Marten

All-in sounds nice, but would it really be desirable to have the likes of Coldstream, Fort William and Wigtown&Bladnoch face top Premiership teams? All three had double figure defeats against non-league sides in the last three seasons, W&B even twice. Having them face the "big guns" would result in absolutely massive scorlines.

Not heard about the trouble behind the scenes at North End, but they now have the very people where the trouble behind the scenes at ours about 1 1/2 years ago was around so I wouldn't be surprised. Cupar Hearts looked good against Kirrie last night, I went along to that one. I'd be shocked if they don't go through against Wigtown.

Because it's not enclosed either like you say (and also can't be), it would not help them getting into the pyramid anyway. So it's not really an option for them.

From speaking to people tonight, I've heard that there is no chance to enclose their current ground, they are not allowed to do that. Other options in Cupar are limited and understandable they don't want to play out of town just to join the pyramid. A new ground in Cupar would be hard to achieve. Not saying they won't try, but it will definitely not be happening in the short term.

Cupar Hearts 3-4 Kirriemuir Thistle No game for Lochee United tonight but I saw this game was on. As I haven't been to Cupar Hearts before and I was interested how they would look against a team from our league, I decided to go along. Cupar Hearts won the Scottish Amateur Cup for the second time in succession last season, while the visitors finished 6th in the Midlands League. The ground, Duffus Park, is definitely a good ground for their level. There is standing room all around the pitch with a few benches for spectators. They have some good facilities, showing club colours and honours. The ground can't be properly enclosed though, because of that Cupar Hearts can't get into the pyramid. The game was brilliant for a neutral. The hosts took the lead early on Kirrie had the most chances but didn't convert many. Late on in the first half they did manage to turn the deficit around to lead 1-2 at HT. Cupar Hearts didn't give up though and started attacking after the break. They equalised and managed to take the lead again. Late on in the game the visitors got more chances and scored twice to win the game. The game got a bit fiesty near the end but over the whole game, the better team won.

The T20 Blast is a more then decent tournament, but the ECB never bothered to properly promote it. If they stuck with that, even changed it into 2 divisions so they can create a "Premier League" and properly promoted it, it would probably have done far better than the Hundred shite. Also, this rubbish tournament got the one day tournament relegated to some kind of B-team tournament. There is now no proper one day tournament in which the top players take part. I support Derbyshire in county cricket, because I lived in Derby for a while and have been a member for a few years. No Derbyshire fans are going across to Trent Bridge in Nottingham to watch the Trent Rockets...

Morocco winning 2-0 now, been the better team so far.

Yeah, no fun to draw a team from your own league. I'm happy with our draw. Home v Hawick Royal Albert. I never want to take anyone lightly so I won't this time, but it's one of the best draws we could have had.

There are quite a lot of requirements. The most visible ones to visitors are floodlights, cover, adequate toilets, disabled facilities etc. However, only a minority of requirements are ground related. Other requirements include organisational ones, training of staff/committee members and so on. When we went through the process, I spoke to people involved who told me how much work it is. It was quite an effort to get it done and we are still blessed with a relatively high number of volunteers/committee members. I take my hat off to the properly small clubs that manage this.

All clubs with an SFA license qualify. Burntisland is one of those. Then there are qualifying spots for any unlicensed winners of a tier 6 league. This season these are: Beith Juniors (West of Scotland League), Dundee North End (Midlands League), Culter (NRJFA Premier) and Invergordon (North Caledonian League). Broxburn Athletic (East of Scotland League) and Dalbeattie Star (South of Scotland League) are already in as licensed clubs, these spots don't get passed on. Finally, there are 3 cup winners that qualify if they are unlicensed: the east/west/south Cup Winners' shield* (Bo'ness Athletic), Scottish Junior Cup (Darvel were already licensed so no entry this season) and Scottish Amateur Cup (Cupar Hearts). *Although only unlicensed clubs can take part, a club could in theory get licensed during the season and still win this, again the spot won't be passed on.

Hawick Royal Albert at home, happy with that. Our first home draw since getting licensed. And while I won't ever take opposition lightly, this is definitely one of the better draws we could have had.

By no means I'm claiming to be an expert on this topic. But I am quite a geek on stuff like this and I listened to a podcast in which they discussed what's going on and the legalities of it. They said that Biden had delegates from the primaries pledged to vote for him at the Convention, they officially decide the nominee at that vote. As Biden has withdrawn, these delegates have become uncommitted and can vote for whoever they like. Had he refused to step down, it would have been a legal minefield for these delegates to bypass him and vote for someone else. Not saying it can't be done, but it would be tricky. Now it seems pretty straightforward from a legal perspective. But indeed, with Trump and the current Supreme Court you never know.

No, because Biden has never officially been the democratic nominee. The nominee only gets officially confirmed at the Democratic National Convention, which is next month.

It's actually similar in The Netherlands, where many fans of smaller clubs would be asked "who do you really support?", meaning who out of the "big 3" (Ajax/Feyenoord/PSV). When I tell them I support Excelsior Rotterdam and don't care about the big clubs people are often surprised. If I have to choose, I'd choose PSV without any doubt as I can't stand Ajax or Feyenoord and don't care either way about PSV. With Lochee United we get people automatically assuming we've either got Celtic connections due to the Irish history of Lochee or Rangers connections due to playing in blue and Lochee Harp playing in green (and having Harp in their name) so then we must be the "Rangers" aligned team and they the Celtic aligned one. Reality is that the vast majority of Lochee United fans have either Dundee or Dundee United as their favourite professional side with just a handful of people supporting anyone else, and these are generally people from elsewhere who at some point moved to Lochee and started following us (that also counts for the Rangers fans I know at Lochee, 3 in total, who are actually all originally Glaswegians).

A great game today for us. I wrote another match report for our Facebook page. LOCHEE UNITED 2-2 BRORA RANGERS For our fourth pre-season friendly, we were hosting Highland League side Brora Rangers who finished 6th last season. In previous games they narrowly lost against Ross County (2-1) and beat Inverness Caledonian Thistle 4-1, so Lochee United knew they were in for a tough test. Lochee United started well. A great freekick by Callum Moore was just saved, shortly after Kerr Hay had a good chance from a corner. The visitors took the lead though a penalty for a handball. Lochee United immediately tried to get back on level terms. A ball from Kerr Hay just didn't find Paul Scobie. Trigger had a distance shot about 28 minutes in but the goalkeeper saved. Brora Rangers started getting more into the game and scored their second 5 minutes before HT after a good attack. The first half Lochee United were decent but Brora took their chances and showed their qualities on the break so they deserved their lead. Lochee United started the second half strong. Five minutes in, a handball gave us a free-kick which was very well taken and converted by Ryan Paterson. Lochee United tried to push straight on for an equaliser and got a few chances. A foul on Ryan Paterson resulted in a penalty, which was converted by Kerr Hay meaning the 'Chee were back on level terms. Ryan Paterson had a shot blocked with 15 minutes left as both sides were looking for a winner. Brora had two shouts for a penalty but the referee disagreed. Brora had a big chance to win it late on, but their player hit the side netting. Shortly after that, Bobby Linn had a late chance to win it, but the Brora goalkeeper did well to save. The game finished 2-2, which was probably a fair reflection of the game as the teams were evenly matched over all 90 minutes with Brora edging the first half and Lochee the second. Several players played well. Scott Webster was once again solid at the back and played his part in the build-up. Ewan Murray, Bobby Linn, Callum Moore, Paul Scobie and Ryan Paterson all put in a good shift and worked hard. But my man of the match is Kerr Hay who worked hard, created many chances and scored a good penalty. Good luck to our visitors in their upcoming Highland League season and thanks for coming down. But as always, COME ON THE 'CHEE.