Aim Here

On the Sportsound post-match interview, he was suggesting he'd play the same way as he did against St Johnstone - except better. I hope you're right...

He's got it. He's gone.

Block M is on the leftmost corner of the Roseburn (from the POV of someone unfortunate enough to be facing the pitch). Sitting there puts you next to the more sectarianism- and bigotry-inclined of the home fans, if that's the sort of thing you like. Block L, as you probably guessed, is between that and block K, which is the block right behind the goals. If it was me choosing between the two, I'd go for block L. (I'm not obsessed with Tynecastle, really - I just took delivery of derby tickets the other day so the Roseburn stand's geography is still fresh in my mind!)

Well they did, they just had a different name back then. Nowadays we're used to having different teams with the same name so it gets a bit confusing.

HistoricalKits.co.uk shows that both Dundee United and Vale of Leven used V-style jerseys and white shorts around 1915 or so (Falkirk in the 1920s had the V pattern, but paired with dark shorts, and there's obviously Airdrie, but the 'V' would be darker than the rest of the shirt). Dundee United did win the Forfarshire cup around this time, but the current incarnation of the cup doesn't look like the trophy in the picture.

I refer the honourable soap-dodging onanist to the earlier reply

Thanks for the recommendation. However, the underlying link is to the top level of the P&B League Two forum, the displayed text URL doesn't work because a) www.mobile.twitter.com isn't a real site and b) if HMFC ever did a twitter post with the ID 15698526587485963254, it's apparently gone now. It's still unclear if you were trying to link to an example of chronic patter, or this broken post of yours IS an example of chronic patter. Either way, please fix.

Well to be fair, Celtic did just beat Rangers 0-0 on Saturday, despite, or perhaps because of, the lack of VAR...

Oh my. We, too, had an ex-Barnsley manager and every player interview we had after he joined would include the players saying one or other close paraphrase of 'I spoke to him and he told me exactly how he wanted me to play'. I'm getting a sense of deja vu here...

I don't like your new firing squad rule. It's clear that the best strategy is to use up a pick making the very boring Prince Philip (or whoever) choice because there's a big bonus for picking him, and no great reason for not picking him. It's a non-decision. The only way it makes the game more interesting is if Prince Philip dies before the end of the year and everyone has to try to guess who the nextmost popular choice is. I think the intent of the rule, of taking pity on the zero pointers, is reasonable.Without too much thought going into it, the way I'd suggest achieving the same goal next year would be for someone who picks a team that lasts to the end of the year, give them a small age-dependent points bonus on their picks' total ages (age divided by a factor of something like 6 or so, maybe) so that you might get a good score if you are canny enough to pick a team of centenarians who last out the year. Something that eliminates zero-pointers while having all the picks be meaningful choices.

Barnsley did say they were trying to keep everything private, and it makes some sense. It's the path of least resistance. It's probably easier and cheaper to pay a manager's contract out rather than get into a shitfight with an ex-employee - if you're going to fire someone and they resist and can afford decent lawyers, you will have to make damn sure you can prove to a tribunal's satisfaction that the employee committed a fireable offence and that's not likely trivial, and at the end of it, even if you win, you'll likely still be out a hefty lawyer bill. If you don't, you pay off your lawyers, pay off the ex-employee, and maybe even costs on top of that. Also, it's not a good look for your business. It's likely the same reason Neil Lennon got paid off rather than sacked. Don't try this at home, though. Your boss likely can afford better lawyers than you, and you probably haven't got a football-manager-quality employment contract that insists they pay up even if they dump you because you're shite. Football players and managers have more power over their employers than real people.

It's out, and it is remarkably concise, without the usual horrific abuse of ellipsis. Maybe Craig Levein's been assigned to write the press releases while his contract burns out. Also some of the statements of fact flatly contradict Barnsley, so this is goingto be a fun watch. https://www.heartsfc.co.uk/news/article/club-statement-1-2-3-4-5

Barnsley are going for it in their latest statement. Apparently Dan Stendel was (gently) fired because he was trying to poach a bunch of staff and sneak off to another club behind the board's back and in violation of his contract. What with the lengthy hard sell to hook him in the first place, and the extra outlay for employer compensation and legal fees, Stendel is starting to look like a rather expensive gamble...

Six weeks into the manager hunt, and it seems that Hearts still had to cut a few corners when signing up this Stendel fellow. I like to think that it's the Gorgie pitchfork mob's cries of 'Budge oot' after the Motherwell game which caused Hearts to panic and say 'f**k it, let's just announce him now and sort the mess out afterwards'.

The FF lower, behind the goals, is the family section. It's only family groups that are allowed in there, and folk with kids tend to be less likely to make full use of their season tickets, for multiple reasons. There's also been an issue with some folks buying cheap kid's season tickets, not using them for their intended purpose, and only upgrading them to adult seats for big games, which is a nuisance problem that's being clamped down on. Despite the category A pricing, it seems that Aberdeen FC aren't box office enough for the kids and the chancers. From the ticketing site, it looks like around 90% of that stand is taken up with paid-up season ticket holders who couldn't be bothered to watch the famous when they rolled into town on Saturday. The upshot is that one section of the stadium which is inherently going to have a lower matchday attendance is also the same part you see on TV more than most. So it goes.

Which achievement? Getting to the final of the Challenge Cup, or watching Brechin play?

Indeed; can't fault Rangers for doing whatever it takes to win a crucial game from that position. It's all the sweeter that it didn't help them any.

He has a point. That would probably have made them more likely to score today, not less.

Frimpong too, when he was on the pitch, with the added banter bonus of getting sent-off for a failed penalty.

Rangers are so dominant now that, from the principle of maximum seethe, the best result would be for Celtic to win 1-0 with a hotly disputed penalty kick/offside goal. The massive wave of righteous indignation and aggrieved sense of injustice would be a joy to behold.

TBF, it's a cup final. It's probably hard for a Rangers fan to get a ticket if they've never been to Ibrox before.

Morgan occasionally gets near enough to the ball to warrant a mention.

He's racking them up at a rate of one per minute. At that rate one will bounce off a defender and go in...

Gordon Strachan doing a full Ron Manager impersonation in the pre-match piffle.

It's just a shame that one of these teams has to win. Whether it's the green arsecheeks getting umpteen + 1 trophies in a row, or the blue arsecheeks winning something for a change, it's clear that Scottish fitba' is the loser here. The best scenario is an all-out seethefest of some sort. I'm all for brutal sack-the-board type horsing of one side by t'other, or a no-holds-barred shame game or police horse cavalry charges against the spectators or someone stretchered off, three or more red cards or a full-on post-match SFA inquisition and/or Daily Record heids gone at whatever just happened or seething statements from the PR people and fan groups - any one of those will do me. I'm easily pleased.