scotland is not a nation state. Therefore it is treated by the BBC in much the same way as any region of England.

See the above chat about the likelihood (or otherwise) of McGinn leaving. I think they would have gone in for Crawford last summer if McGinn had been sold then.

I think most of them are only paid expenses, so it make sense to have reporters from the local area. It's hardly the end of the world if a radio reporter lets his/her football bias show. The main commentator, i.e. someone who is actually employed on a contract by the Beeb, is a different story.

Given that, their obsession with recycling Fat Sam, Mark Hughes, Alan Pardew, Davie Moyes et al is a bit weird.

That doesn't sound right, in particular this bit: International matches which would normally have been sent to Hampden without a word of dissent are now being directed to Ibrox and Shawfield Stadiums and to places like Firhill and Tynecastle Park. And such competition is queering the Queen's Park pitch. Pretty much every Scotland home game from the end of WW2 until 1990-ish was played at Hampden. Firhill has hosted only one Scotland game, in 1928. Tynecastle hosted some of the lesser internationals (usually the Wales game) up until the 1930s, then didn't host another Scotland game until the late 1990s. Shawfield never hosted a Scotland game. Unless the article is referring to other representative matches (inter-league or amateur)?

Neil Lennon pointed at that when he took the Hibs job, as some folk were a bit surprised he would take a job in the Scottish Championship. He said something to the effect of that there are only ~120 manager jobs at fully-pro clubs in the UK, and there are far more people than that who are capable of doing them. If you're too picky you end up doing nothing.

It would be a necessary first step (no chance of Queens doing it unless / until it falls to bits), but they would probably need the government to help.

United would probably still be a Premiership club if Simon and his pal Jackie hadn't made a hash of it.

Left or right?

I think the English / British confusion is because it is (at least theoretically) possible that the (English) FA could put forward a Welsh referee for international games, i.e. a Welsh referee isn't going to progress to World Cup level just from taking semi-pro Welsh Premier League games - but they could progress by entering the "English" system ala some of their clubs. Clive Thomas went to the 1978 World Cup and gave the world this comic moment.